Against the Grain: Reading Pynchon’s Counternarratives

International Pynchon Week 2008

June 11-14

Amerika Haus

Munich, Germany

What better place to discuss Pynchon’s new novel Against the Day (and all his other texts) than in the Zone? In 2008, the biannual Pynchon conference takes place in Munich, Germany, just as Mondaugen’s city celebrates its 850^th birthday (and Europe goes soccer-crazy during the European Cup). The American Studies department of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität invites scholars and students, amateurs and novices, fans and critics to get together for this four-day event. While a good share of the conference is to be dedicated to Against the Day, it is of course open to all things Pynchon. A special invitation goes out to scholars from disciplines other than literary studies. There is no participation fee.

Update / June 15: The conference is over, and it has been a great success! You can find out why by listening to the recordings of all the papers that have been presented – they are available for download on the program website). Thanks to everyone who was there! A special thank you goes out to Nathalie Aghoro, Jola Feix, Maximilian Heinrich, Sebastian Huber, Gabriella Nikitina, Thoren Opitz, Almut Ringleben and Julia Stamm for being around and helping with everything, and of course to Fabian Diesner, without whom nothing would have worked the way it did.

Update / July 8: Photos are now online.