German Language and Literature Commons^™

Negotiation And The Construction Of Intimacy In The Letters Between Fronto And Marcus Aurelius, Sarah C. Keith

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This project analyzes the letters between Marcus Cornelius Fronto and his student Marcus Aurelius as works of literature, rather than merely sites for historical mining. The letters, I argue, contain carefully constructed tropes of rhetoric and feature intentional polish that serve as opportunities for discussion about the virtues of philosophy and rhetoric during the Second Sophistic. Topics of discussions between both parties range between the imagery of sleep, and intimate spaces, like bedrooms, to substantive allusions to Plato’s philosophy and his dialogue Phaedrus. By looking beyond the identification of concrete names and dates to the literary, referential, and personal world …

The Art Of "Reading-To" And The Post-Holocaust Suicide In Schlink's The Reader, Michael Lackey

English Publications

In Bernhard Schlink's The Reader, former Nazi perpetrator Hanna Schmitz commits suicide, and scholars have not yet answered the question why. When Michael visits Hanna's cell after her death, he notices books on her shelf by Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, Tadeusz Borowski, Jean Améry, Rudolf Höss, and Hannah Arendt. By citing works from these authors, I argue that Hanna kills herself because she discovers that Michael has become what she once was. I also demonstrate that through her suicide, Hanna fulfills a major demand found in the works of Améry, and by fulfilling that demand, Améry and Hanna are …

Kiez Kieken: Observations Of Berlin, Vol. 2, Spring 2018, Maria Ebner, Paula Begonja, Evan Biancardi, Elodie Huston, Mckenna Lahr, Sophie Lee, Mackenzie Norton, Ann Pekata, Catherine Rabus, Timothy Uy

Modern Languages and Literatures Student Publications

With this journal Kiez kieken: Observations of Berlin the students’ articles of the course Berlin Tales: Germany’s Kiez and Metropolis taught by Prof. Maria Ebner are being published to open up classroom discourse to a broader academic community. Topics have been chosen individually by each student and involved first-hand fieldwork research in Berlin, Germany, between March 21^st and March 28^th of 2018 as well as continuous individual research throughout the course of the semester.

Besatzungskinder: Die Schweigenden Geister Des Zweiten Weltkrieges (Besatzungskinder: The Silenced Ghosts Of The Second World War), Aimee C. Bosman

Student Publications

Diese Forschungsarbeit konzentriert sich auf die Erfahrung von Besatzungskindern in Deutschland nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Sie diskutiert die Exposition oder mangelnde Sichtbarkeit von Besatzungskindern in der Gesellschaft und wie sie kulturell dargestellt wurden. Diese These stellt die Frage, wie Besatzungskinder in der Gesellschaft gesehen wurden, und ob die Gesellschaft ihnen half, eine deutsche Identität zu entwickeln.

Barbarossapokalypse, Amanda M. Glass

Honors Projects

Barbarossapokalypse is a short animated film that explores the mindset behind “sleeping king” legends. Frederick Barbarossa was a Holy Roman Emperor who was particularly popular with his public. After his death, people longed for a return to the “good old days” of his reign. He became a cultural icon for the German people; a symbol of hope, of a better future.

While in general, the future often looks grim, hope is not something humanity can afford to lose. What matters is where that hope is drawn from. Symbols like Barbarossa are dangerous, as they can lead to people always looking …

The Beholder, Allan Lake

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

A poem on the effect of landscape on the emotions.

The Legendary Topography Of The Viking Settlement Of Iceland, Verena Höfig

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

From the time of their earliest texts in the vernacular, Icelanders were interested in the semioticization of their landscape, the mapping of nature into culture by inscribing it with memories from the settlement of the island during the Viking Age. Such a de-scription and in-scription of landscape with meaning occurs most prominently in The Book of Settlements or Landnámabók, a thirteenth century prose text preserved in several versions. This paper focuses on Icelanders' myth of origin as presented in the various Landnámabók redactions, and explores how a largely fictional medieval text can assert ownership and control over territory, and ultimately …

Poetry Of Roe 8, Nandi Chinna

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Poetry of Roe 8

The occasion for the writing of these poems was activism surrounding the controversial highway known as the Roe 8 extension in the areas of Cockburn and Fremantle in Western Australia. Planned in the 1950s, Roe 8 is contentious for a number of reasons, including extraordinary political deals over funding, undue process regarding environmental reporting, lack of a business case, inadequate noise and traffic modelling, erasure of Indigenous heritage sites, and clearing of the sensitive Beeliar wetlands and Coolbellup banksia woodlands which were designated a Threatened Ecological Community in 2016. During the summer of 2016/2017 contractors started …

“Marie” And “An Unusual Recourse”: English Translations Of German Early Romantic Stories, Meghan Leadabrand

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This project consists of English translations of two German early Romantic stories, “Marie” (1798) by Sophie Mereau and “Seltner Ausweg” (1823) by Luise Brachmann, as well as an introductory discussion of the authors, their significance in the Jena Circle of Romantic writers, and the translation process. The introduction incorporates research on both Mereau and Brachmann and German early Romanticism, as well as some research on translation theory. Overall, the project aims to make “Marie” and “Seltner Ausweg,” which have not previously been translated, available to an English-speaking audience and to highlight the work of two little known Romantic women writers. …

Review Of Violent Sensations: Sex, Crime, And Utopia In Vienna And Berlin, 1860-1914 By Scott Spector, Kerry Wallach

German Studies Faculty Publications

The question “who is the murderer?” remains at the heart of countless media scandals today, just as over a century ago; many rely on graphic images of violence, brutality, and criminal activity. Scott Spector’s long-awaited book eloquently demonstrates that the fascination with such spectacles dates back to the 1860s, with the rise of media scandals about sexual practices (especially between men) and their potential connections to violent criminal acts. Ritual murder accusations that gained momentum in the 1880s made for Central European versions of the Dreyfus Affair, which strained Christian-Jewish relations and put allegedly treacherous Jews on trial. The fin-de-siècle, …

Vicarious Victimhood As Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity In Erica Fischer's Auto/Biography Aimée And Jaguar, Anne Rothe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Vicarious Victimhood as Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity in Erica Fischer's Auto/Biography Aimée and Jaguar" Anne Rothe reads the Austrian-Jewish journalist's interview-based dual biography in autobiographical terms. Taking recourse to such para-texts as the preface and epilogue, in which Fischer reflects on her own subject position, in addition to the auto/biographical narrative itself, Rothe critiques the notion of constructing secular Jewish identity based on the notion of vicarious or hereditary Holocaust victimhood. This provocative new reading reveals that the biography Fischer wrote constitutes a counter-narrative to the story her main collaborator, Lilly Wust, told the author about her …

Heidegger And Hölderlin On Aether And Life, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

Slumming With Cindy: Class, Precarity, And Performance In Cindy Aus Marzahn’S Trash Comedy, Kathrin M. Bower

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

The restructuring of unemployment and welfare benefits under Hartz IV hit former East Germans already suffering economically since unification particularly hard, forcing many into a condition of precarity for which the governing ideology held them responsible. Frustrated in her search for suitable work, Ilka Bessin adapted the self-management model advocated by the reforms to transform her story of marginalization and failure into a comedy success as Ossi trash princess Cindy aus Marzahn. Cultivated by commercial television, Bessin’s Cindy was a product, purveyor, and critic of Germany’s neoliberal economic policies, illustrating the fraught, collusive relationship between politics and popular culture.

Iehca Summer University On Food And Drink 2018 Report, Diarmuid Cawley, Sylvia M. Grove, Kaian Lam

Reports

The Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation (IEHCA, European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food) was established in 2001 by the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research in partnership with the Centre-Val de Loire region and the University of Tours. As a scientific and cultural development agency, it seeks to encourage university research and teaching in connection with “food cultures and heritages” in the humanities and social sciences. The university serves as a key platform for the discussion of new research in Food & Drink Studies. In 2018, 20 researchers from a wide …

“’To Abuse And Enjoy’: Frankenstein And German Literature”, Carol A. Leibiger

Posters and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Mothers, Comrades, And Outcasts In East German Women's Films (Review), Qinna Shen

German Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Raising The "Bamboo Curtain": Chinese Films In Divided Germany, Qinna Shen

German Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Fahnderwachtmeister Jakob Studer, Julia Karolle-Berg

2018 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

W. G. Sebald’S Austerlitz : Architecture As A Bridge Between The Lost Past And The Present, Rumiko Handa

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Architecture has a way of bringing the past to the present for us. It is an important asset, for the experience of the past constitutes a positive moment in our everyday conduct of life, allowing a contemplation on our existential meaning. It is an often neglected aspect, as it lies outside of architecture's aesthetic, functional, or structural realms. Mechanisms at work in effectuating this feature can vary, among which the following are notable: A building may commemorate a particular event or individual by being a monument. A building may refer to the time of its origin by way of its …

Sebald Beham And The Augsburg Printer Niclas Vom Sand: New Documents On Printing And Frankfurt Before 1550, Alison Stewart

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

This essay makes known two unpublished documents from the last years of the life of Sebald Beham (1500 Nuremberg–1550 Frankfurt) and uses them as a means to explore Beham’s relationship to printing, the town of Frankfurt, and the Augsburg printer Niclas vom Sand, who remains an unwritten part of the history of the period. The essay is organized as an autobiographical retrospective by an older man forced in prior decades to move from Nuremberg and seek employment and a new life elsewhere. The end of the essay evaluates the documents and aspects of them.

Simon Brenner: Wolf Haas (1960—), Heike Henderson

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conceived in defiance of a literary establishment that had for fifteen years refused to publish Haas's novels, the quirky ex-policeman turned private investigator Simon Brenner is now celebrated by literary critics and readers alike. Cranky, ambitionless, and often underestimated, Brenner (whose name translates as "Burner") is a reluctant hero who embodies many stereotypical Austrian traits while at the same time undermining traditional images of Austria as an unspoiled tourist destination with a rich cultural heritage, traditional values, and wholesome inhabitants.

Dying For Foie Gras: Murder, Politics And Ethical Food Production, Heike Henderson

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, culinary mysteries have enjoyed immense popularity in Germany. Marketed to both fans of detective fiction and food aficionados, they enjoy a large crossover appeal, which at least partially explains their commercial success. Ella Danz is the author of the Georg Angermüller mystery series (started in 2006, nine books so far) set in the Northern German Lübeck area. While this series, whose main protagonist is a police inspector who likes to cook and eat, did not start out as a culinary mystery series per se, it has developed into one of the most popular manifestations of this subgenre. …

Chinese Culture And Its Impact On Today’S Consumers And Markets, Boram Yi, Jason Q. Zhang, Qinna Shen

German Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Memory And The Realization Of The Nothingness. On A Letter Of Vittorio Sereni To Giuseppe Ungaretti, Stefano Giannini

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

The problematic relationship of Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) with Alexandria of Egypt – his city of birth – sheds light on the interplay between memory and oblivion in his poetry and prose. The shuttling back and forth between these poles marks the nature of his unfulfilled desire to recreate a lost Alexandrian atmosphere. In Ungaretti’s works, language opacity is coupled with his attempts to represent a city—as he writes—that is suffocated by the sun and whose hidden ancient port is submerged in the depth of the sea. Blinding light and the darkness of the deep waters make the understanding of Ungaretti’s …

Verschiedene Deutungen Des Gleichen Krieg: Wie Jünger Und Remarque Den Zweck Ihrer Grabenerfahrungen Ausgraben, Olivia R. Simmet

Student Publications

Two Perspectives on one Great War: Remarque and Jünger This work looks at two prominent texts in the German war novel canon, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger. These very different books represent the attempts of two Great War soldiers to recall their trench war experience and assign meaning to the slaughter and destruction of the first truly modern war. During the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), All Quiet and Storm of Steel contributed to the two dominant cultural narratives regarding the war, one which rejected war as dehumanizing and immoral …

Art Of The Weimar Republic And The Premonitions Of Fascism, Leshan Xiao

CMC Senior Theses

Founded in 1918 following the carnage of World War One until the Nazi takeover of 1933, the Weimar Republic is widely renowned as a bastion of freedom and democracy that existed only briefly between the reigns of two authoritarian regimes. The Weimar period witnessed an unprecedented prosperity of art and culture, with tremendous advancements in the fields of literature, the visual arts, and film. However, the remnants of the old Empire persisted within the new Republic, and new fascist factions rose to prominence within German society. Artists that lived through the era, both liberal and conservative, observed and provided their …

Helene Stöcker, Weimar Germany And Prophylactics: An Investigation Into The Context And Effects Of The Reichsgesestz Zur Bekämpfung Geschlechtskrankheiten, Joshua Stern

Dissertations and Theses

This paper investigates German gender studies in the Weimar Era. It looks at a specific law, passed regarding contraceptive devices. It seeks to show how women were presented with a guise of freedom, while living in a truly paternalistic society.

Re-Evaluating “Authenticity” In Holocaust Literature – Memory And Trauma In Recent Holocaust Fiction, Christos Giantsidis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a structural and para-textual analysis of recent Holocaust fiction. Challenging the assumption of the superiority of “authentic” representations of the psychological effects of this historic event, I will highlight the cultural and pedagogical effects of fictionalized accounts of the Holocaust. A short analysis of the terms “memory,” “trauma,” and “history” as understood in the research field of Holocaust studies, will be substantial in debunking the failures of memory as perfect ways to recreate historical “truths.” Theories about trauma and memory by scholars such as Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra will serve as reference points in the validation …