German Literature Commons^™

Mountains And Mythology: Folklore In The Alps, Arya Karki

Honors Projects

From nature spirits to secret doorways, an air of mystery and magic surrounds the mountains of Austria. All over the world, mountain ranges inspire rich folklore, each set of tales unique to its respective culture. The purpose of this Honors Project is to answer the question: how does mountain-inspired folklore mirror cultural values and fears? A comparative analysis between Austrian Alpine and American Appalachian folktales is conducted in order to isolate the variables that cause folklore to differ region-to-region. Through research consisting of primary-source folklore anthologies, secondary texts on mountain theory, and direct observation from a study abroad experience, this …

Spring Awakening: A Midwest Children's Tragedy, Lena Nighswander

Honors Projects

Spring Awakening: A Midwest Children's Tragedy is a new play that takes up the issues of adaptation, translation, and temporality in regards to Frank Wedekind's Frühlingserwachen, a play infamous in its revelry in controversy and unflinching nature in the face of social issues many would prefer to ignore. Several modern adaptations of the original text exist, but none have utilized the 2020s as a setting nor have they used the fertile landscape of the American midwest as a background.

This play, set in Toledo, OH, leans into the Wedekindian tradition of cutting social criticism and controversy in its exploration of …

The Disintegration Of Modern Culture. Nietzsche And The Information Age, Edgar Landgraf

German Faculty Publications

The article revisits Nietzsche’s provocative claim that the Enlightenment’s emphasis on education and open exchange of information promotes rather than prevents the “loss of meaning” from a media studies and systems theoretical perspective. Nietzsche in fact ties what he understands as modern culture’s disintegration to information-processing modes of modern society, that is, as effects of the modern educational system and the mass media (at his time, the printing press). The article argues that while Nietzsche is an astute observer of modernity, his call for a return to a more authentic culture (with its daunting political implications) is indicative of Nietzsche’s …

Romantic Love And The Enlightenment: From Gallantry And Seduction To Authenticity And Self-Validation, Edgar Landgraf

German Faculty Publications

My comparative analysis of Lessing's Miß Sara Sampson, Sophie von La Roche's Geschichte des Fräulein von Sternheim, and Goethe's Die Leiden des jungen Werther elicits how the concept of love changes during the Enlightenment period. These literary texts mark the end of the art of gallantry and seduction and introduce a new understanding of love which emphasizes authenticity and self-validation. The texts by Lessing and La Roche struggle directly with intrigue and seduction, which threaten not only the innocence of "father's only daughter," but‑‑because communication itself becomes a suspect and inherently unreliable undertaking‑‑also threatens the very foundation of …