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Old High German And Gothic Breaking: A Comparative Study, Olivia C. Paglia Jul 2022

Old High German And Gothic Breaking: A Comparative Study, Olivia C. Paglia

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is intended to be a comparative study of Old High German and Gothic breaking. The process of breaking is unique in both Old High German and Gothic compared to the other Germanic languages in that it does not result in diphthongization, but rather the raising and lowering of accented vowels. The intent is to integrate research detailing the process of breaking in Old High German and Gothic in order to better understand how it may be related in both languages. The issue of the Gothic digraphs and the debate over their phonemic values will also be explored, namely …


In The Face Of Death The Photographic Reevaluation Of The Death Mask During The Weimar Republic, Maresa Carney May 2022

In The Face Of Death The Photographic Reevaluation Of The Death Mask During The Weimar Republic, Maresa Carney

Theses and Dissertations

During the Weimar Republic three books that shared the morbid subject of death masks, were published in short intervals and immediately enjoyed enormous popularity. The three publications Das Ewige Antlitz , Totenmasken, and Das Letzte Gesicht serve as an underpinning of the cultural and philosophical investigation of death mask photography


A New South Tyrol: The Multilingual, Multicultural Society, Alec Lee Parry Apr 2022

A New South Tyrol: The Multilingual, Multicultural Society, Alec Lee Parry

Theses and Dissertations

Identity formation is a reoccurring theme in an increasingly global world. Monolingualism and monoculturalism is no longer a possible in a global world. Like greater society, should contemporary literature not also argue for a multilingual, multicultural society? South Tyrol, a province that experienced Nazism and Fascism, control by both Mussolini and Hitler, pitted ethnic German and ethnic Italian speakers against one another. Today, since the founding of Schengen Europe eradicated border controls between Austria and Italy in 1997. South Tyrol is officially trilingual, with German, Italian, and Ladin1 being the official languages, and in recent years, has taken in a …


Dark German Romanticism And The Postpunk Ethos Of Joy Division, The Cure And Smashing Pumpkins, Logan Jansen Hunter Oct 2020

Dark German Romanticism And The Postpunk Ethos Of Joy Division, The Cure And Smashing Pumpkins, Logan Jansen Hunter

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of dark German Romanticism and its connection to the postpunk ethos in rock music. The music is dark and Romantic because of the artists’ reach beyond finite limits to attain Romantic ideals. The postpunk artists explored, Ian Curtis of Joy Division, Robert Smith of The Cure, and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, present solipsistic lyrics relating to nineteenth century works by German writers Novalis, E.T.A. Hoffman, Heinrich Heine and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The spirit of dark German Romanticism dwells within the postpunk ethos adhered to by Curtis, Smith and Corgan, with each of …


Skepticism, Perfectionism, Romanticism – Cavell, Kant, Kleist, Maximilian Gindorf Apr 2020

Skepticism, Perfectionism, Romanticism – Cavell, Kant, Kleist, Maximilian Gindorf

Theses and Dissertations

Michael Fischer early commented that in “Cavell’s work, literature is always bringing to mind philosophy, and philosophy is always opening itself to literature, generating a dialogue that transforms each one.” (3) For Cavell, this dialogue unfolds around the philosophical problem of skepticism. Romanticism around 1800 was not only invested in questioning the differences between philosophy and literature, but also absorbed by the problem of skepticism. The specific combination of literature and skepticism, however, changes the appearance of the latter. In order to show how this takes place, the first chapter is dedicated to an interpretation of skepticism as philosophical problem …


Re-Evaluating “Authenticity” In Holocaust Literature – Memory And Trauma In Recent Holocaust Fiction, Christos Giantsidis Jan 2018

Re-Evaluating “Authenticity” In Holocaust Literature – Memory And Trauma In Recent Holocaust Fiction, Christos Giantsidis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a structural and para-textual analysis of recent Holocaust fiction. Challenging the assumption of the superiority of “authentic” representations of the psychological effects of this historic event, I will highlight the cultural and pedagogical effects of fictionalized accounts of the Holocaust. A short analysis of the terms “memory,” “trauma,” and “history” as understood in the research field of Holocaust studies, will be substantial in debunking the failures of memory as perfect ways to recreate historical “truths.” Theories about trauma and memory by scholars such as Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra will serve as reference points in the validation …


Die Reprasentation Und Kritik Des Materialismus In Einer Auswahl Von Volks-Und Kunstmarchen, Kim Nadine Kahmann May 2017

Die Reprasentation Und Kritik Des Materialismus In Einer Auswahl Von Volks-Und Kunstmarchen, Kim Nadine Kahmann

Theses and Dissertations

Many of Grimms' Fairy Tales, which were published in 1812, have one striking feature in common. Almost all of them deal with material ownership. Fairy tales, like Frau Holle, Rumpelstilzchen, Vom Fischer und seiner Frau or Hans im Glück negotiate and critique wealth and its impact on humanity. Materialism also figures as a significant element in literary fairy tales, like Ludwig Tieck's Der blonde Eckbert and Der Runenberg as well as Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant and The Devoted Friend. This project pursues the question of how these fairy tales and literary fairy tales represent the thriving materialism of the …


Manifestations Of Corporal Oppression – Embodiments Of Culturalpolitical Resistance: The Representation Of The Body In German Literature Of The Long Nineteenth Century, Hans Niehues Jan 2017

Manifestations Of Corporal Oppression – Embodiments Of Culturalpolitical Resistance: The Representation Of The Body In German Literature Of The Long Nineteenth Century, Hans Niehues

Theses and Dissertations

The “long nineteenth century” was subject to various social, economic, political and cultural changes that were propelled by the Enlightenment and industrialization. This alteration of human life also had a physical dimension. It generated new bodypolitics and conceptions of labor which had a significant impact on the human body. This project is concerned with the changing experience of human physicality in the long nineteenth century and how it is reflected in German literature of the time. I study the trope of the body in Gerhart Hauptmann’s Die Weber, Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck and Franz Kafka’s Die Verwandlung. I reveal how the …


Yiddish And Relation To The German Dialects, Bryan Witmore Jun 2016

Yiddish And Relation To The German Dialects, Bryan Witmore

Theses and Dissertations

In an attempt to balance the complex, multi-component nature of Yiddish with its more homogenous speech community – Ashekenazic Jews –Yiddishists have proposed definitions for the Yiddish language that cannot be considered linguistic in nature. Instead, Yiddish is often seen as a cultural phenomenon. Closely related to the issue of what Yiddish is, is how Yiddish came about. This paper addresses these two issues by comparing Yiddish to German dialects in an attempt to demonstrate Yiddish’s linguistic proximity with German and also to approach a hypothesis for the origins of Yiddish.


The Grouping Of The Germanic Languages: A Critical Review, Michael-Christopher Todd Highlander Jan 2014

The Grouping Of The Germanic Languages: A Critical Review, Michael-Christopher Todd Highlander

Theses and Dissertations

The literature regarding the grouping of the Germanic languages will be reviewed and a potential solution to the problems of the division of the Germanic language will be proposed. This is however quite a complex task. Most of the Germanic languages share a great number of similarities, and individual languages often have features common to more than one group. Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, and Old English are examples of languages that make the grouping much more complex than it appears on the surface. The grouping Germanic languages has been debated by linguists since the 19th century, and there are …


The Conflicted Artist- An Analysis Of The Aesthetics Of German Idealism In E.T.A. Hoffmann's Artist, Leigh Hannah Buches Jan 2013

The Conflicted Artist- An Analysis Of The Aesthetics Of German Idealism In E.T.A. Hoffmann's Artist, Leigh Hannah Buches

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will analyze the characteristics of the artist as an individual who attempts to attain an aesthetic Ideal in which he believes he will find fulfillment. In the works of E.T.A. Hoffmann, most notably Das Fräulein von Scuderi and Rat Krespel, the artists René Cardillac and Rat Krespel not only fall short of this ideal, but also limit themselves to the point that they cannot advance further without causing destruction in their own lives. The failure of these artists is not due to their imperfections, but rather to their strict adherence to German Idealist principles, which limit the artist …


La Quête D'Identité À Travers La Quête De L'Autre Dans Le Cinéma De Cédric Klapisch, Jade Marie Mathieu Jan 2013

La Quête D'Identité À Travers La Quête De L'Autre Dans Le Cinéma De Cédric Klapisch, Jade Marie Mathieu

Theses and Dissertations

Malgré une présence extrêmement populaire dans le cinéma français depuis la sortie de son premier film, Riens du Tout, en 1992, Cédric Klapisch est un cinéaste en général peu étudié. Pourtant, si ses comédies séduisent le public, c'est avant tout par leur côté réaliste, avec lequel de nombreux spectateurs peuvent s'identifier. Dans ses premiers films, Klapisch semble avant tout s'adresser aux jeunes en quête d'eux-mêmes, grâce à L'Auberge Espagnole, qui reste son film le plus célèbre, ou à la comédie Le Péril Jeune. Pourtant, au fil de son évolution, le cinéaste met un point d'honneur à intégrer cet esprit de …


In Search Of Real Fathers: Plenzdorf's Die Neuen Leiden Des Jungen W. And Vater, Mutter, Mörderkind, Michelle Schwoebel Dec 2012

In Search Of Real Fathers: Plenzdorf's Die Neuen Leiden Des Jungen W. And Vater, Mutter, Mörderkind, Michelle Schwoebel

Theses and Dissertations

Plenzdorf's works, one written before the fall of socialism in the German Democratic Republic (hereafter referred to as the DDR), and one after, portray relationships between fathers and sons, which act as a metaphor to express a personal perspective of the state, revealing that the DDR was neither as repressive or as omnipresent for the average citizen as outsiders are often given to believe. The father, or Übervater, a figure deeply rooted in the German consciousness, is represented by the state and proves itself as an entity which gives the protagonists in both works little notice, despite their best efforts …


Austro-American Reflections: Making The Writings Of Ann Tizia Leitich Accessible To English-Speaking Audiences, Stephen Andrew Simon Dec 2012

Austro-American Reflections: Making The Writings Of Ann Tizia Leitich Accessible To English-Speaking Audiences, Stephen Andrew Simon

Theses and Dissertations

Ann Tizia Leitich wrote about America to a Viennese audience as a foreign correspondent with the unique and personal perspective of an immigrant to the United States. Leitich differentiates herself from other Europeans who reported on America in her day by telling of the life of the average working American. In so doing, Leitich uses her work as a foreign correspondent to create a new identity for Austria between the World Wars. Leitich uses America in the 1920's and 1930's as a cultural mirror in which the new Republic of Austria can see itself. Leitich's perspective of America is not …


Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach's Ohne Liebe: A Translation And Commentary, Steven L. Peris Nov 2012

Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach's Ohne Liebe: A Translation And Commentary, Steven L. Peris

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores a short drama of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Without Love. It provides not only a complete English translation of the work, but also an interpretative introduction. By first examining the life of Ebner-Eschenbach, I am able to provide insight to the origins of the play. Because Ebner-Eschenbach faced so much opposition in her drama writing career this one act play becomes more relevant. It contains similar themes to her other works such as: gender roles, the role of the aristocracy, and love in marriage. Without Love examines the role of love in marriage by providing the reader …


Agnes Von Lilien: A Translation By Kari Stolzenburg, Kari M. Stolzenburg Jul 2012

Agnes Von Lilien: A Translation By Kari Stolzenburg, Kari M. Stolzenburg

Theses and Dissertations

The novel Agnes von Lilien by Caroline von Wolzogen, although celebrated during the period of Weimar Classicism, was not generally well known to English-speaking readers and researchers until recently. This project aims to address this situation by creating an easily accessible English translation of the novel complete with critical annotations for the benefit of researchers and lay readers alike. The annotated translation presented in this work is an excerpt of the full translation of the work drawn in particular from the first third of the novel. This novel, first published in 1798, reflects many ideals of the Enlightenment, as well …


Pushing The "Scented Envelope": Elisa Von Der Recke At The Cultural Crossroads, Carrie L. Cox Mar 2012

Pushing The "Scented Envelope": Elisa Von Der Recke At The Cultural Crossroads, Carrie L. Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Pushing the "Scented Envelope": Elisa von der Recke at the Cultural Crossroads Carrie L. Cox Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, BYU Master of Arts This thesis serves as an introduction to the 5-volume electronic edition of the collected works of the influential German-language author Elisa von der Recke to be published by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages at Brigham Young University. The compilation presents a modern edition of Recke's published writings and letters in German, with an extensive critical apparatus in English, including introductions to the edition, author and individual sections, biographical information, a complete bibliography of …


Giants, Dragons, And The Confrontation With "Den Schrecklichen Mystischen Naturkomplexen" – Apocalyptic Intertextuality In Alfred Döblin's Berge Meere Und Giganten, Nathan J. Bates Dec 2011

Giants, Dragons, And The Confrontation With "Den Schrecklichen Mystischen Naturkomplexen" – Apocalyptic Intertextuality In Alfred Döblin's Berge Meere Und Giganten, Nathan J. Bates

Theses and Dissertations

Berge Meere und Giganten (BMG) by Alfred Döblin is a fictional account of future events in which humanity brings about the ruin of western civilization by its own technological hubris. Although BMG has been examined considerably for its literary merit in light of the Döblin corpus, few scholars have identified Döblin's work as an apocalyptic text especially after the Judeo-Christian tradition. The apocalyptic nature of BMG implies a profound religious experience on the part of the author, which in my view offers at least one plausible explanation for Döblin's repeated fixation with BMG. In my thesis, I explicate the …


Nazisploitation And The Problem Of Violence In Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Jared Welling Cook Jun 2011

Nazisploitation And The Problem Of Violence In Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Jared Welling Cook

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the representation of Nazis and violence in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), including how the film proposes justification for violence and murder, and how the film participates in cultural fantasies. The film presents an alternate outcome of World War II in which the Allies achieve victory by assassinating Hitler and the High Command of the Third Reich in a movie theater. The Nazis in the film, far from being a complex enemy, are used for their token villain status. Using the Nazis in this way both participates in and reinterprets the Nazisploitation genre. The protagonists, …


The Gaps We Choose To Fill And How We Choose To Fill Them: Readers' Creation Of Turkish German Identity In Texts By Zehra Çirak, Whitney Roberts Ehle Mar 2011

The Gaps We Choose To Fill And How We Choose To Fill Them: Readers' Creation Of Turkish German Identity In Texts By Zehra Çirak, Whitney Roberts Ehle

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores why readers insist on interpreting Zehra Çirak's texts in light of her Turkish German background when she claims that her texts have little to do with her Turkish heritage and are more universally applicable. While readers can interpret her texts without considering the author's biography, thereby obtaining insights into their own personal identity, I suggest that it also makes sense for readers to interpret her texts with the author's biography in mind because of current events and the history of Turkish migrant labor in Germany. To explore different possible interpretations of her texts, I have categorized Çirak's …


"Heimatlos In Dieser Welt": The Isolated Modern Woman In Edith Södergran’S Vaxdukshäft Poetry, Kajsa M. Spjut Nov 2010

"Heimatlos In Dieser Welt": The Isolated Modern Woman In Edith Södergran’S Vaxdukshäft Poetry, Kajsa M. Spjut

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore how, although Edith Södergran’s Vaxdukshäf poems seem to support new female roles in early 20th century European society, they also reflect on the danger in changing from traditional to modern roles. As the poems illustrate, this change can create an isolated woman, who becomes trapped in her new independence and is unable to alter herself to connect with others. In order to understand what is meant by traditional and modern female roles, I present a historical background that contrasts the woman of pre-20th-Century Europe with the new woman that emerged around the Turn of the …


The Work Of Architecture In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility, Elizabeth Rae Guthrie Aug 2010

The Work Of Architecture In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility, Elizabeth Rae Guthrie

Theses and Dissertations

Dresden's historic reconstructions bring up questions that reach far beyond the city's new/old Neumarkt district. In this thesis, I would like to take a closer look at the current ideological discourse surrounding the reconstruction of destroyed historic buildings in Dresden and other cities in the former DDR. What seems at first to be a simple culture war between progressive and reactionary city planners is actually, I will argue, a unique historical moment that blurs the dogmatically held ideas of rationality and nostalgia, ornament and function, and high art and kitsch. From the uncanny shadow of a church recently raised from …


Reinventing The Colonial Fantasy In The Post-Wwii Era: Jovita Epp's Amado Mio, Ivana R. Klammer Jul 2010

Reinventing The Colonial Fantasy In The Post-Wwii Era: Jovita Epp's Amado Mio, Ivana R. Klammer

Theses and Dissertations

Austrian playwright Jovita Epp's German language novel Amado mí­o, which takes place in post-WWII Argentina, is a modern adaptation of the traditional colonial novel. As such, the romances between the female main character, an Argentine of German descent, and her two love interests, an Argentine of Spanish descent (Criollo), and an Austrian Argentine, reflect the hopes and fears of persons and/or cultures caught up in the imperialist dreams of their nation. In the wake of WWII, Argentina becomes a space in which European(-descended) settlers can look back at Europe's "barbarism," questioning the imperialist worldviews that brought Europe …


Die Moderne Frau Und Ihr Drama: Marie Eugenie Delle Grazies Drama Der Schatten (1901); Ein Schlüsseltext Zur Wiener Moderne, Jared Loehrmann Sep 2008

Die Moderne Frau Und Ihr Drama: Marie Eugenie Delle Grazies Drama Der Schatten (1901); Ein Schlüsseltext Zur Wiener Moderne, Jared Loehrmann

Theses and Dissertations

Marie Eugenie delle Grazies Drama Der Schatten wurde am 28. September 1901 im Wiener Hofburgtheater, einer der bedeutendsten Bühnen Europas, uraufgeführt, jedoch nach nur vier Vorstellungen abgesetzt. Das mit dem Bauernfeld-Preis ausgezeichnete Stück bildet den Zenit von delle Grazies literarischem Schaffen und beinhaltet Diskurse von hohem damaligem Stellenwert, die uns einen tieferen Einblick, vom Standpunkt der modernen Frau, ins Fin-de-Siècle Wien geben können. Das Drama und seine Dichterin wurden im Wien der Jahrhundertwende sowohl gefeiert als auch gerügt. Delle Grazie hatte mit Vorurteilen gegen sie als Frau und Dichterin, sowie mit der Kritik an ihrer unkonventionellen Dramaturgie zu kämpfen. Betrachtet …


Rethinking Trümmerliteratur: The Aesthetics Of Destruction Ruins, Ruination, And Ruined Language In The Works Of Böll Grass, And Celan, Kurt R. Buhanan Mar 2007

Rethinking Trümmerliteratur: The Aesthetics Of Destruction Ruins, Ruination, And Ruined Language In The Works Of Böll Grass, And Celan, Kurt R. Buhanan

Theses and Dissertations

Trümmerliteratur - literally “rubble-literature" - is a brand of literature that became important after the Second World War, led by Heinrich Böll, whom I term the apologist of German Trümmerliteratur. Typically included under this classification are the writers who began to produce in the years immediately following the war, and in whose work the rubble and ruins of the landscape figure prominently. Böll provided the programmatic framework for the movement in his “Bekenntnis zur Trümmerliteratur" but his relationship to another type of ruin writing presents a point of friction when he appears to be working in a romantic mode to …


Irgendwo Muss Man Doch Einmal Hingehoeren': Irmgard Keun As Heiress To The Flaneur.", Matthew D. Embley Mar 2006

Irgendwo Muss Man Doch Einmal Hingehoeren': Irmgard Keun As Heiress To The Flaneur.", Matthew D. Embley

Theses and Dissertations

Flanerie is the art of taking a walk, leisurely observing the movements and spaces of the city. By writing about cityscapes, urban realms, and the condition of society, flaneurs are able to describe the uniqueness of the metropolis and give life to the modern city—creating a photograph of an urban setting. In the early nineteenth century, and even today, flaneur literature has been ultimately dominated by men who have documented their cultural and aesthetic interactions with the city. During these times, unwritten rules have often excluded the female from participating in parts of the urban society. Today, these unwritten rules …


Combating The Banality Of Evil: Portrayals Of The Literary Female Villain In Gã¼Nter Grass's Danziger Trilogie And Novella, Im Krebsgang., Joseph Ephraim Baumgarten Aug 2005

Combating The Banality Of Evil: Portrayals Of The Literary Female Villain In Gã¼Nter Grass's Danziger Trilogie And Novella, Im Krebsgang., Joseph Ephraim Baumgarten

Theses and Dissertations

In Günter Grass's Danzig Trilogy and novella, Im Krebsgang, an antagonistic female type makes a repeated appearance. She appears in the guise of Susi Kater and Luzie Rennwand in Die Blechtrommel, and as Tulla Pokriefke in the other works, Katz und Maus, Hundejahre, and Im Krebsgang. This antagonistic female type is not like other women in these works. A review of Le Deuxième Sexe by feminist Simone de Beauvoir reveals several crucial components contributing to woman's position in society. Most essentially, a woman's natural attributes and (dis)abilities and the conventions of society have enforced her historical submission to man. This …


Hermine Cloeter, Feuilletons, And Vienna: A Flaneuse And Urban Cultural Archaeologist Wandering Through Opaque Spaces, Bridging Past And Present To Reclaim What Could Be Lost, Kelli D. Barbour Jul 2004

Hermine Cloeter, Feuilletons, And Vienna: A Flaneuse And Urban Cultural Archaeologist Wandering Through Opaque Spaces, Bridging Past And Present To Reclaim What Could Be Lost, Kelli D. Barbour

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the authority that time holds in the discipline of studying events of the past, not all historians or writers analyzing the past use time to study history—some use space, including writers who write about and interact with an urban topography. The space used by these writers is built space, as well as inhabited and practiced "lived" space. Whereas time provides a transparent overview of history, the urban spaces tend to be opaque. Clarifying history through urban space is additionally troublesome, because built space and its attached memories are visibly forgotten and ignored as time advances. Despite the difficulties of …


Imperial Motherhood: The German Civilizing Mission In Bülow's Im Lande Der Verheißung, Cindy K. Renker Jul 2004

Imperial Motherhood: The German Civilizing Mission In Bülow's Im Lande Der Verheißung, Cindy K. Renker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Frieda von Bülow's last and most popular colonial novel. Im Lande der Verheißung, which she wrote in 1899 after she had returned to Germany from her second journey to the German colony of East Africa. In her novel, Bülow manifests her nationalistic ideology and her support for female participation in the colonies in the character of Maleen Dietlas, who believes in and supports the German colonial ambitions. Bülow provides her female protagonist with a role and purpose in the colony. Maleen serves as an imperial mother who sees it as her duty to "civilize" the German men …


Blank Pages Of The Holocaust: Gypsies In Yugoslavia During World War Ii, Elizabeta Jevtic Jul 2004

Blank Pages Of The Holocaust: Gypsies In Yugoslavia During World War Ii, Elizabeta Jevtic

Theses and Dissertations

After a general overview of the persecution of Gypsies (Roma) during World War II, this thesis focuses on the situation of Gypsies on the territory of Serbia and Croatia. The two republics are chosen because of their unique structures during the years 1941 to 1945. Both republics had puppet regimes set up by Germany; however, Croatia was an ally to Germany and strove to mirror the Third Reich in all its policies. The regime's head, Ante Pavelic, was known as one of the most brutal and merciless men on the territory of Yugoslavia, and with him Croatian paramilitary forces committed …