The conference is a first-time attempt at investigating the phenomenon of political underground literature in a comparative and transnational perspective. The enterprise seeks to bring together experts on the theory of public sphere, historians of absolutism and experts on underground publishing in modern dictatorships such as Nazism and Communism. The geographical framework for case studies shall reach roughly from France to Russia, but is open to include non-European cases such as Communist China or Apartheid South Africa. Senior experts and young scholars will be given the opportunity to present new original research. National surveys are as much in demand as detailed studies on social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of underground publishing or on theoretical questions concerning the structural change of the public sphere. The influence of counter publics on the revolutions of 1789 and 1989 may also be a question of debate.
Wissenschaftzentrum Berlin
borzyskowski [at] wz-berlin [dot] de