German Language and Literature Commons^™

Faszination Mond – Das Mondmotiv In Der Deutschsprachigen Gegenwartslyrik Vor Dem Hintergrund Seiner Literarischen Tradition, Lara-Mareen Foerster

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This master thesis explores the moon motif in contemporary poetry in relation to its literary history. Contemporary poetry is understood as poetry after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. My research seeks to provide an overview of the moon motif in German contemporary literature where hitherto only scholarship on Durs Grünbein has considered the importance of the moon motif. Therefore, this work taxonomically explores the functions of the moon motif in general instead of aiming at a close reading of selected poems. I am taking a stance against the notion that the moon motif and the fascination for …

Heilbronn Im Jahr 1945: Warum Hier, Alexander Keuerleber

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Die Stadt Heilbronn, im Südwesten Deutschlands, war und ist ein wichtiger Kreuzungspunkt im südlichen deutschen Raum. Dort kreuzen sich wichtige Handelswege: per Schiff, per Auto, per Zug und zu Fuß. Infolge der Handelswege wurde Heilbronn schnell eine einflussreiche Stadt und Drehpunkt im Land. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg führte das zu Konflikt und Bombardierungen. Wie viele andere deutsche Großstädte kam es 1944 in Heilbronn zu verheerenden Bombenangriffen und dann im April 1945 zu einem neuntägigen Kampf. Dieser Kampf war wichtig, weil er einer der brutalsten Kämpfe der Amerikaner in Deutschland war, und weil es auch der allerletzte große Kampfeinsatz für amerikanische Truppen …

Salzburg's Baroque Architecture: A Historical Analysis And Poetic Response, Rebecca Malzer

Honors Projects

Salzburg, Austria is a city full of history. During the Baroque era from about the mid sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century, the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg designed and modeled the city with Rome, Italy in mind. Their loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire and with the Reformation in full swing, these Italian influences helped to build a pro-Roman Catholic style throughout the city. The Prince-Archbishops and their architects demonstrated Salzburg’s loyalty to Rome through the structures of Schloss Mirabell, Schloss Hellbrunn, and the Franziskannerkirche. In addition, these structures make for great inspiration for creative work, to which …

Was Ist (Nicht) Deutsch? Historische Und Aktuelle Versuche "Deutsch" Ex Negativo Zu Definieren, Mark Mckinney Smith

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In this thesis I explore the question of how a xenophobic ideology could find a receptive audience in 21st Century Germany. Given extensive postwar efforts in Germany to address the Nazi Period, this question is of particular interest. I analyze and compare racist and xenophobic ideologies in four time periods: the Napoleonic Period, the Wilhelmine Period, the National Socialist Period and the contemporary period. Historically, xenophobic ideology is deeply tied to particular social and economic conditions which leads to the following questions: What are the similarities and differences between contemporary xenophobic messaging and that of the three other time periods …

Zur Ästhetik Des Widerstands Im Afrodeutschen Theater: Am Beispiel Von Olumide Popoolas Also By Mail, Bertrand Collins Ngong M.A.

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This research is titled On the Aesthetics of Resistance in Afro-German Theater: A Case Study of Olumide Popoola's Also by mail. The main purpose of this research is to show how Afro-German theater resists through creative processes on a symbolic and aesthetic level to address crucial challenges faced by the black minority in Germany. The play Also by mail by Nigerian-German playwright Olumide Popoola is an interesting example of this, as it is situated at the intersection of gender, race, and identity. Popoola’s engagement with the aesthetics of resistance provides a way to understand how Afro-German activism today uses …

Unlikely Heroes: Self-Reflexivity, Comedy, And Reflective Nostalgia In Post-Unification German Film, Lindsay Carney

Senior Theses

This paper investigates the portrayal of Ostalgie in post-unification film and its impact on the East German identity. The swift nature in which East Germany was reabsorbed into the West and subsequent dissociation from all commercial, social, and political infrastructures relating to the GDR following reunification inspired the Ostalgie phenomenon as a way to recover an East German distinctiveness and legitimize the East German experience by expanding the narrative beyond the tyranny and injustices of the socialist state. Ostalgie films Sonnenallee, Helden wir wir, Kleinruppin Forever, and the Westalgie film Herr Lehmann contain recurring concepts of self-conscious storytelling, …

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone For Holocaust Survivor Otto Heimann/Bob Hymann, Bochum/German, Toronto/Kanada Und New York, Ny, Usa, Courtney Conte, Mona Eikel-Pohen

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

The documentation tries to capture the life of Holocaust survivor Otto Heimann/Bob Hyman who spent his youth in Bochum-Langendreer, Germany, and was forced by the National Socialists to leave parents, home, and country. The documentation does not claim to give a full picture, just an insight into Otto Heimann's/Bob Hyman's life.

It will be read out on June 6, 2023 in Bochum, Germany when a Stolperstein, a stumbling stone, will be place near Alte Bahnhstraße 6 in Bochum-Langendreer, Germany, to commemorate Otto Heimann/Bob Hyman, so that we and future generations may learn from history.

Diese Dokumentation versucht, das Leben Bob …

Creating Safe Spaces: Diverse Instructional Materials For World Language Learners, Lucian Rothe, Chiann Karen Tsui, Paul A. Garcia, Michael B. Mccloskey

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Stereotypical notions and depictions of the German language, its speakers, and cultural practices are more persistent in instructional materials, language program advertisements, and people’s minds than one might presume (Bryant et al., 2019; Chavez, 2020a, 2020b; Rothe, 2022). Overcoming such misconceptions requires educators to reconsider curricula and promotional efforts so that they reflect the diverse lived experiences of German speakers and learners (Criser & Malakaj, 2020). To diversify German curricula in the United States, the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) established a task force in 2020, Creating Safe Spaces (CSS). Its members have developed instructional materials focusing on …

Representations Of Diversity In A Novice-Level Language Classroom And Beyond: An Engaging Semester Project, Lucian Rothe

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Teacher-scholars have called upon fellow language educators to redevelop curricula at all proficiency levels to portray the lived experiences of target language (TL) speakers. This article presents a semester-long project that contributes to developing diverse teaching materials for college-level learners at the novice level. Via an ePortfolio with 10 tasks (virtual and in-person), 20 learners of a second-semester German course explored connections with the TL locally and broadened their understanding of language-community membership beyond stereotypical notions of native speakers. Participants’ feedback demonstrated how this project positively impacted students’ learning experiences and reflected learners’ strong desire for similar assignments in future …

War On Humor: Killing Laughter In Times Of Strife, Maria Christina Kardash

CAFE Symposium 2023

This project explores the use of humor as a coping mechanism throughout the first World War. It focuses on three main aspects: (1) the evolution of humor prior to, contemporary to, and after WWI; (2) the contrast between Germany's strict oppression of humor and France's more free approach; (3) and the distinction between civilian and soldier humor.

(Im-)Plausible Classroom Communities: World Language Learners‘ Perceived Accuracy Of Stereotypical Attributions To Teachers Of German, Lucian Rothe

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Grounded in self-based and community-oriented concepts of motivation research into learning world languages, this study investigated stereotypes about native-speaker and non-native speaker teachers of German that 110 novice learners of French, German, Russian, and Spanish had encountered. It furthermore analyzed how participants rated the accuracy of the described stereotypes. With the goal to explore whether stereotypical attributions to teachers of German speak to Chavez’s (2021) concept of the plausible foreign-language self, the study examined how clichés about instructors and their perceived accuracy differ between learners and non-learners of German. Statistical analyses showed students’ awareness of stereotypes about teachers of another …

The Flaneur In The Borsig Locomotive Works: Walter Benjamin, The Berlin Radio Youth Hour, And Sound As Pedagogy, Kevin S. Amidon

Modern Languages Faculty Publications

Walter Benjamin’s radio addresses for young people remain a comparatively neglected part of his work. New scholarship and translations have begun to address this, however. This arti- cle argues that the radio addresses, and particularly the address on the Borsig locomotive and machine works, deserve a prominent place within the critical and intellectual trajectory of Ben- jamin’s career. A close reading of “Borsig” demonstrates how the addresses model the modes of experience mediated by and through Benjamin’s master figure of the flaneur and generate the possibility for a historical pedagogy adequate to modernity. In the radio addresses, in general, and …

Cundiff, Roy, Collection, 1941-1945, Special Collections, Leonard H. Axe Library

Finding Aids

The Roy Cundiff Collection contains two items from Nazi Germany, acquired by Mr. Cundiff while he was stationed in Germany during World War II. These are a German-language edition of Mein Kampf, by Adolph Hitler, and a Nazi flag. These items were donated by Mr. Cundiff’s widow after his death in 1978.

Roy Cundiff was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1911. He grew up in Osawatomie, Kansas, and graduated from high school there in 1931. In the 1930s Mr. Cundiff worked as a salesman. In 1939 he married Inez Grace Miner, in Fort Scott, Kansas. They had one …

De Médée À La Sorcière : Reconstruction D’Un Mythe Par Michelet, Caroline Strobbe

The Coastal Review

In La Sorcière, Jules Michelet uses the strength and the myth of the Medea character, which had already fascinated Corneille. In the second part of his work, Michelet creates nominative witches after authentic texts. In the first part, he creates an allegoric witch on the Medea model: the Woman, a victim of arbitrariness, injustice and repression, rises up against her oppressors, figuring the march of Humanity towards Enlightenment and Liberty. The analogies between the Witch and Medea are therefore numerous and necessary, since they help to render the defense of the oppressed against the oppressor. Would the somber Medea, …

Umkämpfte Erinnerungskultur: Historikerstreit 2,0, Das Humboldt Forum Und Die Neue Deutsche Geschichte, Jonathan Hogan

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The Humboldt Forum, a reconstructed Prussian palace, is uniquely entangled in the ongoing debates around Germany’s relationship with its colonial past. As early as 2007, NGOs such as “NoHumboldt21!” formed to protest the palace, which would house the state’s ethnography collection, entailing an estimated 500,000 stolen artifacts. Upon opening in 2020, the Forum had come to embody the controversy surrounding its construction. Words adorned the façade of the building contrasting enlightenment ideals with colonial exploitation and a permanent exhibition—“Berlin Global”—sought to address the nation’s colonial past.

The Humboldt Forum can thus be conceptualized as a reactive object, one that resituates …

How Does Linguistic Indifference Masquerade As Linguistic Resistance?, Edward Dawson

German Language and Literature Papers

As we have argued throughout, language is always already political. Nevertheless, collegiate German studies curricula often seem largely indifferent to language politics, especially those that complicate or disrupt the notion of German as a singular language with an indexical relationship to the nation-states with which it is associated. However, discourses such as those described in the previous sections on linguistic indifference in cultural production and in language policy are relevant for learners of German since they reflect societal ideologies that they may encounter and that they themselves may endorse or reject. As Norman Fairclough writes, “If we are committed to …

Zerschlagen: German Unification And Divided Identity, Harrison Quinn

Honors Theses

The Unification of East and West Germany ended one of the Cold War’s longest divides, but only on paper. After decades under a unified German state, former East Germans face lower standards of living, economic opportunities, and access to national utilities compared to their Western counterparts. This inequality stems from the bifurcated German identity, which remains largely unaddressed amid German state ambitions for a central role in international institutions. The failure to properly acknowledge East German identity and the suppression thereof demonstrates the failure of Unification to unite the German nation. Political ambitions outweighed a true reconciliation of German nationhood, …

Germ 203: Intermediate German I, Christa Spreizer

Open Educational Resources

Intermediate German I syllabus

From Nihilation To Redemption: Profanations And Overlaps In Claudio Magris’ Danube, Nicola Mazzotti

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay analyzes the novel Danube by the Italian writer and scholar Claudio Magris and focuses on its depiction of the political potential inscribed in the Danubian territory. With his journey along the river, the narrator of the novel attempts to unveil the materiality of this territory and the agency of the river, thus deconstructing cultural and political claims aimed at their appropriation. First, the essay investigates the use and representation of 'sources' made by the narrator, both as origin of the river and cultural artifacts. It is shown how the narrator performatively traces the origin of the river back …

Review Of Minority Discourses In Germany Since 1990, Patricia Simpson

German Language and Literature Papers

Both scholarly and popularized examinations of Germany during the 1990s hotly debated the “new normal” of its national politics and cultures, from the so-called “Leitkultur” (guiding culture) of the late 1990s to the plural, intersectional identities within the Federal Republic, among them “Ossis,” “Wessis,” and the multiple minoritized groups negotiating various points on the peripheries. ... The ten essays in the volume, published in the Spektrum Series (volume 23), engage the discursive plurals of intersectional identities and their positions visà- vis dominant whiteness in German-speaking Europe since German unification and the later founding of the European Union in 1993. To …

รูปแบบภาษาแสดงอัตลักษณ์: กรณีภาษากะเทยที่ปรากฏในสื่อหนังสือการ์ตูนญี่ปุ่น, ทศวรรษ ตันชัยสวัสดิ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

สารนิพนธ์ฉบับนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาภาษากะเทย (おネエことば) ที่ปรากฏในสื่อหนังสือการ์ตูนญี่ปุ่นหรือ “มังงะ” และรวบรวมทำเป็นฐานข้อมูล ผู้วิจัยศึกษาภาษากะเทยจากมังงะที่มีตัวละครกะเทยปรากฏและพูดด้วยภาษากะเทยจำนวน 48 ตัวละคร รวมจำนวนประโยคตัวอย่างทั้งหมด 886 ตัวอย่าง มาทำการวิเคราะห์การแสดงอัตลักษณ์โดยวิเคราะห์ใน 4 ประเด็นดังนี้ 1) การใช้สรรพนามของตัวละคร 2) ส่วนลงท้ายประโยค 3) คำไพเราะ (美化語) 4) คำศัพท์ที่แสดงความเป็นภาษากะเทย และเสริมประเด็นการวิเคราะห์อื่นที่ตัวผู้วิจัยสนใจอีก 2 ประเด็นได้แก่ 1) การใช้สัญลักษณ์ เครื่องหมายวรรคตอน และอีโมจิ 2) รูปเขียนฮิรางานะ คาตากานะ และคันจิ นอกจากนี้ก็ยังสอดแทรกการเปรียบเทียบความแตกต่างของการแสดงอัตลักษณ์โดยแยกประเภทมังงะตามกลุ่มผู้อ่านของเรื่องผลการวิจัยพบว่า โดยภาพรวมภาษากะเทยในภาษาญี่ปุ่นเป็นภาษาที่ใช้ภาษาผู้หญิงเป็นพื้นฐานแล้วเพิ่มเติมลักษณะพิเศษบางอย่างลงไปทำให้เกิดความแตกต่างจากภาษาผู้หญิงทั่วไป การแสดงอัตลักษณ์มีความโน้มเอียงไปทางภาษาผู้หญิงเป็นส่วนใหญ่ จึงนำเสนอความเป็นผู้หญิงผ่านสรรพนาม ส่วนลงท้ายประโยค คำไพเราะ คำศัพท์ การใช้สัญลักษณ์ เครื่องหมายวรรคตอนและอีโมจิ อย่างไรก็ตามก็มีการแฝงความแข็งกร้าวโน้มเอียงไปทางผู้ชายในรูปแบบภาษาเหล่านี้ด้วย ทั้งนี้ ในกรณีรูปเขียนค้นพบว่ามีความโน้มเอียงไปทางผู้ชายผ่านการใช้คาตากานะและคันจิ ทำให้ภาษากะเทยมีลักษณะการแสดงอัตลักษณ์ที่อยู่กึ่งกลางระหว่างสองเพศ สำหรับการศึกษาความแตกต่างแยกตามกลุ่มผู้อ่านของเรื่องพบว่าภาษากะเทยในมังงะเด็กผู้ชายและมังงะเด็กผู้หญิงไม่ค่อยมีความแตกต่างกัน ซึ่งแสดงให้เห็นถึงการแสดงอัตลักษณ์ของภาษากะเทยที่มีแบบแผนที่ชัดเจน ไม่เปลี่ยนแปลงไปตามเพศของผู้อ่าน

La Radical Imperfección Del Mundo: El Crimen Perfecto De Jean Baudrillard Y El Crimen Ferpecto De Alex De La Iglesia, Maria A. Gomez

The Coastal Review

Le parfait crime (1995) by Jean Baudrillard and Crimen ferpecto (2004) by the Basque director Alex de la Iglesia are two works that not only have in common almost identical titles. They both reflect on how in consumer societies, an imperfect real world is substituted for an illusory hyperreality in which the distinction between subject and object has disappeared. While Baudrillard explains how the denial of a transcendent reality in contemporary society is “a perfect crime” that destroys the real, Alex de la Iglesia uses black humor and a mix of genres (mainly grotesque comedy and thriller) to show the …

Putting The Coronavirus To Work: Developing A Global Engineering Program During A Pandemic, Cynthia S. Chalupa

Journal of International Engineering Education

In the aftermath of COVID-19 shutdowns at campuses across the U.S. in the spring of 2020, student enrollments have fallen and budgets have been severely constrained. To counteract the current and long-term repercussions of the pandemic on institutions of higher education, administrators have called for innovative program development and strategic transformation. In the past, many engineering and world languages departments may have considered the task of creating a collaborative degree program insurmountable or undesirable despite existing models that are successful (e.g. University of Rhode Island’s IEP program). In the era of COVID-19, however, innovative programs combining language with disciplines outside …

Thirty-Fifth Annual Bibliography 2021 (Mike Lützeler Contemporary German Literature Collection), Walter Schlect, Paul Michael Lützeler, Tomek Rudel

WashU Libraries Publications

The 35th bibliography of 811 volumes added to Washington University Libraries' Mike Lützeler Contemporary German Literature Collection. All published in 2021, these acquisitions include novels, poetry, short story collections, graphic novels, 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 …

Pandemic Experience And The Concept Of World, Paul Turner

Critical Humanities

This article begins with some common or well-known sentiments about the present pandemic era and our experience of it, and moves by way of these toward discussion of the concepts of human existence and the “world” in the broadest sense of both terms. Departing from but also radicalizing the notion that “everything changed” in this pandemic time, I discuss certain logical difficulties that pertain to conceiving of or coherently talking about strict totalities which would include our own selves. This will have significant consequences for our conception of the world (when taken in its absolute or broadest sense), and in …

Making In Media Education: An Activity-Oriented Approach To Digital Literacy, Thomas Knaus

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Why is maker education a suitable approach for giving learners the 21st century skills they need to cope with the digital transformation? This article provides an answer and represents a defense of maker education in the field of educational science. Taking a human-media-machine interaction model as the basis for discussion, this article highlights the growing importance of digital technology as well as technological principles for human communication and interaction. Communication technology and the influence of technology on culture and society require a broad understanding of media literacy in the sense of digital literacy. By broadening the theoretical basis of media …

An Event-Without-Witness: A Nietzschean Theory Of The Digital Will To Power As The Will To Temporalize, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

This article offers a Nietzschean theory of digital will to power to conceptualize the temporality of social media feeds run by algorithms. Stylistic and methodological temporalities of Nietzsche are discussed as well as their influence in subsequent social theory of political technologies. The paradox of heavy investment in both subjective expression and nonhuman temporalization in social media milieus is addressed with the concept of an event-without-witness drawn from Nietzsche’s account of himself as the solitary thinker of catastrophe of nihilism and psychoanalytical and deconstructive literatures on the catastrophes of the 20th century. Nietzsche’s fundamental resistance to and fascination with the …

Stahlmann's 'Asian Eyes': Jewish Identity In Peter Weiss's The Aesthetics Of Resistance Vol. 3, Caroline Rupprecht, Caroline Rupprecht

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

"Analytical," "Angry." And "(Too) Honest"?! Learners' Stereotypes About Teachers Of German., Lucian Rothe

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This study investigated stereotypes about teachers of German that 67 novice learners of German at a U.S. university had reportedly encountered. Consequently, the investigation explored the perceived accuracy of clichés associated with native-speaker and non-native-speaker instructors. Students' stereotypical notions were sorted into categories using principles of grounded theory. Statistical analyses showed that respondents were able to list various stereotypes about instructors of German. Responses also reflected societal narratives concerning native-speaker and non-native-speaker teachers' strengths and shortcomings. Last, and of importance to the future of German Studies, participants considered more favorable stereotypes about teachers as more accurate and less-favorable clichés as …

Portsmouth Adm 1 965, Part 14, The National Archives, Kew, Johannes Schwalm Historical Association

Portsmouth Admiral’s Letters, 1780

No abstract provided.