Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Stasi Brainwashing In The Gdr 1957 - 1990, Jacob H. Solbrig, Jacob Hagen Solbrig

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the methods used by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), more commonly known as the Stasi, or East German secret police, for extraction of information from citizens of the German Democratic Republic for the purpose of espionage and covert operations inside East Germany, as it pertains to the deliberate brainwashing of East German citizens. As one of the most efficient intelligence agencies to ever exist, the Stasi’s main purpose was to monitor the population, gather intelligence, and collect or turn informants. They used brainwashing techniques to control the people of the GDR, keeping the populace paralyzed with fear …

Lucie Cousturier: The Female Voice And Travel Narratives In Colonial West Africa, Ashley Gushulak

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In this thesis, I analyze Lucie Cousturier’s two major works, Des Inconnus chez eux (1920) and Mes Inconnus chez moi (1925) in which she navigates the discourses of imperialism, viewed as masculine, and of femininity. Through strategies of intimacy, Cousturier establishes her authority as a female travel writer. In her first work, Cousturier sets up an intimate relationship with the tirailleurs sénégalais by teaching them French and becoming a mother-figure to them. At the same time, Cousturier plays a role in France’s colonial agenda by teaching the soldiers French. In her second work, she establishes intimacy by adopting the local …

Vom Kreativen Umgang Mit ,Gott‘ Eine Analyse Der Behandlung (Christlicher) Moralbegriffe In Ausgewählten Werken Lou Andreas-Salomés, Silke Gudrun Seibold

Masters Theses

Lou Andreas-Salomé is widely known for her ties to famous German authors and scholars such as Nietzsche, Rilke and Freud. However, literary critics often fail to recognize Andreas-Salomé’s own authorship. This thesis tries to paint a more nuanced picture of the author by putting her literary works at the center of attention, tracing one of the predominant topics of her literary works – questions of Christian morality. It assesses the changes in how Andreas-Salomé negotiates questions of Christian morality in those of her works that make this a central theme, namely Im Kampf um Gott (1885), Aus fremder Seele ( …

Selbstinszenierung Im Deutschrap: Konstruktion Von Identität Und Authentizität Im Subgenre Des Gangstaraps Am Beispiel Von Kollegah Und Xatar, Sladana Gnjatic

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the construction of identity in German Gangsta rap by taking a close look at the rappers Kollegah and Xatar, who are both using their music for self-portrayal. The selection of those two rappers can be justified by their commercial success in Germany and further by their differences as well as similarities in the construction of their images. The first chapter gives a historical overview of American and German rap. It also analyzes specific features and trends in German rap and describes the current status of research. The focus of the second chapter is on the rapper Kollegah, …

Hysterie Und Zaubertränke: Hofmannsthals Ägyptische Helena Als Therapiegeschichte, Raphael Johannes Mueller

Masters Theses

In this thesis, Die ägyptische Helena by Hugo von Hofmannsthal is read as the story of the healing process of the main character Menelas. The main hypothesis states that Hofmannsthal designed the mental disease of Menelas according to the theory of hysteria that Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud described in their Studies on Hysteria (Studien über Hysterie, published in 1895). In the treatment of Menelas’ disease, magic potions play a crucial role. The thesis argues that although those potions are similar to psychotropic drugs, Hofmannsthal refers much more to the potions in Richard Wagner’s operas Tristan und Isolde …

Marksburg: The Evolution Of Administration, Trade And Economics From 12-15th Centuries, A.D., Claire E. Beach

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Between the fifth and eighth centuries AD, central Europe experienced large amounts of migration. Known as the Völkerwanderung, an estimated 750,000 people moved in bands of 10,000-20,0002 across Europe. As these bands moved across Europe, many established settlements on tribal or village systems. These new peoples created a hierarchy, setting themselves above those they defeated. Despite being socially marginalized, the original peoples remained technically free and retained full rights to their lands under the allodium system. The word allod is of Frankish origin and indicates property inherited along family lines. The right to allodial lands could not be revoked by …

The Drama Of Race: Contemporary Afro-German Theater, Jamele Watkins

Doctoral Dissertations

The first investigation of Afro-German theater my dissertation, “The Drama of Race,” argues that Afro-German theater empowers as Black actors take ownership of a German stage, a white German space. My dissertation highlights four crucial Afro-German plays: real life: Germany (2008), Heimat, bittersüße Heimat [Home, bittersweet Home] (2010), Also by Mail (2013), and Mais in Deutschland und anderen Galaxien [Corn in Germany and Other Galaxies] (2015). In Chapter I, I discuss the cultural conditions in which Afro-German theater emerged—after an established literary corpus by Afro-German authors. Chapter II introduces the first Afro-German play and its improvisational methods as empowering for …

From Householder To War-Lord To Heavenly Hero: Naming God In The Early Continental Germanic Languages, Michael Moynihan

Doctoral Dissertations

Using an interdisciplinary approach and building upon earlier work by Northcott, Green, Eggers, Schirokauer, and others, the present study presents a reappraisal of the development of the Germanic vocabulary adopted to designate the divine Lord (God or Christ) in the early stages of Christianization on the continent during the first millennium. The words used to translate Greek kyrios and Latin dominus were drawn from the sphere of Germanic social institutions and thus their adoption was influenced—and to some extent determined—by external conditions and values. In Wulfila’s fourth-century translation of the Bible into an East Germanic dialect of Gothic, the word …

The Space Of Alterity: Language And National Identity In Theodor Adorno And W.G. Sebald, Agata Szczodrak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The German Romantic monolingual paradigm of national identity emerged in the late eighteenth century to establish a mother tongue as a national backbone. This paradigm portrayed multilingualism as destabilizing, impoverishing, and unsuitable for aesthetics. Radicalized by the Nazis and overlooked in postwar debates over German national identity, this paradigm persists in contemporary societies and continues to conceal, belittle, and discredit multilingualism. To oppose that paradigm, this dissertation unveils the enriching and nourishing qualities of foreign languages, presents translingualism as a viable alternative to monolingualism, and reveals how translingual literature creates transnational connectedness. The limitations of the paradigm are traced from …

Murchenmutter ~ Fairy Tale Mothers, Gillian Henry

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the portrayal of mother figures in German fairy tales. Given Western patriarchal society's need for good mothers, and the incredibly high standards for mothers to be considered good, there exists a dichotomous representation of mothers in fairy tales. Mothers are commonly represented as being absent in fairy tales, very often dead before the children in the story reach puberty. Another common representation of mothers in fairy tales is being evil, usually with a vendetta against the main character or characters. The evil mothers are often stepmothers who have taken the place of the deceased mother or mothers-in-law …

Die Verzauberung Der Welt - Eine Studie Zur Transgressiven Sakralität An Beispielen Der Zeitgenössischen Serienkultur, Christine Bernshaus

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper attempts to shed light on the phenomena of reenchantment that is taking place within contemporary media, using examples from current series as well as a theoretical background that is linked to religious or sacred theory arising from the field of sociology. In particular, the series Man in the High Castle, alongside the first season of True Detective, serve as the focus of analysis through the lens of Max Weber, Émile Durkheim and, as a representative of the Collège de Sociologie, George Bataille. Therefore I pursues the question of how the transformation of an initially enchanted world - following …

Samenkörner Der Rezession, Nathan Anderson

Student Research Submissions

A comparative study of German and United States welfare and social help programs during the 2008 recession and their impacts on poor and middle-income households.

Hard Times; Hard Duties; Hard Hearts; The Volksgemeinschaft As An Indicator Of Identity Shift, Kaitlin Hampshire

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

How can one nation define an ideal community? The Reich’s Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany knew. No cultivation of community, or Volksgemeinschaft in the case of Nazi Germany, is complete without the use of propaganda. Nazi propaganda posters played several different roles in the formation of the community, such as maintaining the military, as well as labor forces not in the military, perpetuating anti-Soviet and anti-Jew feelings, creating the Führer myth, and gaining the support of Germany’s youth. All of the messages displayed in the posters identified the values of the members of the ‘National Community’ or Volksgemeinschaft.

Propaganda posters …

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 …

Widerstandsidentitäten: Identitäts- Und Heimatsuche Der Nachfolgegenerationen Türkischer Migranten In Fatih Akins Gegen Die Wand, Feo Aladağs Die Fremde Und Feridun Zaimoğlus Kanak Sprak, Anja Ruxanda Barr

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how Fatih Akin’s film Head-On/Gegen die Wand (2004), Feo Aladağ’s film When We Leave/Die Fremde (2010), and Feridun Zaimoğlu’s text Kanak Spraak construct a new Turkish-German identity that is established through resistance to a homogenously imagined culture. With the current influx of immigrants to Germany, the debate about integration, hybridity, and divergence has become more important than ever. The emergence of hybrid migrant identities that are being problematized in Turkish-German movies and texts has shown that issues of belonging and identity caused by multipositionality have become an integral part of Turkish-German narratives. Over time, representations …

Carian Greeks And Greek Scythians: The Hybridity Of Greek And Barbarian Identity In Herodotus’ Histories, Benjamin D. Leach

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In my thesis, I discuss how Herodotus characterizes the similarities and differences between Greek and non-Greek identity. Herodotus provides his readers with a plethora of details about both Greek and non-Greek peoples in his Histories, which has offered scholars plenty of material to use in this topic. I argue that Herodotus purposefully highlights certain aspects that are shared by certain Greek and non-Greek peoples in order to provide a commentary on his own times. The first chapter focuses on the characters Phanes and Artemisia and how uses the same vocabulary to describes these two individuals, despite one being a …

Magical And Mysterious Resonances: Structural Principles In E. T. A. Hoffmann's Kreisler Works And Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana, Alison Elizabeth Redman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838), borrows its title from E. T. A. Hoffmann's set of essays concerning his literary alter ego, Johannes Kreisler. The character of Kreisler is most prominently featured in two of Hoffmann's works: the Kreisleriana essays (1814-1815) and his final novel, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1820-1822). This thesis explores the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on Schumann's Kreisleriana, focusing on how structural principles derived from Hoffmann's Kreisler works--duality, creating and blurring boundaries, fragmentation and irresolution, and circularity--are at work in Schumann's composition. While others have treated the relationship between …

“A Door Left Open”: Tracing Shakespeare’S Influence In Richard Wagner’S Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Lindsay Elizabeth Bachman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the Gesamtkunstwerk, the “total work of art,” German opera composer Richard Wagner sought the perfect artistic synthesis of music and dramatic theater. Crucial to this vision was the idea that music and drama should be equally well constructed. However, while a considerable amount of Wagner scholarship has focused on the music Wagner composed, less has explored his methods for creating complex and psychologically rich characters. Richard Wagner the librettist spent considerable time and effort reading and studying the works of William Shakespeare, as evidenced by his wife’s journals, the contents of his library at Bayreuth, and his personal …

Vergangenheitsbewältigung- Und Aufarbeitung In Der Verlorene, Am Beispiel Meines Bruders Und Pawels Briefe, Peter Akintunde Ogunniran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The search for a collective past between East and West Germany has caused an increase in the number of family novels since the reunification. Also, the need to preserve and consolidate the memory of events that took place during the Third Reich as the war generation begins to pass on has informed the proliferation of family narratives by the post-war generation, whose childhood was rooted in the post-war East and West Germany. This thesis discusses process of coming in terms with the past among the war generation and the post-war generation in novels of Hans-Ulrich Treichel (Der Verlorene), Uwe Timm …

From Once Upon A Time To Happily Ever After: Grimms’ Fairy Tales And Early Childhood Development, Hannah Mccarley

Senior Projects Spring 2017

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

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 …

Modeling Deponency In Germanic Preterite-Present Verbs Using Datr, Marie G. Bourgerie Hunter

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

In certain Germanic languages, there is a group of verbs called preterite-present verbs that are often viewed as irregular, but in fact behave very predictably. They exhibit a morphological phenomenon called deponency, often in conjunction with another morphological phenomenon called heteroclisis. I examine the preterite-present verbs of three different languages: Old Norse, Modern Icelandic, and Modern German. Initially, I approach them from a historical perspective and then seek to reconcile their morphology with the modern perspective. A criteria is established for a canonical preterite-present verb, and then using a lexical programming language called DATR, I create code that generates the …

"Stereotypisch Deutsch": An Examination Of Stereotypes Of Germans And The Effects In The Business Environment, Alicia Marvinetz

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Stereotypes can be seen as a tool to understand why a person or group of people behave the way they do. These stereotypes adapt over time as culture and cultural perceptions change. The purpose of this research is to analyze what stereotypes Americans have held of Germans over the years, starting in 1940, a couple years before the United States entered World War II, then the Cold War Era between 1947 and 1990, through today. The purpose of these time frames is to see how Americans viewed Germans just prior to entering the war, how the war may have changed …