Conference “Parody of Adventure – Adventure as Parody”

This conference inaugurates the research group’s second funding phase (2021-2024).

By virtue of their inherent seriality adventure narratives have a certain affinity to phenomena of self-citation and repetition. At the same time, the term ‘adventure’ seems to imply a claim of penetrating ever new spaces and venturing into uncharted territory. Because of this latent contradiction and many other of its features – its schematic structure, its heroic ideology, the tension between chance and wish fulfillment – adventure fiction seems an ideal subject for parody. Adventure’s susceptibility to be parodied might be one reason why adventurous storytelling has often integrated comic elements. From the Ancient novel to modernity, adventure has not avoided laughter – as if it had to be slightly self-ironic in order to take itself seriously. Exposing the opposition between literary adventure and prosaic reality, Cervantes’s Don Quixote marks the end of the relatively peaceful coexistence between adventure and laughter. It is remarkable that the parodic negation of adventure remains a favorite game of the modern novel well into the 20th century. Adventure was so indispensable to modern literature that it had to survive, if only in the mode of parody.
Exposing literary devices, parody can yield important insights for a philology of adventure. What purposes has the parody of adventure served in different historical periods? Is there something like a core to adventure that resists comedy and continues to attract readers even when it is parodied? How can reappropriations of heroic adventure stand alongside parodies of adventure? And when does parody begin to retroact upon its model and alter it? These are some of the questions this conference aims to raise.

The program and modalities of participation will be announced shortly. If possible, the conference is supposed to take place on site in Munich.