German Literature Commons^™

Inhabiting The Discourses Of Belonging; Franz Kafka And Yoko Tawada, Aviv Hilbig-Bokaer

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Inhabiting the Discourses of Belonging; Franz Kafka and Yoko Tawada examines the role of language in creating the identity of the foreigner in German prose. Writing at opposite ends of the 20^th century, Kafka and Tawada serve as harbingers for a broader sense of alienation that comes with writing as an Other. Using lenses provided by Spivak, Butler, Said and Deluze, this essay surveys the broader cultural concepts and theoretical implications of the notion of the metaphorical subaltern that can be created in prose, and the particularities presented by the German language in creating and articulating this identity. This …

Shifting Understandings Of Lesbianism In Imperial And Weimar Germany, Meghan C. Paradis

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

This paper seeks to understand how, and why, understandings of lesbianism shifted in Germany over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through close readings of both popular cultural productions and medical and psychological texts produced within the context of Imperial and Weimar Germany, this paper explores the changing nature of understandings of homosexuality in women, arguing that over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the dominant conceptualization of lesbianism transformed from an understanding of lesbians that was rooted in biology and viewed lesbians as physically masculine “gender inverts”, to one that was …

Reconsidering The Emergence Of The Gay Novel In English And German, James P. Wilper

Purdue University Press Books

In Reconsidering the Emergence of the Gay Novel in English and German, James P. Wilper examines a key moment in the development of the modern gay novel by analyzing four novels by German, British, and American writers. Wilper studies how the texts are influenced by and respond and react to four schools of thought regarding male homosexuality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first is legal codes criminalizing sex acts between men and the religious doctrine that informs them. The second is the ancient Greek erotic philosophy, in which a revival of interest took place in the …

Kind Girls, Evil Sisters, And Wise Women: Coded Gender Discourse In Literary Fairy Tales By German Women In The 19th Century, Julie Koehler

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is an analysis of fairy tales by German women in late eighteenth and nineteenth century. Although hundreds of women published fairy tales in Germany in the nineteenth century, they remain absent from current scholarship. Recent work by scholars Shawn Jarvis and Jeannine Blackwell have brought these fairy tales back into print, but there remains very little critical work on them. This dissertation takes the focus of retellings of the Kind and Unkind Girls tale type, also known as “Frau Holle.” At first glance, the women’s variants depict modest, passive, and hardworking Kind Girls who are very similar to …

Die Infragestellung Des Deutschen Literaturkanons, Des Deutschen Kinos Und Der Deutschen Identität In Den Erzählungen „Dem Hof Im Spiegel“ Und Auf Der Anderen Seite Durch Eine Transnationale Ästhetik, Laurianne M. Posch

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Orientalistische Darstellungen Als Gesellschaftskritik: Thomas Mann, Demokratie, Und Die Deutsche Moderne, Ian D. Mackay

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Thirtieth Annual Bibliography 2016 (Contemporary German Literature Collection), Brian Vetruba, Paul Michael Lützeler

WashU Libraries Publications

The 30th bibliography for 660 volumes added to Washington University Libraries' Contemporary German Literature Collection. All published in 2016, these acquisitions include novels, poetry, short story collections, essays, autobiographical works, and literary and cultural periodicals from publishers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Organized by author or editor, the bibliography includes local call numbers as well as subject and genre descriptors. This Collection serves as the research arm for the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature's Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature. A bibliography of items added the previous year is compiled each year by Washington University's Department of Germanic …

Wanderer, Kommst Du Nach Pécs, Edith Borchardt

German Publications

No abstract provided.

Bedecke Deinen Himmel, Zeus! Goethe And The Quest For Individual Sovereignty, Anthony D. Magestro

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This project examines Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774) and his early poetry and their influence on the German literary movement of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress, 1770-1785). As a reaction to the rise of rationalism, Goethe’s texts embody the value of raw, subjective emotion versus logical, objective understanding of the preceding Enlightenment period. Through his literature, Goethe challenges the status quo of absolute rule of church and state as well as humanity’s relationship with God: are we bound to the laws of the Almighty’s design or are …

Expressionist Art And Drama Before, During, And After The Weimar Republic, Shane Michael Kennedy

Dissertations and Theses

Expressionism was the major literary and art form in Germany beginning in the early 20th century. It flourished before and during World War I and continued to be the dominant art for of the Early Weimar Republic. By 1924, Neue Sachlichkeit replaced Expressionism as the dominant art form in Germany. Many Expressionists claimed they were never truly apart of Expressionism. However, in the periodization and canonization many of these young artists are labeled as Expressionist.

This thesis examines the periodization and canonization of Expression in art, drama, and film and proves that Expressionism began much earlier than scholars believe and …

Luther And The Jews: An Exposition Directed To Christians On Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism, Defense, And Legacy, Megan Wilson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis is an analysis of the historical relations between reformer Martin Luther and the Jewish people. Its primary purpose is to defend Luther’s image as a prominent figure in Christian history while considering the possibility of his anti-Semitic views. This thesis focuses particularly on a number of Luther’s written works in order to achieve this goal, with a secondary concentration on historical and incidental defenses that can be used to exonerate him. This thesis also serves to inform contemporary Christians of the controversy surrounding these views and the result of his legacy in more recent centuries.

Notes On How To Rework A Ph.D. Dissertation For Publication As A Book, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

The Karl J. R. Arndt Collection, Karl J. R. Arndt

Finding Aids

Karl J. R. Arndt (1903-1991) was a Professor of German at Clark University from 1950 to 1991. He served as Chief of the Religious Affairs Division of the U.S. Military Government for Germany in Stuttgart from 1945 to 1949. During this time he collected his "War, Political, Historical and Exile Literature Library" of some 490 books and pamphlets. The collection provides an insight into how the Germans saw their time politically and historically during the years preceding Hitler, during the Third Reich and during the occupation years.

Twenty-Ninth Annual Bibliography 2015 (Contemporary German Literature Collection), Brian Vetruba, Paul Michael Lützeler, Katharina Böhm

WashU Libraries Publications

The 29th bibliography for 585 volumes added to Washington University Libraries' Contemporary German Literature Collection located on level B of Olin Library. All published in 2015, these acquisitions include novels, poetry, short story collections, essays, autobiographical works, and literary and cultural periodicals from publishers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.This Collection serves as the research arm for the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature's Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature. A bibliography of items added the previous year is compiled each year by Washington University's Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in cooperation with the University Libraries.

Gretchen’S Soliloquy “Ach Neige, Du Schmerzenreiche” From Goethe’S Faust: A Vocal Performance Analysis And Set Of Performance Guidelines For Various Solo Voice Settings, Savanna Sokolnicki

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The great novelist and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) arguably made his most significant contribution to the artistic world with his literary masterpiece Faust I. Goethe’s love of music and melody is evident throughout all of Faust, particularly in the expressive poetry of the character of Gretchen, whose meaningful words gave inspiration to a variety of musical manifestations, especially in German Lied.

This document serves as a performance guide for vocalists. It provides vital information on the setting and arrangement of the poetry within the musical settings, the background and significance of the composer and …

Honoring The Victims: How The Change In Ethics Ruined Science In The Third Reich And What To Do With The Remaining Medical Data, Kathleen M. Mitchell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper analyzes both sides of the debate over using the Nazi medical data and brings forth one possible compromise. While using the data can provide the scientific community information that can be beneficial for society—and thus salvaging some good out of the evil—are the survivors’ sentiments on the subject truly being heard? The idea that the victims are once again being abused by using the information without their consent is not a matter to be taken lightly. On the other hand, if the data is valuable, it can be detrimental to scientific experimentation to deny access or destroy the …

The Beautiful Soul In The Confessional: Crafting The Moral Self In Friederike Helene Unger's Confessions Of A Beautiful Soul Written By Herself, Michelle A. Reyes

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This article examines how Unger’s Confessions of a Beautiful Soul written by Herself creates a new model of moral acquisition. This model finds its place between religious morality and moral performance, calling for the novel’s protagonist, Mirabella, to cultivate a moral self through the spiritual practice of reading. Such a model still revolves around moral transformation, but it is no longer of her soul, but rather her thoughts; that is, Mirabella must first collect various depictions of morality from a wide scope of literature, then choose from these which ones she deems as of greatest importance to her, namely virginity …

Kafka's German-Jewish Reception As Mirror Of Modernity, Abraham Ariel Rubin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores the diverse and contradictory ways German-Jewish intellectuals identify what they commonly refer to as Kafka's "Jewish essence." Focusing on the commentaries of Margarete Susman, Hans-Joachim Schoeps, Gershom Scholem, and Max Brod, I claim that Kafka's German-Jewish reception reflects a broader historical dilemma that grew out of the Jewish encounter with modernity: Are Judaism and Jewishness best defined through religious, cultural, national, or ethnic categories? It is precisely this ambiguity that forms the historical backdrop to Kafka's Jewish interpretations. Situating the early phases of Kafka's posthumous reception within the broader context of interwar German-Jewish culture, my dissertation examines …

East-West Cultural Mediation In The Works Of Galsan Tschinag, Richard Hacken

Faculty Publications

This presentation applies the theory and tools of postcolonial theory to the literary techniques and output of the Mongolian writer, Galsan Tschinag, who publishes most of his works in German. It focuses on literary mediation between Asia and Europe, especially Germany, as found in his poetry and prose. In secondary literature Galsan Tschinag has been called the corrective “polar reverse of an Orientalist;” an apologist for round stones in a culture of angular concrete; a wanderer between worlds; an ambassador for Tuva; a linguistic nomad; the poet as shaman; a phenomenon on German talk shows; the Tuvan Moses; a cultural …

Perfume: The Tragedy Of Humanity, Abby Hodge

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

This article examines two adaptations ‐‐ film and novel ‐ of the story Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Through comparing these mediums this article explains themes within each, and how they vary based on the limitations of the mediums in describing a story that revolves primarily around scent and smell. The themes are consistent when the most prominent lessons of evil and broken societies come forth, though both are expressed in their respective ways.