Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From “Total Destruction” To “Total Dictatorship”: The Influence Of Ernst Jünger’S Visionary Fascism, Nick Schiff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to answer one central question: How can the life and work of Ernst Jünger help illuminate the development of fascist ideas, culture, politics, and power across Europe from 1920-1945? The components of that question are: what were the core elements of Jünger’s aesthetics, morality, and politics? How did he synthesize these elements to create his influential vision of German fascism? What were Jünger’s interactions and exchanges with other European fascists, as well as influential Nazis including Carl Schmitt, Joseph Goebbels, and Adolph Hitler himself? How did Jünger’s new Fascist politics and aesthetics affect them? I argue that …

Identität In Schwarz Und Weiß: Die Übersetzung Der Afro-Deutschen Identität In Den Werken Von May Ayim, Mia Ver Pault

Senior Theses and Projects

Many parts of our being are attached to how we identify and with whom we identify. Theoretically, how we identify is based largely on one’s own choices, but such freedom is not always the case. Unfortunately, identity is often imposed upon one by the surrounding racial and ethnic majority. Like many non-white people in a white environment, this was the case for the German poet and activist, May Ayim. May Ayim (1960-1996) was born to a white German mother and a black Ghanian father. Although Ayim spoke German, grew up in Germany, and was fully acculturated into German society, she …

Desertion And Discontent In The East German Border Police, 1948-1959, Rose Shafer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The East German Border Police (Deutsche Grenzpolizei) was the organization responsible for patrolling the borders of the German Democratic Republic from its creation in 1946 until its transformation into the Border Troops of the GDR (Grenztruppen der DDR) and reorganization as part of the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee) in 1961. The organization had the dual task of preventing "Republikflucht," the illegal migration of East German citizens to West Germany, and acting as the first line of defense in the case of an attack from West German forces. The ruling Sociality Unity Party of Germany ( …

An Exploration Of Horror In Franz Kafka’S "The Metamorphosis", Christa M. Neumann

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

Readers often identify Gregor’s vermin body as the only horrific element in Franz Kafka’s “The
Metamorphosis.” But what about the walls that he lives in? This study will deemphasize the horror of Kafka’s creature and offer new themes to consider. The following collects scholarship around Kafka’s time to understand how he used the domestic space to create horror. It includes studies on Gothic literature and Freud’s term “unheimlich” from his essay “The Uncanny.” The findings bring light to a type of horror often overlooked – the horror in the liminal, the “in- between” state of being. This space belongs to …

Paul Celan And The Processes Of Survival In Post-Shoah Jewish Writing, Ari Savage

Theses

The following is a study of the poetry of Paul Celan as a representation of psychological and social processes present in the written works of Shoah survivors. It begins with an analysis of the place of writing in Jewish culture, then identifies three primary processes which operate in sequence: alienation, individuation, and integration. By examining Paul Celan’s highly personal and autobiographical texts in the context of his life experience as a Shoah survivor it is possible to discern the social and psychological forces at work which compel survivors to express their traumas in written form, and to gain a better …

Die Unfassbare Sprache, Molly Hornick

Senior Theses and Projects

The Lineage of Language: The Minds of Hamann, Benjamin, and Heidegger

Language, an essential part of human existence, is in its ubiquity almost impossible to define. This aspect of life, nearly absurd to confine into a simple definition, is crucial to the human understanding of being itself. The question of the origin of language began in the late 18th century with the German-language philosopher, Johann Georg Hamann, who criticized the Enlightenment for its reliance on reason alone. The notion that human existence, and therefore language can be grasped into a mere rational approach was similarly rejected by language philosopher Walter …

Of Method: A Propaedeutic To Coleridge's Prose Works, Michael A. Granger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coleridge’s prose works, published and unpublished, demonstrate a thorough and critical testing and understanding of British and German philosophical responses to skepticism and the ability of philosophy to progress by maintaining a double-minded and conflicted suture of both the practical or imaginative eclipse of knowledge and theorizing the hypothetical epistemological absolute that explains the relativity of facticity. Any inadequate method of inquiry stagnates within attempting a purely figurative or purely demonstrative solution to skepticism. Thus, the appropriate way to approach Coleridge’s understanding of philosophy is the struggle to make inquiry adequate though progression. Coleridge’s methodological impulse originates explicitly in a …

Hohenschönhausen As A Tangible Representation Of The German Democratic Republic’S Development Of Operative Psychology, Zoe Werth

Honors Theses and Capstones

Located in Lichtenberg, Berlin (part of the former borough of Hohenschönhausen), Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen stands today as a memorial for the thousands who were killed and imprisoned there, from its construction in 1939 until its closure in 1990. This paper will trace the evolution of Hohenschönhausen from a physical space of confinement, to a sophisticated psychological apparatus designed to exert control over its political prisoners through the development of “Operative Psychology” (OP). Through an architectural and historical analysis of the prison, alongside a review of prisoner testimonies, this paper works to reveal how the environment of Hohenschönhausen was methodically designed to …

Nazism And Eric Voegelin’S Politische Religionen: An Approach To Exploring Nazism’S Roots In Modern Thought, Cody R. Babcock

CMC Senior Theses

The Holocaust shook the core assumptions many held regarding human progress and human nature. This paper seeks to track how the ideas of modernist philosophers may have laid the fundamental political and moral assumptions that allowed the Holocaust to occur. I will offer an analysis of 20th century German-American political scientist and philosopher Eric Voegelin’s theory of Political Religions to assess whether philosophy emerging from the Modern era led Germany to eschew Christianity, a world-transcendent religion as the source of the West’s “first principles,” and adopt the world-imminent religion of Nazism in its place. If this proves to be the …

Health Politics, Covid-19, And The Vaccine: A Comparison Of How Germany And The U.S. Cultivated Public Trust During The Covid-19 Pandemic., Kai Gundlach

CMC Senior Theses

Public trust is important during an ongoing crisis as it determines people’s compliance with government mandates and laws. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Germany and the U.S. operated with different levels of public trust and people placed their trust in different public institutions. My thesis examines how political tactics such as fear, use of science, and expert pronouncements impacted public trust and the COVID-19 response in both countries.

I Read To You, And You Relax: Interactive Teacher Read-Alouds Of Picture Books In The Undergraduate Foreign Language Classroom, Mareike Geyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Area: This dissertation investigates interactive teacher read-alouds of picture books in the undergraduate foreign language classroom. It focused on reading comprehension and read-aloud enjoyment.

Study Design: The study was conducted in four in-person German language classes at a U.S. university. It consisted of six weekly read-alouds interventions that took place over the time span of 7 weeks. During the interventions, one German picture book was read interactively to the students.

Data Collection Instruments: Reading comprehension was measured with a pre-test and a post-test and read-aloud enjoyment was measured with a pre-intervention survey and a post-intervention survey.

Results: The findings …

Postmortem Objectification: A Spectacle Of Human Remains In German Museums, Helen Martin

Masters Theses

The net of scientific entitlement is woven from a single thread that extends from German colonialism to present-day exhibits like Körperwelten. The work of physical anthropologists in Germany and the development of the field from the late 1800s offers insight into the creation and continuity of scientific entitlement to the body of individuals deemed to be ‘others’. Museums and their exhibits embody the intentionality of the curators and researchers, and communicate these intentions to the visitors through curation and exhibit design choices. The inclusion of human remains in exhibits should be considered carefully as to be respectful of the individuals, …

Tragic Fate And History In Thomas Hardy's "The Return Of The Native", Tristan Pageze

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis explores the operation of the tragic in Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native by taking as a starting point the formalist approach to the genre of tragedy, before extending its definition to encompass the key concept of tragic conflict. This thesis argues that Hardy’s tragic vision takes for object human history, and especially the effects of new, unveiled knowledge on the human psyche, thus locating the root cause of tragedy in these contingencies. This continuum between individual action and the larger historical causes that shape it is expressed via the narrator’s discourse, and the discrepancy between his …

Das Gewicht Der Kultur: Eine Untersuchung Der Beziehung Zwischen Stereotyp Und Außenpolitik, Anhand Einer Fallstudie Zu Heidelberg, Kipling Newman

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

Die Stereotypen und Mythen, die Narrative von “Kulturen” als einheitliche und monolithische Gruppen von Individuen konstruieren, formulieren und beschränken gleichzeitig die individuellen Verhaltensweisen sowie politischen Maßnahmen, die in einer bestimmten Kultur möglich und akzeptabel sind. Diese Studie versucht, den Einfluss von kulturellen Stereotypen auf außenpolitische Entscheidungen anhand einer qualitativen Fallstudienanalyse zu beleuchten. Genauer gesagt, untersucht diese Arbeit die dominanten kulturellen Vorstellungen von Russen und Deutschen zwischen der Vereinigung Deutschland 1871 und der russischen Oktoberrevolution 1917, mit einem Fokus auf die deutsche Stadt Heidelberg, weil sie damals ein Nexus von russisch-deutschen interkulturellen Interaktionen war. Mittels eines konstruktivistischen Interpretationsansatzes werden die vor …

Germanic Latin Lyric Diction: Regional Variations In Germany, Switzerland, And Austria, James A. Worley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I discuss the various regional Latin lyric diction practices in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and the extent to which Germanic Latin diction (also termed German Latin diction), Italianate Latin diction, and Roman Latin diction are performed beginning circa 1950 until 2022. I argue that Germanic Latin lyric diction is not standardized throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. First, I explore Roman and Italianate lyric diction practices compared across various sources in order to distinguish between Latin pronunciation choices, then I discuss trends in Germanic Latin lyric diction “rules.” Extensive tables in appendices A (Roman Latin) and B (Germanic …

What Makes A Woman "Pious And Good": The Function Of Several Grimm Brothers' Cautionary Fairy Tales, Hannah Montante

English (MA) Theses

This thesis explores how several of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, “Little Snow-white and the seven dwarfs,” “The Juniper Tree,” and “Cinderella” exhibit patriarchal expectations of women that fairy tale protagonists strive to uphold, while female villains feel driven to violence and artifice because of their inability to fit into this role. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published these stories in nineteenth-century Germany, which was predominantly Protestant and held the belief that women should be nurturing homemakers who took care of their husbands and children. These cautionary tales instruct women on how to behave and appear physically, likely because these stories …

Faszination Mond – Das Mondmotiv In Der Deutschsprachigen Gegenwartslyrik Vor Dem Hintergrund Seiner Literarischen Tradition, Lara-Mareen Foerster

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This master thesis explores the moon motif in contemporary poetry in relation to its literary history. Contemporary poetry is understood as poetry after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. My research seeks to provide an overview of the moon motif in German contemporary literature where hitherto only scholarship on Durs Grünbein has considered the importance of the moon motif.

Therefore, this work taxonomically explores the functions of the moon motif in general instead of aiming at a close reading of selected poems. I am taking a stance against the notion that the moon motif and the fascination for …

“Vom Verstehen Rede Ich Vorsichtshalber Nicht”: Discourses Of Memory And German-Jewish Literature In Selected Literary Award Speeches By Barbara Honigmann, Achim Schmid

Masters Theses

The literary prize speeches of German-Jewish author Barbara Honigmann make up only a small part of her mainly narrative oeuvre, yet they are relevant to her writing. On the one hand, they provide insights into the difficulties of being a German-Jewish author in the twenty-first century, on the other hand, they are also politically significant. In them, Honigmann recalls the crimes of the National Socialists against the Jewish population during the Third Reich, as well as the suffering under the socialist dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic.

Analyzing three of her speeches that were delivered between 2001 and 2015 in …

Heilbronn Im Jahr 1945: Warum Hier, Alexander Keuerleber

Student Research Submissions

Die Stadt Heilbronn, im Südwesten Deutschlands, war und ist ein wichtiger Kreuzungspunkt im südlichen deutschen Raum. Dort kreuzen sich wichtige Handelswege: per Schiff, per Auto, per Zug und zu Fuß. Infolge der Handelswege wurde Heilbronn schnell eine einflussreiche Stadt und Drehpunkt im Land. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg führte das zu Konflikt und Bombardierungen. Wie viele andere deutsche Großstädte kam es 1944 in Heilbronn zu verheerenden Bombenangriffen und dann im April 1945 zu einem neuntägigen Kampf. Dieser Kampf war wichtig, weil er einer der brutalsten Kämpfe der Amerikaner in Deutschland war, und weil es auch der allerletzte große Kampfeinsatz für amerikanische Truppen …

Salzburg's Baroque Architecture: A Historical Analysis And Poetic Response, Rebecca Malzer

Honors Projects

Salzburg, Austria is a city full of history. During the Baroque era from about the mid sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century, the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg designed and modeled the city with Rome, Italy in mind. Their loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire and with the Reformation in full swing, these Italian influences helped to build a pro-Roman Catholic style throughout the city. The Prince-Archbishops and their architects demonstrated Salzburg’s loyalty to Rome through the structures of Schloss Mirabell, Schloss Hellbrunn, and the Franziskannerkirche. In addition, these structures make for great inspiration for creative work, to which …

Was Ist (Nicht) Deutsch? Historische Und Aktuelle Versuche "Deutsch" Ex Negativo Zu Definieren, Mark Mckinney Smith

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In this thesis I explore the question of how a xenophobic ideology could find a receptive audience in 21st Century Germany. Given extensive postwar efforts in Germany to address the Nazi Period, this question is of particular interest. I analyze and compare racist and xenophobic ideologies in four time periods: the Napoleonic Period, the Wilhelmine Period, the National Socialist Period and the contemporary period. Historically, xenophobic ideology is deeply tied to particular social and economic conditions which leads to the following questions: What are the similarities and differences between contemporary xenophobic messaging and that of the three other time periods …

Zur Ästhetik Des Widerstands Im Afrodeutschen Theater: Am Beispiel Von Olumide Popoolas Also By Mail, Bertrand Collins Ngong M.A.

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This research is titled On the Aesthetics of Resistance in Afro-German Theater: A Case Study of Olumide Popoola's Also by mail. The main purpose of this research is to show how Afro-German theater resists through creative processes on a symbolic and aesthetic level to address crucial challenges faced by the black minority in Germany. The play Also by mail by Nigerian-German playwright Olumide Popoola is an interesting example of this, as it is situated at the intersection of gender, race, and identity. Popoola’s engagement with the aesthetics of resistance provides a way to understand how Afro-German activism today uses …

Unlikely Heroes: Self-Reflexivity, Comedy, And Reflective Nostalgia In Post-Unification German Film, Lindsay Carney

Senior Theses

This paper investigates the portrayal of Ostalgie in post-unification film and its impact on the East German identity. The swift nature in which East Germany was reabsorbed into the West and subsequent dissociation from all commercial, social, and political infrastructures relating to the GDR following reunification inspired the Ostalgie phenomenon as a way to recover an East German distinctiveness and legitimize the East German experience by expanding the narrative beyond the tyranny and injustices of the socialist state. Ostalgie films Sonnenallee, Helden wir wir, Kleinruppin Forever, and the Westalgie film Herr Lehmann contain recurring concepts of self-conscious storytelling, …

Gesundheit, Glück Und Schrecken: Der Krankmachende Eroberungszug Der Nationalsozialisten Für Die Hygiene Aus Wissenschaftlich-Humanistischer Sicht, Nic Zacharewski

Senior Theses and Projects

Hygiene and Horror- The Ethical Considerations of The National Socialists' Conquest for Health and the Parallels to Contemporary Considerations and Consequences;

A Scientific Humanist Perspective

Nicholas Zacharewski

It is a long-held misunderstanding that evil has exceptional origins. Time and history have proven that evil is banal. An environment of economic crisis, extreme patriotism, and social rejection have all played an essential role in creating some of the greatest atrocities known in human history. The National Socialist (Nazi) party, which controlled the German state from 1933-1945, epitomizes evil. Infamous for its crimes against humanity, however, relatively unknown otherwise, are the origins …

Towards A Queer Weimar Cinema: Spaces, Narratives, And Influences, Elizabeth M. Lynch Sullivan

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

“Mit Josefine Muss Es Abwärts Gehen”: Making Audible The Conflicted Narrator Of Kafka’S “Josefine”, Kamil Alexander Karpiak

Senior Projects Fall 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Zerschlagen: German Unification And Divided Identity, Harrison Quinn

Honors Theses

The Unification of East and West Germany ended one of the Cold War’s longest divides, but only on paper. After decades under a unified German state, former East Germans face lower standards of living, economic opportunities, and access to national utilities compared to their Western counterparts. This inequality stems from the bifurcated German identity, which remains largely unaddressed amid German state ambitions for a central role in international institutions. The failure to properly acknowledge East German identity and the suppression thereof demonstrates the failure of Unification to unite the German nation. Political ambitions outweighed a true reconciliation of German nationhood, …

Filmmaking As A Practice In Critical Theory, Cora M. Lay

Masters Theses

This multi-part project pulls together all my fields of research under the umbrella of my ultimate interest– agriculture and its future. The film portion focuses on regional and seasonal agriculture in Southern Germany near Lake Constance. It focuses on several families who do small-scale agricultural production utilizing various methods but ultimately touches on our current disconnect from our food systems and nature. The written portion found in this document focuses on filmmaking as a practice in critical theory, a tool to visualize what written theory cannot. Filming happened over a three-week period in Summer 2021for the portion shot in Germany. …

Introverse Arrangements: Rediscovering The Typewritings Of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Savannah M. Champion

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to understand Wolf-Rehfeldt’s place in the unofficial art world of the GDR by examining her work in light of her status as a clerical worker with social rather than professional ties to the art world. She stands out within the East German Mail Art context, not just for her inventive use of a typewriter to create abstract figurations, but for the way she used it to interject considerations of gender and power into a network of artists overwhelmingly dominated by men with her open-ended Typewritings.”

Through historical research and close readings of her work, this study uncovers …

Nelly Arcan, Langage De La Honte, Jordon B. Mcconnell

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role that shame plays as a subversive tool in the works of Québécoise author Nelly Arcan. Dealing with themes such as sexuality, gender, suicide, and resentment, Arcan’s works deal with that which can be deemed “shameful,” and she deliberately speaks the unspeakable. First in constructing an understanding in how a shame-based vocabulary is employed throughout her works, we then study how this shame subverts expectations and adds weight to political questions relevant to the widespread use of electronic media. How does intentionally occupying a role that is shamed within society function …