German Language and Literature Commons^™

Four Prose Poems By Ramy Al-Asheq, Levi Thompson

Transference

No abstract provided.

Liking Mozart By Chen Chia-Tai, Elaine Wong

Transference

"Liking Mozart" is an English translation of a Chinese poem written by the Taiwanese poet Chen Chia-tai (1954- ).

Foreword, Molly Lynde-Recchia

Transference

No abstract provided.

Transference Vol. 7, Fall 2019

Transference

Complete issue with covers of Transference Vol. 7, Fall 2019

Between Alpine Identity And Civic Duty: Encounters With Swiss Brethren In Rudolf Von Tavel’S Historical Novel Der Frondeur (1929), Berit Jany

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The history of seventeenth-century Swiss Brethren in the State of Bern has been one of growth, persecution, and support from sympathetic neighbors. Their struggles and persistence have inspired a number of authors to produce fictional narratives dealing with the brethren in their Bernese homeland. This article examines Rudolf von Tavel’s historical novel Der Frondeur (1929), in which he depicts the persecuted brotherhood in Bern. The following analysis exposes the way in which the author has fictionalized the Anabaptist group, its commitment to theological and ethical aspects, and the experience of persecution. In particular, the study investigates which characteristics drawn from …

The Strategies And Risks Of Performing Citizenship And Rights Through Music, Carolin Mueller

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

My work explores the capacity of cultural producers to perform “insurgent citizenship,” a term theorized by James Holsten (2008) to describe how the peripheries of social organization can propel alternative modes of civic participation, through music. I utilize Engin Isin’s performative dimension of citizenship (2017) to investigate such forms of insurgent citizenship as they evolve in social and cultural peripheries of the contemporary arts and culture industry in the city of Dresden, Germany to identify the pathways they open to socio-political participation and autonomy for refugees.

While Germany understands itself as a nation of culture, cultural policy unevenly addresses the …

Between Idealization Of A Martyr And Critic Of A Society: Analysis Of Axel Corti’S "Der Fall Jägerstätter", Jakub Gortat

Journal of Religion & Film

The new film approach to the figure of Franz Jägerstätter by Terrence Mallick in 2019 is an occasion to take a critical look at the first movie about the Catholic martyr that was made by the Austrian director Axel Corti in 1971. Although the movie turned out be to a huge success and until now is viewed as one of the turning points in coming to terms with the Nazi past in the Austrian film history, it idealizes, against the director’s intentions, the protagonist and preserves some of the characteristic elements of the history discourse of the times it was …

Public Perceptions Of Angela Merkel And Other Female Politicians In Germany: A Mixed Survey Approach, Erin Woggon

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis seeks to understand public perceptions of women politicians in Germany, specifically Chancellor Angela Merkel, and evaluates these perceptions based on gender, region, and representation of CDU/CSU female legislators in the Bundestag. While literature suggests that there are benefits of greater female representation in legislatures, there is a lack of research regarding how this representation impacts perceptions held by the citizens these women represent. Important to the study is also the difference in perceptions according to gender and the former East/West divide in order to understand the gender gap in Germany and the extent of the social impact left …

The Constant Struggle Of Life And Death During The Siege Of Leningrad, Anastasia N. Semenov

Student Publications

In 1941 during the Second World War, Hitler began Operation Barbarossa, in which he invaded the Soviet Union in order to repopulate it with Germans and expand German territory. The city of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, was one of Hitler’s main objectives because if Leningrad fell to the Germans, they would then be able to go south and capture Moscow, which would possibly lead them to win the war. Additionally, Leningrad was a Baltic seaport, which was useful for trade, and it was home to some of the USSR’s main munition factories. When Germany attacked Leningrad, the people of the …

The Reflected (Un)Real: Space In Ingeborg Bachmann’S “Probleme Probleme”, Emma G. Schilling

Student Publications

In her 1977 short story “Probleme Probleme,” Ingeborg Bachmann plays with space and representations of reality in a way that reflects the disillusionment of Austria’s post-war generation. Beatrix’s two desires in the short story – to look at herself in the mirror and to sleep – both suggest a resistance to living in the real world and a dependence on the illusions of her dreams, mirrors, and the beauty salon. Although the older patrons of the salon and Beatrix try to hide from the responsibility for the past and present, the mirrors and the salon prove to be temporary illusions …

Unlearning Don Carlos: Historical And Fictional Elements Of Innovation In César Vichard De Saint-Réal’S 'Dom Carlos, Nouvelle Historique,' Friedrich Schiller’S 'Don Karlos, Infant Von Spanien,' And Giuseppe Verdi’S 'Don Carlos', Maria-Cristina Necula

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The story of the sixteenth-century Spanish prince, Don Carlos, has inspired numerous literary and musical adaptations that, despite the artistic limitations of historically-based content, reflect an astonishing scope of creative freedom. The myth created around Don Carlos originated in European consciousness as early as 1568. Various theories recorded in political reports and in historical works insinuated that the prince had been murdered while incarcerated by orders of his father, King Philip II. Simultaneously, hatred of Spain, intensified by Philip’s violent suppression of the revolt in the Netherlands, determined exiled Flemish nobles to launch an anti-Philip propaganda. The mystery of Don …

Nature And The Poet: A Comparision Of The Poetry Of Joseph Freiherr Von Eichendorff And Kobayashi Issa, Jane Cox

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the bearing that metaphysical philosophy about nature has on two late 18^th century and early 19^th century poets. Although living in different hemispheres and cultures, the works of Romantic poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff and haikai Kobayashi Issa both used interactions with nature to illustrate their own personal experiences. However, their differing metaphysical beliefs concerning nature impacted their presentation of their experiences as well as their experiences themselves. Eichendorff viewed nature as a medium through which the divine can choose to communicate. Nature’s purpose is to act as a vehicle for the divine. His descriptions …

Pantomime: The History And Metamorphosis Of A Theatrical Ideology, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This book offers perhaps the most comprehensive history of pantomime ever written. No other book so thoroughly examines the varieties of pantomimic performance from the early Roman Empire, when the term “pantomime” came into use, until the present. After thoroughly examining the complexities and startlingly imaginative performance strategies of Roman pantomime, the author identifies the peculiar political circumstances that revived and shaped pantomime in France and Austria in the eighteenth century, leading to the Pierrot obsession in the nineteenth century. Modernist aesthetics awakened a huge, highly diverse fascination with pantomime. The book explores an extraordinary variety of modernist and postmodern …

Narrating Refugee Lives: Political Asylum In 21st Century France, Susmitha Udayan

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This dissertation examines representations of refugees in legal and aesthetic texts. Using the notion of chronotope as a conceptual framework, it studies the use of time and space in various refugee narratives to argue that aesthetic texts about refugees foreground the concept of spatiality to materialize and historicize the refugee condition. These texts, I contend, provide a necessary counternarrative to the depersonalized, dehistoricized representations of refugees encountered in legal texts and media discourses. Comparative analysis of legal and literary texts shows that adventure-time, which dominates legal asylum narratives, contributes to produce coherent, linear, singularized legal asylum stories. Such a narration …

Camp De Thiaroye Ou La Déconstruction Du Mythe Colonial Par Le Truchement De La Langue Française, Maurice Tetne Mr.

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The history between France and Africa has been peppered with numerous irregularities and crimes. Senegalese filmmaker Sembene Ousmane’s film Camp de Thiaroye (1988) returned to this painful story of the Thiaroye tragedy. That film chronicles the criminal massacre by the French of returning Senegalese soldiers. The latter, having sacrificed themselves for France during WWII, demanded treatment and compensation equal to their French counterparts. Interestingly, one of the significant details of this film is the multitude of languages and “patois” that the various African soldiers speak. At the same time, the lingua-franca, a kind of “pidgin” called Français-tirailleur, is simultaneously …

Nationalism And Education: A Case Study Of Germany And Japan, Sarah Vrtiska

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In this piece I ask the question: How has education contributed to the formation or prevention of nationalism in Germany and Japan? In examining this, after defining the standard conceptions of nationalism, I apply these definitions to pre-war and post-war Germany and Japan. Ultimately, I conclude that the goals of education, concepts of national identity that are taught, history curricula, and control of education all historically have the potential to contribute to the rise of nationalism within a country. Based on these fields, I find that although there are similar nationalist trends in both countries during the pre-war period, in …

How Dumbledore Saved Europe: A Comparison Of Fascist Rhetoric In European History And In The Harry Potter Franchises, Emma Pederson, Natalie Rice

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

In recent years, the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise has seen a resurgence with the release of the first two Fantastic Beasts films and accompanying screenplays. As parallels have been drawn between Voldemort’s Death Eaters and Nazis, it is time to examine the relationship between Gellert Grindelwald and real-life fascists. Through such a comparison, we can see common rhetoric in both real and fictional fascism.

Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore have not only a Nazi-like goal of racial purity, but employ Nazi-like language to defend themselves. Related fascist rhetoric is woven throughout other European history, particularly in the dialogues …

Thirty-Second Annual Bibliography 2018 (Mike Lützeler Contemporary German Literature Collection), Garth D. Reese, Brian W. Vetruba, Sönke Parpart, Paul Michael Lützeler

WashU Libraries Publications

The 32nd bibliography of 724 volumes added to Washington University Libraries' Mike Lützeler Contemporary German Literature Collection. All published in 2018, 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 …

Basketballs And Heart Attacks: Lies And Deceptions In Two German Movies: Wo Ist Fred And Good-Bye Lenin, Eckhard Rolz

School of American and Global Studies Faculty Publications with a Focus on Modern Languages and Global Studies

An old German proverb says Lügenhabenkurze Beine, (lies have short legs), meaning, the truth will eventually catch up with the lie. In the Bible in Leviticus 19:11 we are taught: “Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.” Moreover, in John 8:32 we read, “. . . the truth shall set you free.” The Quran teaches “And do not cloak the truth with falsehood (2:42).” Many movies deal with the topic of deception and characters lie for many different reasons. Two successful German movies I will investigate, in which the protagonists weave a web of …

Impossible Communities In Prague’S German Gothic: Nationalism, Degeneration, And The Monstrous Feminine In Gustav Meyrink’S Der Golem (1915), Amy Michelle Braun

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation investigates the contribution of Gustav Meyrink’s best-selling novel The Golem/Der Golem (1915) to the second revival of the international Gothic. While previous scholarship suggests that this genre disappeared from the German literary landscape in the 1830s, I interpret The Golem as a Gothic contribution to the “Prague Novel,” a trend in Prague-based, turn-of-the-twentieth-century German-language literature that found inspiration in the heated sociocultural and political tensions that characterized the milieu.Structured around the demolition of Prague’s former Jewish ghetto under the auspices of the Finis Ghetto plan, a historic Czech-led urban renewal project that leveled the district of Josefov/Josephstadt between …