In November 2011 the eminent Austrian writer Ilse Aichinger will celebrate her 90th birthday, together with her twin sister, the artist Helga Michie, who came to Britain on one of the last Kindertransporte. With this international symposium, literary scholars from five different countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Japan, and the UK) want to mark this occasion by assessing the significance of English traces in Ilse Aichinger’s works. Ever since her first stay in the UK, Aichinger reflected her preoccupation with English culture and literature in her own unique prose, poetry and scenic texts. Hitherto unknown source material will be considered as well as Helga Michie’s contribution to this very particular literary transfer between the UK and Austria.

This conference will include contributions from Norbert Bachleitner (Vienna), Rüdiger Görner (London), Christine Ivanovic (Tokyo), Vivian Liska (Antwerp), Peter Waterhouse (Vienna) and others. A special event with Ilse Aichinger’s and Helga Michie’s daughters, the stage designer Mirjam Eich (Berlin) and the artist Ruth Rix (Brighton), introduced by Nikola Herweg (Marbach), will take place on the evening of the first day of this conference which is being jointly organised by Rüdiger Görner (London) and Christine Ivanovic (Tokyo).

PLEASE NOTE: ALL LECTURES AS WELL AS THE READING WILL BE HELD IN GERMAN LANGUAGE !