Comparative Literature Commons^™

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 …

The Narrator, The Mute, And The Familiar: Configurations Of Children In War Films, Kiyomi Wilks

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis undertakes the examination of how and why children often figure prominently in films about war. Rather than accept the common argument that innocence is what makes children compelling as victims and objects of observation, this thesis argues that children in war films subvert dominant narratives about war and victimhood by asking questions that pierce through accepted narratives, revealing the child as an agent in possession of an adult knowledge that seems to run contrary to attempts to display the child as a naive innocent. The children in the three movies under examination-- The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) …

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 …

Those That Trespass Against Us: Childhood, Violence, And Memory In The White Ribbon, Joseph Kuster

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines aesthetic representations of childhood and violence in Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, I argue that Haneke’s film interrogates notions of the idealized child in the context of German history/the history of the Tätergeneration in order to question the possibility of affixing particular objective truth to historical or cultural narrative. First, I examine and deconstruct culturally accepted representations of the child as a symbol of innocence and purity, and explore how Haneke’s film manipulates and subverts these tropes. I then approach the film using three different theoretical structures: the gaze of the monstrous child in the horror …

The Ethics And Politics Of Love In Postwar France: The Case Of Beauvoir, Camus, And Sartre, Christian Wood

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The Ethics and Politics of Love focuses primarily upon Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre during the period 1935 to 1960, specifically the periods before and after the Second World War (1939 -- 1945), and the Franco-Algerian War (1954 -- 1962). I argue that inquiring into each thinker's theory of love yields crucial and hitherto unexplored insights into their ethical and political theories: "love" thus represents my particular Ariadne's thread to guide us into, and then back outside of their daunting oeuvres and singular lives. I use their documented thoughts on love as an analytical tool with which …

Mémoire Et Identité Dans Les Réécritures Caribéennes : Wide Sargasso Sea Et La Migration Des Coeurs, Camille Charlery

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis will study creole identity in Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), prequel of Jane Eyre, as well as in Maryse Condé's La Migration des Coeurs (1995), a rewriting of Wuthering Heights. I argue that both novels create a new creole identity by conversing with their original texts as well as by going beyond the official definition of creoleness. Using the concepts of obsessive memory and forced forgetfulness, I explore the tension betwee innate and constructed identity. First, I focus on the meaning of creoleness, then, I examine how memory plays a crucial role in the novels through topics …

Vers Une Ecocritique Postcoloniale Africaine: L’Environnement Dans Les Litteratures Africaines De Langue Française, Marie Chantale Mofin Noussi

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This work was motivated by two major facts: the African environment is at the heart of the continents relationships with colonialism, neocolonialism and globalization; but there is not enough literary emphasis on this environmental centrality. This work contributes in bridging the gap between African Francophone Literatures and the environmental discourses. This dissertation is the literary analysis of the representation, the transformation, and the exploitation of the African environment in the operating policies of colonial, neocolonial and global power structures. These environmental policies in the colonial and current global world tend to mold the African environment in a way that the …

Le Rôle Du Hammam Féminin Dans La Construction Et La Consolidation Des Identités Sexuées En Algérie Et Au Maroc, Nina Bauwens

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The traditional women's hammam, or public bath, is a key space in the Arabo-Muslim societies of Algeria and Morocco. In those two countries, the division between men and women, still important today, is also noticeable inside the public bath, since men and women do not mingle. The question of gendered identity appears. More than a distinction between sexes, it is a social distinction between a man's identity and a woman's identity that is relevant here. It is essential to be able to distinguish to which 'group' each person belongs. Thus, the notions of individual identity, and then of gendered identity …

The Representation Of The Darker Faustian Elements Of The Walpurgisnacht And Mephistopheles In Heavy Metal And Rock Music, Edgar Dan Hornback

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

There has been an association between the Faust drama and music which has endured for centuries. It is a tradition which is also influential during the present in rock music. The main characteristic of rock music and heavy metal is to reflect life in a realistic and an unapologetic manner in its lyrical content. Therefore, the combining of the drama with rock music is a natural and logical progression. The Walpurgisnacht and the character of Mephistopheles from the drama have been the vehicles to reflect the difficulties of modern life. The entire drama has also been adapted and set in …

Die Erscheinungsformen Der Ostjüdischen Kultur In Berlin 1919-1925, Glenn Scott Levine

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This paper presents a detailed portrait of the sudden flowering and subsequent decline of the Eastern European Jewish cultural scene in Berlin in the years following the First World War. Particular attention is focused on the period between 1922 and 1924, during which almost all manifestations of Yiddish culture thrived in the German capital.

The paper is introduced with a brief description of the large Eastern European Jewish migration to and through Berlin in the early twenties. The demographic information summarized in this section supplies a background for the cultural analysis. A survey of the main reasons for this influx …

Aesthetics And Naturalism In The Five Valencian Novels Of Vicente Blasco IbáÑEz., Gilbert B. Heartfield

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, considered one of the foremost Spanish naturalistic authors, wrote between 1894 and 1928. He is best known for his first group of novels, the Valencian series (1894-1902), which represent his most naturalistic period. Little critical investigation has been made regarding the aesthetical qualities of these novels. Most research considers either the biographical, historical or scientific approach or arrives at conclusions without demonstrating sufficient analysis. Discussion of the novelist’s artistry is usually superficial or vague. This study, therefore, will deal with the relationship between aesthetic and naturalistic elements found in the five Valencian novels. It will consist of …

El Catolicismo Y La Revolucion: La Muerte En Cuatro Novelas Mexicanas, V. Emilio M. Castañeda

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In Mexican Literature 1947 is a key date for the novel because of the publication of Al filo del agua, by Agustín Yáñez. With it, the cycle of novels known as “Novelas de la Revolución” ends and a new cycle, “Novelas contemporáneas”, begins. In the In the present study, however, the author considers La vida inútil de Pito Pérez, by José Rubén Romero, published in 1938 as a contemporary novel. Romero’s book and that of Yáñez are examined in this work along with Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo, 1955, and La muerte de Artemio Cruz, 1962, by Carlos Fuentes.

The purpose …

Female Roles In The Fiction Of Silvina Bullrich, Erica Frouman-Smith

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Silvina Bullrich's literary career spans over four decades and covers every genre except theatre. She is considered a national institution in Argentina where her fame rivals that of her former mentor, Jorge Luis Borges. Despite her national renown, Bullrich often has been condemned by critics who base their judgments on non-literary criteria. In the United States, recent doctoral dissertations have considered Bullrich as part of a group of either political or women writers. There are no existing studies that regard her alone and as a portrayer of women. The author's abundant production though is devoted principally to the problems of …

Chicano Literature In Spanish: Roots And Content, Erlinda Viola Gonzales-Berry

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

One of the most patently visible facets of Chicanos' efforts to assert themselves through a form of cultural nationalism has been a burgeoning corpus of creative literature which, above all, has served as a vehicle of self-knowledge. In their task of accumulating evidence for a collective self-portrait, Chicano writers have explored their past, revitalized and mythesized their cultural values, indicted Anglo culture and confronted the question of what it means to be human. In this study I have examined the works of a small group of writers whose most distinguishing and isolatable feature is their use of Spanish as a …

Representative Women In The Narrative Works Of Emilia Pardo Bazán, Jacqueline M. Guttmann

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Emilia Pardo Bazán, a Spanish novelist of the nineteenth century, used her talents to portray women realistically. This dissertation describes her grasp of their psychology and the ways in which she discerns those differences between men and women which are sex-linked and those which are socially determined. Her novels and short stories are analyzed to define her views. The introduction sketches doña Emilia‘s own complex personality; then two antithetical currents of thought concerning women are traced through Spanish literature. The first part of this study depicts her best integrated female characters in all their variety and conveys the many differences …

Juan Goytisolo: Survival In Two Early Novels And Two Late Novels, Lois J. Shimmin Dogliani

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This dissertation examines survival in Goytisolo's two early novels, Juegos de manos (1954) and Duelo en el Paraíso (1955), and two late novels, Señas de identidad (1966) and Reivindicación del Conde don Julián (1970). The approach views survival as the novelist's central theme and also as a signficant factor in the technique of his artistic medium. The novel's struggle for survival as a contemporary art form--through change and growth in technique--is integrated with contemporary man's fight for personal survival. While other studies have concentrated on either specific themes or technical devices, this investigation offers a coordinated perspective of both thematic …

The Problem Of Evil: The Interaction Of Philosophy And Fiction (1661-1715), Audrey Vivien Bull

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This dissertation analyzes trends in philosophy and the novel on the question of evil during the period 1661-1715. The problem was treated on three levels: cosmic, personal and social evil. Three questions dominate: Why does evil exist? From whence does it come? How can it be alleviated or eliminated? By the study of similarities and differences between the works of a philosopher and a novel, the dissertation shows how abstract ideas were rendered into concrete situations and how serious concepts were made palatable to a wide-spread audience through the sugar-coating of fiction. Chapter I gives a broad view of philosophies …

Photonuclear Activation At The Pantex Plant, Gilbert L. Rendon

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This is a structuralist reading of the theatrical works of Henry de Monther­lant. The genera I approach incorporates the theories of Claude Levi-Strauss, Ro land Barth es, Jean Piaget, Jean Rousset, and Leo Spitzer. Two major types of structure are examined: the interrelationship of characters and the interrelationship of ideas. Two theoretical mode Is are constructed. The first is a triadic mode I of the relationships among characters in tightly-knit communities, based upon the sociological theories of Georg Simmel and Theodore Cap low. The second is a semiotic model of the relationships between opposing ideas, based upon the carré sémiotique …

Santob's Debate Between The Pen And The Scissors, Clark A. Colahan

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Critics of the rabbi Santob de Carrion's Proverbios morales have often remarked on the work's frequent juxtaposition of contradictory maxims. It has been further said that reversibility of ideas characterizes both its structure and the thinking of its author. Interpretations of the literary traditions from which such structure and thought may have sprung have differed sharply. This study examines Santob's major work in Hebrew, his Debate between the Pen and the Scissors, and demonstrates the close relation that exists between the Semitic literary tradition from which it comes and the Proverbios morales.

Through the assistance of Professor Jefim Schirmann of …

El Dualismo Cristiano En AdáN Buenosayres, Fernando NuñEz Garcia

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Previous studies have taken Christianity for granted in this novel. To date, however, no inquiry has attempted to analyze its Christian elements. In this thesis, we are seeking to fill this lacuna.

First, we have noted that the Christian elements are presented in opposite pairs: body-soul, finite-infinite, etc. Next, we have brought out the relationship of these pairs to Christian tradition. This has made it possible to conclude that the source of such a polarity is to be found in the Creation. What in the Divine Mind was one became manifold. Hence, a tension arose between the manifold (that which …

La Poesia De Efraín Huerta, Ricardo D. Aguilar

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This dissertation is the first serious effort towards the evaluation of Efraín Huerta's poetry, and the defining of his place in Mexican letters. The introduction focuses on the lack of any biographical study and on the meager criticism that exists on his very important work. It proceeds to formulate a bio-bibliographical statement compiled from scattered materials in reviews and dictionaries of literature with the purpose of correcting that situation. The first chapter undertakes the structural analysis of the poet's work through the explaining of stratification in his verses, poems, and his books. Stratification is based upon the concept of simultaneity, …

Thematic Imagery In The Poetry Of AntóNio Nobre, Lana Frederica Moeller Harrigan

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In the poetry of António Nobre, essential themes are recurrent and interwoven, and there is a great degree of constancy in the images he creates for thematic purposes. Nature as it bears thematically on his poetry is the subject of Chapter I. The poet's predilect images from nature, the moon, the sea, trees, the wind, the seasons and time of day are all discussed with relation to theme. Chapter II deals with the imagery and thematics of color. White is by far the most frequently used, comprising 43.7% of all examples of color, and is thematically significant. The imagery associated …

Myth And Reality In Hijo De Hombre, A Novel By Augusto Roa Bastos, David R. Gifford

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The essence of Paraguayan reality, cloaked in myths since the days of the Conquest, is an enigma which, for the most part, has been elusive to the writer's pen. There is, however, one man, Augusto Roa Bastos, who has succeeded masterfully in capturing that essence and who has done so precisely through the revelation of both Paraguay's myths and her reality. His work is the highly complex narrative Hijo de hombre, winner in 1959 of the esteemed Losada prize in Buenos Aires.

The success of Roa's novel stems from a deeply felt commit­ment to his fellow Paraguayans against man's …

EspañA En La Epoca De Los Dramas De Max Aub., Alicia Germany De Alarcon

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Max Aub, one of the three most outstanding novelists of the post Spanish Civil War, is known also as a story writer, poet, critic, and essayist. Aub is not as well known in the theater because almost all of his dramatic works were written while he was in exile. Some have been staged by groups of amateurs which have not reached the general public. Aub, German by ancestry, French by birth, Spanish by sentiments, and Mexican by recognition, has written an important group of works--in the technical as well as in the literary sense. As an author, he was compelled …

The Plays Of DamiáN Salucio Del Poyo, James J. Jewell

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

It is not uncommon for authors or other artists to attain fame in their lifetimes and then fall into oblivion with the passage of time. In Spain this is especially true of some of the playwrights of the Golden Age, for there was a great proliferation of dramatists during this period. Damián Salucio del Poyo, a Murcian playwright, is one of these forgotten figures. During his lifetime Poyo was highly praised by his contemporaries who regarded him as one of the best dramatists at the beginning of the seventeenth century; however, he was all but forgotten by the end of …

O Tema Da Morte Na Poesia De CecíLia Meireles., Regina Igel

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Thi1s dissertation attempts to analyze the importance of death in the poetic works of the contemporary Brazilian poetess, Cecília Meireles. This study stresses the literary means she used in order to express her feelings about death and the attitudes she assumed in the face of death. Her poetry shows a deep concern with the end of lite; death is portrayed in her works as 1) a mystery which defies human intelligence, 2) pain experienced by those who have lost thei1:-loved ones, and 3) as a point of disintegration which has to be accepted with serenity.

Le Motif De L'Etoile Dans Les Oeuvres De GéRard De Nerval., Shelley Gregory Crowe

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

A study of the star motif in the works of Gérard de Nerval brings out stylistic diversity and stylistic development in the works of the period 1841 through 1854. Before this time the star is hardly mentioned in the work of Nerval.

During the period between 1841 and 1843, Nerval underwent two important experiences. The first such experience is the mental crisis of 1841 during which he was hospitalized for the first time for such an illness. The second experience is the voyage to the Orient, a trip lasting the entire year of 1843. These two events can be seen …

Pascal's Concept Of Christianity., Audrey Vivien Bull

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis explains Pascal's concept of Christian­ity, showing how it developed during the course of his life until it attained the conviction expressed in the Pensees.

It starts with the events of his life, taken from the accounts of two people related closely to him. His style is then analyzed, showing how it was influenced by the quarrel of the Jansenist and Jesuit sects to produce the polemic Lettres Provinciales and the reasons for the change of style before the Pensees. The importance of his style is stressed, because he fixed the French lan­guage and is perhaps the greatest stylist …

The Archetype Of Woman In The Theatre Of Jean Giraudoux., Elisabeth Josephine Price

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

I had begun to re-read Giraudoux for pleasure, remembering that when I was first introduced to his works in class, I had been impressed by the quality of the heroines he presented. Upon second reading of his theatre, I was struck by the fact that his heroines did not serve in a complementary role to the hero, as so often is the case, but were presented as entities of their own. Because there is a revolution taking place in our culture over the role of woman, I thought that it would be interesting to investigate Giraudoux's concept of woman. In …

A Critical Edition Of El Jardin De Falerina By Francisco De Rojas Zorilla, Antonio Coello Y Ochoa, And Pedro Calderon De La Barca, With Introduction And Notes., Robert Rudolf Bacalski

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

El jardín de Falerina, the producto of a joint effort by Frarncisco de Rojas Zorrilla, Antonio Coello, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca, represents a type of play that a high degree of popularity during the seventeenth century, the comedia de espectáculo y fantasia, derived, in part, from the romances of chivalry, and partly from the Italian epic poems, Orlando Furioso, by Lodovico Ariosto, and Orlando Innamorato, by Mateo Maria Boiardo.

Dated c. 1629, the comedia was privately performed on January 13, 1636 by the company of Tomás Fernández before Phillip IV and his court. There is no indication that …