German Language and Literature Commons^™

Insurgent Spectacles: Spring Awakening, Woyzeck, Mother Courage And The ‘New’ Broadway Spectacle, Noah Porter Soltau

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the political and ideological work done by what I call "insurgent spectacles," which comprised a historical episode of American theater occurring primarily from 2006 to 2008. The spectacles had liberatory and redemptive potential not in spite of their identity as mass culture, but indeed precisely because of it. They functioned in a contested political and ideological space within the schema of mass culture. The insurgent spectacle is so-called because it superficially resembled other bits of Broadway fluff with its glitziness, over-production, and ham-fistedness that allow the audience to be intellectually disengaged. During this episode, it persisted (often …

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.

“Hagene, Der Vil Ungetriuwe Man”? Courtly Rivalry, Loyalty Conflict, And The Figure Of Hagen In The Nibelungenlied, Katherine Devane Brown

Masters Theses

The variety of scholarly approaches to the Middle High German poem Das Nibelungenlied has generated a wide range of conflicting analyses of the character of Hagen, a figure who plays a key role in both the plot and the interpretation of the work. This thesis proposes that viewing Hagen’s relationship with Siegfried in relation to the poem’s central theme of loyalty (triuwe) allows for an analysis that integrates both the positive and negative aspects of Hagen’s character. By examining the depiction of courtly rivalry in four contemporary Middle High German works (Herzog Ernst B, Wolfdietrich A, …

Classical Philology Gone Wild! The Use Of Classical Texts In The Film All Quiet On The Western Front, Tysen Dauer

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Studying the texts of the Greco-Roman era has long been a tradition in the West. Works such as The Odyssey, The Iliad, and The Republic were understood to be liberating texts which enabled students to think more critically and as a result live more wisely. Many of the leading scholars in this field of “Classical Texts” (also known as Classical Philology) hailed from 19th century Germany. The 1930 German film All Quiet on the Western Front presented viewers with a classroom scene set at the start of the First World War where selected classical texts were written on the chalkboard, …

The Mechanics Of Franz Kafka's 'In Der Strafkolonie': A Reading Through Verbal Associations, Charles Beck Cochran

Masters Theses

Theoretically based in a Judaic philosophy and in Kafka’s related mythology, which locates the origins of the world in language, this thesis takes its practical starting point from a relatively little-documented writing method of Kafka that appears inseparably linked to his language mythology. This writing method is one in which Kafka developed the fictional world of his narratives out of language or associations in language. In a unique attempt to document its full impact on the development of a literary text, the thesis seeks to utilize this writing method as a reading method, identifying the verbal associations from which Kafka …

Unmasking Wagner's Grail: Homoeroticism, Androgyny, And Anxiety In Parsifal, Tyler Cole Mitchell

Masters Theses

Most readings of Wagner’s final music drama Parsifal seek to illumine a clandestine presentation of Wagner’s racist doctrine or make sense of a less-shrouded but still ambiguous panegyric to Christianity. However, little scholarly material addresses Wagner’s provocative account of sensuality and homoeroticism in this Bühnenweihfestspiel [Stage Consecration Festival Play]. This thesis explores desire and homosexuality within the drama and considers how and why Wagner masks these themes through the opaque mythos of religion, race, and community. Parsifal was partly informed by Wagner’s own complex neuroses: his sexual anxieties and scandals, amalgam of German philosophies, and confusion concerning Germanness. As filtered …

Fritzsche's New Book Looks At World Science Fiction Films, Kim Hill

News and Events

No abstract provided.

Dreams, Hallucinations, Moving Statues, And Ekphrasis In Ludwig Tieck's Visual Writings, Joseph D. Rockelmann

Open Access Dissertations

When reading Ludwig Tieck's texts the reader becomes aware that dreams, the unconscious, and art play a key role. This study seeks to posit that Ekphrasis and dream interpretation are similar due to both analyzing a visual image and attempting to translate the visual into the verbal in order to gain a better and more complete understanding of it. G.E. Lessing believed that poetry and the visual arts were equal since each art form has its own strengths and when combined they create a complete art form. The artist focuses on portraying a single moment and its beauty so that …

New Illnesses—Old Problems, Old Illnesses—New Problems, Sander L. Gilman

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

This present collection of essays concerns the representation of illness in literature…

Theory And Practice Of Translation: An Original Translation Of Regina E. G. Schymiczek’S Die Weide Der Seepferde (The Pasture Of The Seahorses), Bradley J. Davey, Ralph W. Buechler

Honors College Theses

This study outlines the original translation of the recently published Die Weide der Seepferde (2013) from Regina E. G. Schymizcek. We employ known translation techniques by following Hervey’s (2006) suggested gradients of degrees of translation and cultural transposition. While translating the work we discovered a unique aspect of German-English translation which we believe fundamentally adds to knowledge of translation theory.

Christian Themes In German Fairy Tales, Nikolaus Foulkrod, Grant Friedrich, Jen Johnson, Nathaniel Burrell

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

This research attempts to locate and identify Christian motifs in German fairy tales based on the research of Ronald Murphy in The Owl, the Raven and the Dove (2002). We selected 12 stories from the famous book by the Brothers Grimm, Kinder und Haus Märchen, and analyzed them in order to find direct and indirect Christian values and morals. The Germanic culture is historically grounded in Christian ideology; therefore, folk tales throughout the centuries included Christian themes as a means of infusing the culture with Biblical concepts, and to serve as a conduit for teaching Christian values. This …

Enlightenment And Catholicism In Europe. A Transnational History, Ulrich Lehner, Jeffrey Burson

Ulrich L. Lehner

No abstract provided.

Bibliography For Work In Digital Humanities And (Inter)Mediality Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven & Totosy de Zepetnek, Steven

No abstract provided.

Sexuality And Textuality (Fall 2014), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

"Sexuality and Textuality" serves as an introduction to gay and lesbian literary studies and queer theory. It looks at questions of sexuality and literature in ancient and early modern texts (from the Hebrew, Greek and English traditions), as well as in modern texts (from German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and English traditions). In addition to literary texts, students will work with a number of cinematic representations of queer sexuality. Besides these primary texts, students will work with important secondary literature about sexuality."

A photo of this Fall 2014 class was taken as part of Professor Bob Tobin's ongoing class photo tradition.

Sexuality And Human Rights (Spring 2014), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

What happens when we think of sexuality, with all of its transgressive and individualistic energies, in terms of rationally established universal human rights? Literary texts that focus on individual cases in the context of larger cultural and social traditions with a particular attention to the power of language can help us sort through some of the complex ideas that emerge from a discussion of sexual rights.

In this class, we will focus on issues such as sadism, masochism, polygamy, prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and transsexuality that bring questions of rights to the forefront.

A photo of this Spring 2014 class was taken …

Editor's Note, Laura Kanost

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Editor's Note

Yasco Horsman. Theaters Of Justice: Judging, Staging, And Working Through In Arendt, Brecht, And Delbo. Stanford Up, 2010. 232 Pp., Peter Yang

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Yasco Horsman. Theaters of Justice: Judging, Staging, and Working Through in Arendt, Brecht, and Delbo. Stanford UP, 2010. 232 pp.

Nasty Nazis And Extreme Americans: Cloning, Eugenics, And The Exchange Of National Signifiers In Contemporary Science Fiction, Elizabeth Bridges

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

This article addresses German science fiction novels from the last ten to fifteen years, specifically those that thematize cloning and/or eugenics. The main novels under discussion include Die verbesserte Frau by Barbara Kirchner, Duplik Jonas 7 by Birgit Rabisch, and Blueprint/Blaupause by Charlotte Kerner, (which was released as a film adaptation starring Franka Potente in 2004). This discussion shows how these and similar novels do or do not contend with the legacy of Nazi eugenics and reproductive experimentation, and second, how the existent historical awareness in the novels relates to the content of debates on current issues of biotechnology, …

Anke Biendarra. Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature And Cultural Globalization. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2012. X + 244 Pp., Gabriele Eichmanns Maier

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Anke Biendarra. Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Cultural Globalization. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2012. x + 244 pp.

Thuringian Scenes, Utz Rachowski, Michael Ritterson

German Studies Faculty Publications

"Thuringian Scenes" is an ironic name for the twenty-five matter-of-fact statements by a teenage victim of political repression driven to the murder of his tormentor in juvenile detention. The setting is the picturesque Thuringian region of the former East Germany.

Sophie Discovers Amerika : The Digital Companion, Michelle Stott James, Rob Mcfarland

Resources

Dear Readers:

The following collection of texts has been edited by Alec Down as a companion to our anthology of articles titled Sophie Discovers Amerika: German-Speaking Women Write the New World (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2014). Our anthology of articles takes on a fascinating corpus of literature: in their explorations of the Americas over the past 300 years, German-speaking women have written poetry, novels, screenplays, dramas, erotica, and scientific treatises about many different places in the New World, from Brazil to California, from Canada and Mexico to Argentina.

For obvious reasons, we were not able to include the original primary …

The Wreck Of Titanic: A Comedy, Christopher Giuggio Shea

Senior Projects Spring 2014

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

Clcweb Best Practices, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Cultural Discourse In Taiwan. Ed. Chin-Chuan Cheng, I-Chun Wang, And Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek., Chin-Chuan Cheng, I-Chun Wang, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

The collected volume Cultural Discourse in Taiwan — edited by Chin-Chuan Cheng, I-Chun Wang, and Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and published by National Sun Yat-sen Uiniversity Press in 2009 — is intended as an addition to scholarship in the field of Taiwan Studies. The articles in the volume are in many aspects comparative and the topics discussed are in the context of literary and culture scholarship. At the same time, the volume is interdisciplinary as the articles cover historical perspectives, analyses of texts by Taiwan authors, and cultural discourse as related to Taiwan consciousness, language, and linguistic issues. Copyright release …

Brahms The Exotic: The Representation Of Non-European And Ethnic `Others' In The Hafiz/Daumer Settings Of Opus 32, "Romanzen Aus L. Tieck's Magelone," And "Zigunerlieder," Opus 103, Kristina Marie Eckelhoff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Though scholars, performers, and classical enthusiasts alike recognized and praised the many facets of his compositional craft, Johannes Brahms's treatment of poetry in his Lieder has led to much conflicting assessments. The negative critiques exist partially because the majority of scholars do discuss an interpretation of the poems but seldom explain precisely how Brahms conveys the texts' meanings through his music, leaving the more specific details of text-to-music relationship and what it shows about Brahms's own understanding of the texts unexplored.

Brahms's Lieder have also been criticized because of the supposed lack of exotic qualities in those works that portray …

Larson Powell. The Technological Unconscious In German Modernist Literature: Nature In Rilke, Benn, Brecht, And Döblin. Rochester: Camden House, 2008. 256 Pp., Christa Spreizer

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Larson Powell. The Technological Unconscious in German Modernist Literature: Nature in Rilke, Benn, Brecht, and Döblin. Rochester: Camden House, 2008. 256 pp.

Jakob Lothe, Beatrice Sandberg, And Ronald Speirs, Eds. Franz Kafka: Narration, Rhetoric, And Reading. Columbus: Ohio State Up, 2011. X + 251 Pp., Richard T. Gray

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Jakob Lothe, Beatrice Sandberg, and Ronald Speirs, eds. Franz Kafka: Narration, Rhetoric, and Reading. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2011. x + 251 pp.