German Language and Literature Commons^™

Werwolf, Weswolfs, Wemwolf, Wenwolf: Gender, Morality, And Transformation In Annette Von Droste-Hülshoff’S “Der Loup Garou” (1860), Hasol Yu

University Honors Theses

Werewolves have long populated Western culture, forming a particularly close relationship with Germany through their impact on fairy tales, psychology, and literature, with works such as Steppenwolf (Hermann Hesse, 1927) and Der Wehrwolf (Hermann Löns, 1910) eventually becoming international bestsellers.

Less widely recognized, however, is Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's "Der Loup Garou" published in 1860 in the collection, Letzte Gaben. This nine-stanza poem depicts a tale of a savage beast with white fur and twisted eyes that is told to the mischievous children Pierrot and Caton in hopes that it keeps them pious and obedient on a cold night. At first …

Jazz Banned: How Jazz Music Shaped Nazi Germany, Stella Coomes

Young Historians Conference

Jazz is widely known to be a formative element in American history, but it also played an important role during some of Europe’s most formative and memorable years: the time of World War II and Adolf Hitler’s reign in Germany and surrounding countries. With its roots in Black American culture, it is easy to believe that Hitler would not have supported the increasing popularity of jazz music in his homeland. However, that did not stop him from using it to his advantage (of course, denouncing any form of jazz that was not sponsored by the state). Also not to be …

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 …

The Political Reception Of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues In The Late Weimar Republic, Richard Jay Cogburn

Dissertations and Theses

The novel Im Westen Nichts Neues first appeared in Germany in January 1929 and became an overnight success. Its author, Erich Maria Remarque, was a shy, quiet man who had not anticipated such success. His novel was written to be a fictitious account of the lives of a few students-turned -soldier and their comrades in the front -line trenches of World War I. This was a unique perspective on the war. The earlier books about the war had been mostly the published, factual memoirs of former officers and as such were written from an elitist and nationalist point of view. …

Psychology, Culture And Female Texts: Brigitte Schwaiger's Wie Kommt Das Salz Ins Meer, Julienne Eden Busic

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, there has been extensive debate in the area of literary criticism, much of it focused on real or imagined differences between male and female texts. French feminist theorists, Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray, to name a few, argue that biological differences necessitate textual differences, while others reject this essentialist position, considering it just another means for perpetuating the notion of female inferiority. Many linguists assert that women use language differently than men, and that texts reflect these differences. But in order to analyze the origin of any textual differences, it is necessary to look beyond biology and …

Translation As Interpretation : Siegfried Lenz' "Motivsuche", John F. Disterheft

Dissertations and Theses

It is the purpose of this thesis to show that literary interpretation and translation are closely interrelated, that the translator cannot pursue his goal, the transfer of a work of literature from one language into another, without interpreting that work as literature.

Walter Kempowski's Familienchronik : History And The Role Of Erziehung, Carla Ann Damiano

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis attempts to prove that Walter Kempowski writes historical fiction. For this reason he should be considered an important 20th century German author. This contention is based on the presence of historical references regarding the topic of Erziehung in the Kempowski Familienchronik.

The German Exile Journal Das Wort And The Soviet Union, James W. Seward

Dissertations and Theses

Das Wort was a literary journal published by German Communist writers and fellow-travelers exiled in Moscow from 1936 to 1939. It was to be a mouthpiece for German literature in exile and to promote the Popular Front policy, which sought to unite disparate elements in non-Fascist Europe in opposition to the Nazis. Das Wort, under the editorship of German Communist writers whose close association with the Soviet Union had been well established in the previous decade, tried to provide a forum for exiled writers of various political persuasions, but was unwavering in its positive portrayal of Stalin's Soviet Union and …

Literaturproduktion In Der Ddr : "Vom Entstehen Und Sterben" Erich Loests Es Geht Seinen Gang Und Vom Entstehen Und Gedeihen Christa Wolfs Nachdenken ÜBer Christa T., Gudrun Hommel-Ingram

Dissertations and Theses

Christa Wolf is perhaps the best known East German author outside the Gennan Democratic Republic. Her works have been translated into many languages, and on her recent sixtieth birthday she was able to look back on an illustrious literary career. Erich Loest's life as an East German writer has been more troublesome, from his years as a young adult on the eastern side of the wall to his life in the Federal Republic since 1981. Both writers have worked under a political system which imposes strict guidelines on its artists, as regards conception and production of their works. Both authors …

"Gewalt Gegen Gerechtigkeit" : Reality And Morality In Heinrich BöLl's Die Verlorene Ehre Der Katharina Blum, Michelle Elizabeth Manicke

Dissertations and Theses

Heinrich Boll is West Germany's most controversial author of the post-war period, and Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum is probably his most widely contested work. Readers and literary critics alike have generally misunderstood or only partially understood Boll's purpose in writing this Erzahlung . Many have discounted it as the author's personal revenge against press and police for their mutual attacks on his honor. Others have panned it for its "poor German" and its lack of realism. Such reviews tend to examine only selected formal and thematic aspects of Katharina Blum. In order to fully comprehend any of Boll's …

Die Rolle Der Hexe In Den MäRchen Der BrüDer Grimm Und Ludwig Bechsteins, Karin Ulrike Herrmann

Dissertations and Theses

Fairy Tales have been an important part of peoples' cultural heritage since time immemorial. From a very early age on, children hear stories about witches, giants, dwarf's, and magicians which make up their first entry into the literary world. Only recently have scholars begun to research just how much influence these stories have on children and how they might have a different impact on girls than on boys. This thesis will investigate the world of fairy tales in relation to their historical context and their differing relevance for male and female readers. I will examine the fairy tales of the …

Landscape And Change In Three Novels By Theodor Fontane, Jane Ellen Speerstra

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis traces and explicates the changes in Theodor Fontane's landscape depiction in the years 1887- 1892. I examine his novels Cecile (1887), Irrungen, Wirrungen (1888), and unwiederbringlich (1892). I show that Fontane, as though discarding a relic of the Romantic past, used increasingly less landscape in his narratives. He focused on the actions and conversation of his characters, and on their immediate surroundings. When these surroundings were urban, they tended to disappear. The progressive minimalization of landscape, and of cityscape in particular, foreshadowed the appearance in German literature of twentieth-century man: man alienated from nature in cities, and less …

Theodor Fontanes Darstellung Der Berliner Gesellschaft In Seinen Romanen Effi Briest Und Irrungen Wirrungen, Ronald Kent Nelson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines Theodor Fontane's novels Effi Briest and Irrungen Wirrungen and shows how he used them to express his dissatisfaction with the Berlin society of his time.

Die Kunst Als Ausdrucksmittel Der Inneren Welt Hermann Hesses, Debra Lynn Vaul

Dissertations and Theses

Das von Hermann Hesse im Jahre 1920 veröffentlichte Buch Wanderung ist eine Form der Reisedarstellung. Es ist jedoch mehr als die Beschreibung einer Reise. Vielmehr ist Wanderung eine interessante Zusammenstellung von Gedanken, Überlegungen und Fragen in den unterschiedlichen Kunstformen wie Malerei, Prosa und Dichtungen. Das Buch ist ein Ergebnis Hesses persönlichen Versuches, einen Teil seines Lebens zu erklären. Anders gesagt, es ist eine Reise auf dem Weg in das eigene Innere, wo der Mensch mit seinem Dasein um eine Antwort auf die Fragen des Alltags ringt.

A Study Of The Role Of The Secondary Virtues In Uli Der Knecht, Roland Minder

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis is a response to critics who interpreted Uli as being too "worldly." Specifically, it attempts to show, by way of exploring the role of a particular category of virtues present in the novel, how these critics misunderstood the novel as well as the intent of the author.

Concrete Poetry: The Influence Of Design And Marketing On Aesthetics, Tineke Bierma

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the past and present of concrete poetry with the purpose of finding out whether concrete poetry is still being produced in its original form, or whether it has changed.

Concrete poets were not the first ones to create picture poems and similar texts. In chapter I an overview of earlier picture poetry is given. It and other precursors of concrete poetry are discussed and their possible contributions evaluated.

Chapters II and III deal with the definition of concrete poetry of the mid-fifties and sixties (pure, classic c.p.). They focus primarily on German, Austrian and Swiss poets. Manifestos …

Translation Of Ilse Aichinger's Short Stories, Patsy Kay Looney Corrigan

Dissertations and Theses

Translations of three of Ilse Aichinger's stories which originally appeared in the book Eliza, Eliza are presented in this thesis. The three stories translated are "Herodes," "Port Sing," and "Die Puppe."

Lampen Und Laternen Als Zeichen Der Hoffnung In AusgewäHlten Werken Wolfgang Borcherts, Carol Nolan

Dissertations and Theses

A thesis submitted for the Master of Arts in German.

This thesis is in German.

Strong-Minded Woman Figures In A Time Of Crisis : Maria Stuart, Penthesilea, Sappho, Inger M. Olsen

Dissertations and Theses

The strong-minded woman as a character capable of genuine self-determination has not received nearly as much literary attention and study as the less psychologically and socially aware sublime woman, the innocent woman, and the femme fatale. Consequently, the strong-minded woman is only an occasional literary phenomenon and is absent entirely during some literary periods.

Thus the purpose of this thesis is to establish that the strong-minded woman exists as a literary figure, that she is a fully developed character capable of forming meaningful and even traditional relationships when allowed by circumstances. She is capable of relying on her own abilities …

A Translation Into English Of The German Novel Jakob Der LüGner By Jurek Becker, Harriet Passell

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is a translation of the German novel Jakob der Lugner by Jurek Becker. In my commentary I have tried to explain why I undertook the project of translating this novel from German into English, when that had already been done by Melvin Kornfeld. Kornfeld's translation, which is no longer in print, fails to do justice to Jurek Becker's style and changes a story of heartwarming simplicity, humor and psychological insight into a somewhat tedious account of the life in a ghetto during World War II.

Theodor Storm's Der Schimmelreiter And The Realism Of The Supernatural, Regina Berrit Braker

Dissertations and Theses

In interpreting Der Schinmelreiter by Theodor Storm, the deconstructive method always leaves room for more interpretation; a deconstructive interpretation may simply acknowledge a variety of critical opinions, not necessarily considering one more valid than another, but arguing that all of than together are necessary to form a collective interpretation. I have examined traditionally important views of Storm's work, those of Stuckert and Silz, who argue for a positive heroic example in the main character Hauke Haien, and who consider the supernatural in a less structurally important light, but attribute it to Storm's personal views and geographic background. Ellis, Findlay and …

Buddhistische Elemente In Hermann Hesses Siddhartha, Sawitree Kunapongsiri

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to show the elements of Buddhism, exerted in Siddhartha. These elements are important to the plot, despite the fact that Hesse did not intend to write an authentic Buddhist work, but to express his own belief.

The conclusion shows that certain Buddhist teachings have in various ways directly shaped the work.

Das DreiecksverhäLtnis In Gerhart Hauptmann's "Einsame Menschen" Und "Gabriel Schillings Flucht" Und Dessen LöSung Im Naturalistischen Drama, Ulrich Karl Tutsch

Dissertations and Theses

Die bürgerliche Gesellschaft des ausklingenden 19. und beginnenden 20. Jahrhunderts drängte fast einen jeden Menschen in eine Aussenseiterrolle, wenn er ihre Werte nicht akzeptierte. Der Naturalismus machte innere Schwächen der Menschen wie auch deterministische äussere Einflüsse für das Scheitern der Hauptfiguren verantwortlich.

Johannes Vockerat und Gabriel Schilling fühlen sich von ihrem bürgerlichen Familienleben eingeengt und versuchen mit Hilfe einer anderen Frau, ihr Dasein zu verbessern. Vockerat versucht dem Dreiecksverhältnis auf einem höhere geistigen Niveau gerecht zu werden. Er muss sich aber am Ende eingestehen, dass solch eine platonische Verbindung auf die Dauer unmöglich ist. Sein Ideal …

Die Moderne Großstadt In AusgewäHlten Werken Deutscher Lyriker, Hildegard Goranson

Dissertations and Theses

It is the purpose of this thesis to discuss the works of German poets who describe the large modern city and deal with various aspects of city life and city people.

The Isolation Of An Individual : Thomas Mann's Tonio KröGer, Thomas Richard Survilla

Dissertations and Theses

Thomas Mann, early in life, felt himself to be "different" from others around him and "isolated" from the normal life that others enjoyed. He attributed these feelings to what he felt was his descent from a sound Bürger life to unsound Künstlertum.

These feelings of guilt and suffering prodded Mann into applying his introspective-artistic techniques to his own condition. He examined his own life, considered his own world and his relationship to it, and came to certain conclusions. Many of Mann's works are therefore not "fiction" at all'; he himself once stated that all of his works were autobiographical.

Aspekte Des Charakterbegriffs Im Werk Von Bertolt Brecht, Brigitte Dewolfe

Dissertations and Theses

Brecht's concept of character and its influence on the content and style of his works

Brecht's concept of character, based on the Marxist-socialist premise of the perfectibility of man, is one of the most important aspects of his work. He believes that man's character is comparable to an atom, constantly falling apart and re-assembling itself. He states that man should be defined by his contradictory actions.

With this view of man, several assumptions of the traditional theater no longer hold. There is no stalwart hero to pit the strength of his character against fate, there is no moral code by …

GüNter Kunert: The Artistic Development Of A Writer Of The German Democratic Republic, Jutta Southwell

Dissertations and Theses

It is the purpose of this thesis to present the artistic development of the socialist writer Günter Kunert. He is considered to be one of the important representatives of the literature of the German Democratic Republic where he has spent most of his life. His artistic creativity stretches over three decades.

The different artistic and ideological periods of the development of this writer are presented in chronological order. An attempt is being made to explain why Kunert's work is of a politically provocative nature and why it shows such strong criticism towards the socialist country whose citizen he is.

The …

Mystik Und Pietismus In Der Deutschen Sprache, Unter Besonderer BerüCksichtigung Des Wortes "Gelassenheit" (Mysticism And Pietism In The German Language With Special Emphasis Upon The Word "Gelassenheit"), Clyde E. Antwine

Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis attention is focused on two religious movements, Mysticism and Pietism, both of which made significant contributions toward the enrichment of the German language.

The 14th century was the "golden age" of German Mysticism. For this reason special consideration is given to this period of history and to the three most prominent 14th century German mystics: Meister Eckhart, Johann Tauler, and Heinrich Seuse. In order to understand their struggle with the language a brief synopsis of mystic theology is given in particular their concept of how the unio mystica, the mystical union of the soul with God, can …

Der Verfremdungseffekt Von Brecht Bis Handke, Brigitte Patrick

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis intends to show how the application of the Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect), originally formulated by Brecht, serves to express different Weltanschauungen in the works of Dürrenmatt, Frisch and Handke. The main emphasis is on the works of Peter Handke however, in order to demonstrate the changes in the interpretation of the alienation effect, some of the plays by Dürrenmatt and Frisch are analysed.

Der Gebrauch Des Todesmotivs In Den Deutschen Poemata Von Paul Fleming, Paul Ancil Wolf

Dissertations and Theses

In the Deutsche Poemata the word Tod and its variant forms appear in over 130 different poems. The word may appear more than once in the same poem. Despite the frequency of this word, its use has not previously been researched in depth. Secondary sources fall into five basic categories:

l. the use of the word Tod is ignored completely;

2. its use may be isolated to borrowings from Roman Literature;

3. its use is Petrarchan;

4. if comprehensible at all, it is an expression of Fleming's Christian philosophy of nature;

5. Fleming's use of the word is typical for …