European Languages and Societies Commons^™

The 'Schemes' Of Piero De' Pazzi And The Conflict With The Medici (1461–2), Oren J. Margolis, Brian Maxson

Brian J. Maxson

Storm Still: Klartext Und Poesie In Peter Handke's "Immer Noch Sturm", Scott Abbott

Scott Abbott

In a play about about the Slovenian minority in Austria, Peter Handke dialectically explores the possibilities of language in the contexts of war and peace. Although the play has been attacked as an act of linguistic nationalism, a careful reading of the play finds it one more document in the author's lifelong commitment to laying bare the coercive structures of language.

Translation, Power Hierarchy, And The Globalization Of The Concept “Human Rights”: Potential Contributions From Confucianism Missed By The Udhr, Sinkwan Cheng

Sinkwan Cheng

This essay strikes new paths for investigating the politics of translation and the (non-) universality of the concept of “human rights” by engaging them in a critical dialogue. Part I of my essay argues that a truly universal concept would have available linguistic equivalents in all languages. On this basis, I develop translation into a tool for disproving the claim that the concept human rights is universal. An inaccurate claim to universality could be made to look valid, however, if one culture dominates over others, and manages to impose its own concepts and exclude competitors. Part II explores how human …

23 Aprile: In Cataluña Si Festeggia Sant Jordi, Luis González Vaqué

Luis González Vaqué

Ogni anno, il 23 aprile, nei paesi della Catalogna si festeggia Sant Jordi (Sant Jorge) in modo originale e romantico. La tradizione vuole che l’uomo regali alla sua amata un libro accompagnato da una rosa rossa e le donne invece donano un libro al loro amato.

Made In Germany: Integration As Inside Joke In The Ethno-Comedy Of Kaya Yanar And Bülent Ceylan, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

As the largest “foreign” population in Germany, Turkish immigrants have been the primary target for concerns about integration and the impact of immigration on German culture. Since the founding of the first Turkish German cabaret in 1985 by Şinasi Dikmen and Muhsin Omurca, the misconceptions and one-sided expectations associated with integration have been played, parodied, and satirized by Turkish German performers. As producers of contemporary ethno-comedy, Kaya Yanar and Bülent Ceylan appeal to mass audiences with a new approach, inverting questions of integration by creating communities through laughter in which audiences are at once in on the joke and its …

Serdar Somuncu: Turkish German Comedy As Transnational Intervention, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

A reconceptualization of Germanness, combined with a reconsideration of what constitutes “Germanness” and “Turkishness” and how they are linked, is a central theme in the programs of a younger generation of Turkish German cabaret artists and comedians. As a member of the new generation of performers, Serdar Somuncu stands out, not only for his unapologetic embrace of political theater critical of both German and Turkish social politics, but also for his assertion of a right and responsibility to engage with Germany’s past, coupled with an insistence on differentiation and balanced comparison when discussing integration. After gaining notoriety through his Mein …

Outing Hybridity: Polymorphism, Identity, And Desire In Monika Trent's Virgin Machine, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

Monika Treut's 1988 film, Virgin Machine, offers a playful, self-ironizing look at the construction of sexual identities, utilizing the techniques specific to the filmic medium to create cuts and bridges between concepts, characters, and locations. In its portrayal of the passage and passages of the story's central character, Dorothe Muller, the film takes the viewer on a voyage of self-exploration and self-discovery that moves from one harbor city, Hamburg, and ends in another, San Francisco. The move between harbor cities carries associations of commerce and exchange, arrivals and departures, as well as the potential for import and export of goods …

Neighbours And Strangers: Literary And Cultural Relations In Germany, Austria And Central Europe Since 1989 (Book Review), Kathrin Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

In this collection of fifteen papers inspired by a 2002 conference held in Salford, England, the reader will find wide variations on the broadly stated theme of neighbors and strangers in the European context. Pulling together the diversity of essays is the main problem with the volume and one that the editors have done little to alleviate in their haphazard introduction. While they allude to the unification of Germany as the impetus and point of departure for the anthology, they offer no coherent argument for the selection and sequence of the essays included in the book. The reader is left …

Serdar Somuncu: Reframing Integration Through A Transnational Politics Of Satire, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

Founded by Şinasi Dikmen and Muhsin Omurcu in Ulm in 1985, Knobi-Bonbon is widely recognized as the first Turkish German cabaret in the Federal Republic. Dikmen and Omurcu focused on ethnic stereotypes, integration, and coexistence in their early programs, with an emphasis on the German misunderstanding of integration as cultural assimilation (Boran 202, 219). With a run of successful performances, Knobi-Bonbon established a momentum that has carried through to the present day, making Turkish German comedy a fixture on the German stage. Responding to the wave of nationalism and xenophobia that followed in the wake of unification, Knobi-Bonbon’s shows became …

Protest Song In East And West Germany Since The 1960s (Book Review), Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

While the title of this nine-essay anthology focuses on the protest song from the 1960s and beyond, one of key elements of the book is an examination of the legacy of the Vormärz revolutionary songs and political cabaret of the Weimar Republic in the repertoire of West-German and East-German Liedermacher. The first two chapters by David Robb offer a differentiated analysis of how the Vormärz and early twentieth-century political song traditions were adopted and adapted in the FRG and the GDR and how the resulting high/low culture blend of the political song enhanced its appeal. The third chapter, also by …

Minority Identity As German Identity In Conscious Rap And Gangsta Rap: Pushing The Margins, Redefining The Center, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

After rap entered the German music scene in the 1980s, it developed into a variety of styles that reflect Germany's increasingly multiethnic social fabric. Politically conscious rap assumed greater relevance after unification, focusing on issues of discrimination, integration, and xenophobia. Gangsta rap, with its emphasis on street conflict and violence, brought the ghetto to Germany and sparked debates about the condition of German cities and the erosion of civic consciousness. Alternately celebrated and reviled by the media, both styles utilize rap's synthesis of authenticity and performance to redefine the relationship between minority identity and German identity and debunk Leitkultur.

“Translation, The Introduction Of Western Time Consciousness Into The Chinese Language, And Chinese Modernity.”, Sinkwan Cheng

Sinkwan Cheng

No abstract provided.

Five Poems From Witch In Mourning In Exchanges, Maria-Mercè Marçal, Clyde Moneyhun

Clyde Moneyhun

Maria-Mercè Marçal was born in 1952, in the middle of the fascist dictatorship in Spain, which lasted from the end of the Civil War in 1939 to the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. Marçal writes, “A l’atzar agraeixo tres dons: haver nascut dona, de classe baixa i nació oprimida” [I thank fate for three gifts: having been born a woman, to the lower class, in an oppressed nation], a phrase that is still famous in Catalan graffiti today.

Syllabus Cpo 3103 (U02): Comparative Politics Of Western Europe (Fall 2015), Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner