Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'German History and criticism'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: German History and criticism.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'German History and criticism.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Cusack, Andrew. "The wanderer in nineteeth-century [sic] German literature : intellectual history and cultural criticism /." Rochester (N.Y.) : Camden House, 2008. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41331975c.
Full text
2
Magerski, Christine 1969. "The constitution of the literary field in Germany after 1871 : Berlin modernism, literary criticism and the beginnings of the sociology of literature." Monash University, German Studies, 2002. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8724.
Full text
3
Dueck, Cheryl E. "Rifts in time and in the self : two generations of GDR women writers and the development of the female subject (Christa Wolf, Brigitte Reimann, Helga Künigsdorf, Helga Schubert)." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35875.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines the development of the female literary subject in the work of two generations of women writers of the GDR, represented by Christa Wolf (1929), Brigitte Reimann (1931--1973), Helga Konigsdorf (1936) and Helga Schubert (1941). The objectives are twofold: first, to assess the influence of two opposing discursive frameworks of subjectivity, the socialist and the psychoanalytic, on the works of these writers, and second, to examine the effects of an ideological disjuncture of two generations on their literary production.The first generation to embark on a literary career in the GDR, with great aspirations for the socialist project, is represented by Wolf and Reimann. A shift in political parameters meant that the following generation of writers, including Konigsdorf and Schubert, was faced with a pre-determined ideological structure, unsatisfactory to them. Accordingly, a diachronic investigation of the literary subject is pursued, and reveals the shift between these generations. As a result, rifts in time, in the subject, and rifts between the subject and its time are exposed.
In the 1960s, Wolf and Reimann rejected the literary female subject's role as an agent in the implementation of socialism. Crises in GDR social structures and crises of the psyche are shown to overlap and to result in divided subjects. The non-contemporaneity of Marxism begins to surface in the 1970s, and the rift in time affects the female subjects of Wolf and Reimann, which increasingly fragment Konigsdorf's and Schubert's short prose of the late 1970s reveals a rejection of the unified Marxist subject and the move toward a notion of the self informed by Freudian psychoanalysis. In the 1980s, the effects of the socio-political environment prove fatal to the individual subject in the works by both generations, and parallels are drawn to the National Socialist past. These links instigate a fundamental reevaluation of standards in language, power and cycles of history at the crossroads of life and death. The post-Wende period witnesses a shift away from problems of subjectivity in the texts of Konigsdorf and Schubert, while Wolf initially experiments with the postmodern, and most recently, surprisingly re-consolidates the female subject.
4
Jordan, Linda. "German science-fiction magazines of Hugo Gernsback, 1926-1935." Thesis, McGill University, 1986. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=65493.
Full text
5
Gallagher, Kaleen. "Female suicide in German literature and film since 1955." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709204.
Full text
6
O'Regan, Inge Brigitta. ""Zuwachs unsrer existenz" : the quest for Being in J.M.R. Lenz." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31078.
Full textAbstract:
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (1751-1792), whose plays have been acclaimed as the prototype of the modern drama of Brecht and Durrenmatt, is a controversial figure who rose to prominence on the German literary scene in the early seventeen seventies.
Among Lenz's theoretical writings is the influential essay "Anmerkungen ubers Theater," in which he introduces his innovative dramatic theories and describes the independent protagonists he envisions for the German stage. In the same essay, he demands "Zuwachs unsrer Existenz" (a heightened awareness of existence) from contemporary drama.
However, in marked contrast to the "Anmerkungen," the protagonists of his two most prominent plays, Der Hofmeister (1774) and Die Soldaten (1776), are self-alienated, ontologically insecure individuals who seem victims of the socio-political realities of their times. Not surprisingly, critics are divided in their opinion as to what the contradictions in Lenz's oeuvre signify.
Lenz was a student of Immanuel Kant's between 1768 and 1770, a time when the latter was formulating ideas that would find their full expression years later in his critical philosophy. In 1770, Kant presented his inaugural address "de mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis" (On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World) to the assembled faculty and students of KCnigsberg Academy, among them J.M.R. Lenz. It is in the inaugural dissertation that Kant introduces his thesis of the individual as an inhabitant of two "worlds," the noumenal and the phenomenal, a central concept in his first critique, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, which would be published in 1781.
This study examines Lenz's thoughts as they surface in his theoretical essays and his major plays and puts forward the thesis that it is Kant's division of the self into an intelligible and a sensible realm which prompts Lenz's call
for "Zuwachs unsrer Existenz." Lenz's quest is fuelled, furthermore, by his acute awareness of the ontological insecurity of the individual self, an awareness which seems to anticipate the thought of Kierkegaard.
The overriding purpose of this thesis is, through a reevaluation of Lenz's theoretical and dramatic works, to elucidate this eighteenth-century writer's quest for authentic being, a quest that he considered to be the individual's most urgent task.Arts, Faculty of
Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of
Graduate
7
Kinney, Tracey Jane. "Challenging the myth of Young Germany, conflict and consensus in the works of Karl Gutzkow, Heinrich Laube, Theodor Mundt and Ludolf Wienbarg." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq25079.pdf.
Full text
8
Niemeyer, Lisa. "Writing German historical fiction in an age of change, 1848-1871." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609458.
Full text
9
Geissler, Christopher Michael. "'Die schwarze Ware' : transatlantic slavery and abolitionism in German writing, 1789-1871." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610465.
Full text
10
Plouffe, Bruce. "The post-war novella in German language literature : an analysis." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=74297.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines the interpretive possibilities in the shorter fiction of Post-War German literature. The corpus includes works by Rolf Hochhuth, Friedrich Durrenmatt and Martin Walser. The historical framework of the theory of the novella and short story provides a basis for a discussion of genre, extended to include the coordinates of metaphor and metonymy. With the exception of one text designated as a novel, these works demonstrate interlocking and restricted motif complexes, repetitive and parallel structure and the integration of most narrative components. They project a tenor of hermetic plurality from a vehicle of abbreviated and truncated referential discourse. They use myth and intertextuality to show general principles to be extrapolated from specific contexts. Metafiction complements the theme of the subject not at one with itself. A partial resolution to the incertitude of existence, rendered according to Freud and Lacan, is offered through the emerging role of women as a stabilizing factor.
11
Noyes, John Kenneth. "Space and spatiality in the colonial discourse of German South West Africa 1884-1915." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22490.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography : pages 312-319.The present study sets out to accomplish two things: first, to demonstrate that space and spatiality is the domain in which discourse partakes of the colonial project, and second, to isolate a number of textual strategies employed in the discursive production of colonial space. The first aim requires a lengthy theoretical discussion which occupies the first part of the study. Here I develop the thesis that spatiality as a philosophical preoccupation has never been divorced from the questions of sigmfication and subjectivity, and that the production of significant and subjective space is always a production of social space. In support of this thesis, it is shown that vision and writing are the two functions in which subjective space becomes meaningful, and that in both cases it becomes meaningful only as social space. It is thus in the context of looking and writing that the production of colonial space may be examined as a social space within which meaning and subjectivity are possible. The second aim requires an analytical study of a number of colorual texts, which I undertake in part II of the study. For simplicity, I have confined myself to the colonial discourse of German South West Africa in the period 1884-1915. The central thesis developed here is that discourse develops strategies for enclosing spaces by demarkating borders, privileging certain passages between spaces and blocking others. This organization of space is presented as the ordering of a chaotic multiplicity and, as such, as a process of civilization. The contradiction between the blocking and privileging of passages results in what I call a "ritual of crossing": an implicit set of rules prescribmg the conditions of possibility for crossing the borders it establishes. As a result, in its production of space, the colonial text assumes a mythical function which allows it to transcend the very spaces it produces. It is here that I attempt to situate colonial discourse's claims to uruversal truth. In conclusion, the detailed analysis of the production of space in colonial discourse may be understood as a strategic intervention. It attempts to use the texts of colonisation to counter colonization's claims to universal truth and a civilizing mission.
12
zur, Loye Tobias Percival 1985. "History of a Natural History: Max Ernst's Histoire Naturelle, Frottage, and Surrealist Automatism." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10700.
Full textAbstract:
x, 144 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.When André Breton released his Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924, he established the pursuit of psychic automatism as Surrealism's principle objective, and a debate concerning the legitimacy or possibility of Surrealist visual art ensued. In response to this skepticism, Max Ernst embraced automatism and developed a new technique, which he called frottage , in an attempt to satisfy Breton's call for automatic activity, and in 1926, a collection of thirty-four frottages was published under the title Histoire Naturelle. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of Histoire Naturelle by situating it in the theoretical context of Surrealist automatism and addresses the means by which Ernst incorporated found objects from the natural world into the semi-automatic production of his frottages. All previous scholarship on the subject is consolidated and critically examined, and the development of frottage is traced from its earliest manifestations to its long-lasting influences.
Committee in Charge: Dr. Sherwin Simmons, Chair; Dr. Joyce Cheng; Dr. Charles Lachman
13
Cotter, Robert Edmund. "Aspects of philistinism in nineteenth-century German literature : Eichendorff, Keller, Fontane." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fa741b6d-6e13-4587-9369-2a477651cb24.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis aims to explore philistinism as a German literary topos, in the nineteenth century. It begins with an examination of the extra-literary metaphorical usage of key words like Philister and proceeds to a summary of its impact on writers in the period. By so doing, I have tried to present an image of the developing tradition of the literary depiction of philistines. The main part of the thesis is devoted to three writers - Richendorff, Keller, Fontane - whose work presents us with contrasting responses to the problem of philistinism. Unlike previous investigations, my approach is not only through explicit linguistic and visual markers, but also implicit depictions of philistines in the work of the three writers. To achieve this, attention is focussed on tone and literary devices, comic mode, irony, metaphor. I aim thereby to show the function of philistinism in these writings, an analysis not previously attempted. Eichendorff's work is shown to be imbued with a fundamental antithesis between the lives of Dichter and Philister, so comprehensive as to include eschatological implications. In Keller we notice a questioning of such a dichotomy, an unwillingness to acquiesce in its distinctions and an emphasis on society in determining the worth of his characters. Fontane's work represents the most radical reassessment of the Romantic position and displays a clear shift from categorical thinking to a pervasive ambivalence. Whilst philistinism is an issue for all three writers, the differences in their approach and consequent portrayals are revealing: my Epilogue suggests that their different modes of presentation reflect changes of ethos from Romanticism to realism, which in turn reflect changes in social values over the course of the nineteenth century. The interest of the present thesis is its demonstration that such changes can, in German literary culture, be so precisely observed in the changing treatment of the topos of philistinism.
14
Damiano, Carla Ann. "Walter Kempowski's Familienchronik : history and the role of Erziehung." PDXScholar, 1990. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3993.
Full textAbstract:
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.
15
Duggan, Lucy. "Reading the city : Prague in Czech and Czech-German narrative fiction since 1989." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3827cf9c-fa91-4fb5-aa7e-8942de885729.
Full textAbstract:
In the course of its history, Prague has been the site of many significant cultural confrontations and conversations. From the medieval chronicle of Cosmas to the work of contemporary writers, the city has taken shape in literature as a multivalent space where identities are constructed and questioned. The evolution of Prague's literary significance has taken place in an intercultural context: both Czech-speaking and German-speaking writers have engaged with the city and its past, and their texts have interacted with each other. The city has played a central part in many collective narratives in which myth, history and literature intertwine. Looking at contemporary prose fiction written in both Czech and German, this thesis explores continuities and contrasts in the literary roles played by Prague. It analyses two German-speaking emigrant authors, Libuše Moníková (1945-1998) and Jan Faktor (1951- ), viewing them alongside three Czech writers, Jáchym Topol (1962- ), Daniela Hodrová (1946- ), and Michal Ajvaz (1949- ). Through close readings of eight texts, the thesis approaches the imagined city from four angles. It discusses how contemporary authors portray the search for meaning in the city by imagining Prague as two contrasting realms (the 'real' city and the 'other' city), how the discontinuities of the city are reflected by the fragmentation of the authorial stance, how these authors assemble new Prague myths from the vestiges of older topoi, and how they confront the contradictory urges to uphold the boundaries of the city and to transgress them. In post-1989 Prague, authors explore the unstable spaces between continuity and discontinuity, constructing an authorial ethos in these areas of tension.
16
Stone, Katherine Mary. "Gender and German memory cultures : representations of National Socialism in post-1945 women's writing." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708863.
Full text
17
Schaper, Benjamin. "Poetik und Politik der Lesbarkeit in der deutschen literatur." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8e1e8c05-c0f9-4dda-ad9b-b208ded2432b.
Full textAbstract:
In 1990, German literary critics agreed that the end of the Cold War should mark the end of politically committed post-war literature. The political caesura prompted a debate about the future of German literature during which the concept of 'readability' evolved as a contested issue. It was championed in particular by the author Matthias Politycki and the publishers Uwe Wittstock and Martin Hielscher. Ever since, 'readability' has remained a benchmark for authors and critics alike in the battle for value and success. The thesis will establish a theoretical basis for 'readability' that draws on narratology, the Aristotelian concept of 'mimesis', classical rhetoric, and the poetics of contemporary authors who explicitly engage with 'readability'. Discussion will centre on the novel since this genre has been the focus of debate ever since the novel gained prominence with the rise of the reading middle classes in the eighteenth century. An analysis of the historical role of 'readability' will demonstrate that the debate as it manifested itself around 1990 developed out of a specifically German tradition, in which authors and critics alike viewed it as potentially in conflict with true art. In 1990, German literary critics agreed that the end of the Cold War should mark the end of politically committed post-war literature. The political caesura prompted a debate about the future of German literature during which the concept of 'readability' evolved as a contested issue. It was championed in particular by the author Matthias Politycki and the publishers Uwe Wittstock and Martin Hielscher. Ever since, 'readability' has remained a benchmark for authors and critics alike in the battle for value and success. The thesis will establish a theoretical basis for 'readability' that draws on narratology, the Aristotelian concept of 'mimesis', classical rhetoric, and the poetics of contemporary authors who explicitly engage with 'readability'. Discussion will centre on the novel since this genre has been the focus of debate ever since the novel gained prominence with the rise of the reading middle classes in the eighteenth century. An analysis of the historical role of 'readability' will demonstrate that the debate as it manifested itself around 1990 developed out of a specifically German tradition, in which authors and critics alike viewed it as potentially in conflict with true art. The thesis will demonstrate that 'readability' is key to understanding the debates about German literature in an era of globalisation when readers are more attracted to works by foreign authors than to works by German ones. It will examine how writers such as Helmut Krausser, Daniel Kehlmann, and Thomas Glavinic have exploited the opportunities of the changed parameters by writing and promoting 'readable' books. It will further explore to what extent 'readability' has opened up new avenues even for authors like Felicitas Hoppe and Ulrike Draesner, who distrust the quest for 'readability'. The thesis will conclude with a reflection on the prospects for 'readability' in the current literary landscape in Germany.
18
Jang, Laurie. "Music's debt : a study of poetic influence in mid-eighteenth century German instrumental music." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28075.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this study is to examine the correspondences of style, technique and aesthetic in poetry and music as it pertains to the musical thought and works of composers centered in Berlin 1740-1760. With the trend toward rational enquiry, the re-affirmation of the Aristotelian theory of imitation, and a return to the ideal of a union of the arts, 18th-century theorists and composers were once again preoccupied with the consanguinity of the "sister" arts of poetry and music. In particular, analogies were made between their materials of expression and the methods by which they achieved their ultimate goal of the imitation of human passions. The "problem" of textless music--i.e., its lack of semantic content--became a primary issue for aesthetic discussion and led to a re-evaluation of music's intrinsic qualities as a medium of expression.
Berlin composers working in mid-century were especially susceptible to such aesthetic developments. Led by writer/critics Lessing, Nicolai, and Mendelssohn, a unique literary renaissance characterizing the city was generating wide-spread critical debate on matters concerning the significance and meaning of art. Two major points of discussion among the literati were 1) that since classical times the arts of poetry and music had strayed too far apart, and 2) that music especially needed the support and cognitive power of a poetic text to remain a viable artistic medium. The consequences of these ideas on Berlin composers is immediately apparent in the development of the lied. In this new musical genre which achieved great popularity in Berlin, expression through text and music were considered synonymous as composers worked to close the gap between the two in their technique and methodry. However, the impact of these aesthetic beliefs is not as easily discernible in the instrumental music of mid-eighteenth century Berlin. While it was undisputed that musical tones in themselves contained some indeterminate expressive force, the rationalists' demand for concrete meaning in art led composers to develop and assess their music in terms of poetic criteria. An analysis of their works will illustrate that poetic structure, technique, and materials of expression assumed a primary role in the creation of their art. This study hopes to clarify the relationship between poetry and music through an examination of mid-eighteenth century Berlin's lied aesthetic, and selected instrumental works by J.J. Quantz and C.P.E. Bach composed in Berlin during this period.Arts, Faculty of
Music, School of
Graduate
19
Fronius, Helen. "The diligent dilettante : women writers in Germany, 1770-1820." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d95009fe-e8ea-4bcf-b520-29f2e9e849b5.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis sets out to explain the presence of women writers in the book market of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In order to do so, it examines the position of women writers in Germany - in the context both of their discursive and of their social reality. The thesis investigates the ideological and material background for women's writing, by exploring the areas of gender ideology, contemporary concepts of authorship, women's reading, and the literary market. The final chapter examines women's freedom of expression in different public circumstances. The thesis argues that women's position in the business of culture in general and literature in particular is not as unpromising as has often been claimed. By investigating less well-known texts on gender roles, such as eighteenth-century journal articles, it is possible to show that the rhetoric of prohibitions, for example regarding women's reading and writing, was by no means uniform, but fragmentary and frequently contradictory. Women's own responses to the conditions under which they were working are highlighted throughout the thesis, and examined on the basis of a range of texts, including unpublished correspondence. The examination of non-literary factors, such as the expansion of the literary market and the emergence of a newly diverse reading public, enables the identification of causes other than gender as determining women's position as writers during this period. In the course of this study, numerous neglected texts are considered, which broaden our understanding of this period of literature. The creative and successful use which women writers made of the opportunities they were afforded is emphasised throughout, thereby making an important contribution to the study of women writers.
20
Neal, Andrew Philip. "The Nürnberger Quästionensammlung : edition and commentary." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670329.
Full text
21
Aston, Richard Michael. "The role of the fool and the carnivalesque in post-1945 German prose fiction on the Third Reich." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2005. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:10b3780b-66bd-4467-849f-8648ec969c55.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines post-1945 German prose fiction dealing with the Third Reich in the light of Mikhail Bakhtin's Rabelais and his World. My review of the secondary literature in Chapter 1 shows how few Germanists have examined the role of the carnivalesque in such fiction or used Bakhtin's work systematically. Having set out the shortcomings of Bakhtin's theory and shown Carnival's ambivalent position in the Third Reich, Chapter 2 builds on this theoretical and historical foundation by giving an overview of the different ways in which authors deploy the Fool and the carnivalesque in post-1945 prose fiction. This overview provides a context for the rest of the thesis, in which I discuss in detail how four authors use the topoi of the Fool and the carnivalesque in different ways to confront the past and encourage social change. Thus, Chapter 3 analyses Hans Hellmut Kirst's 08/15 trilogy (1954-55) which describes Asch's carnivalesque subversion of the NCOs who abuse power within the Army, and his subsequent development into a positive figure of authority. Chapter 4 argues that, beneath its bleak surface, Günter Grass's Hundejahre (1963) deploys the carnivalesque to transmit a sense of mourning and rebirth after the Holocaust. Chapter 5 deals with Edgar Hilsenrath's Der Nazi and der Friseur (1977), whose Fool-protagonist provokes the reader to laugh at earlier attempts to make sense of the Holocaust in order to prioritize the act of anamnesis as an end in itself. Chapter 6 examines Gert Hermann's Veilchenfeld (1987) and Der Kinoerzähler (1990). Veilchenfeld is a carnivalesque signifier of Nature whose persecution at the hands of the people of Limbach parallels the town's ecological destruction, so that the novel can be read as a critique of the exploitation of Nature. In Der Kinoerzähler Hofmann uses Karl, a Fool-figure who narrates silent films, to encourage the development of critical faculties which combat the fatalism and authoritarianism that hamper social change. It becomes clear that the authors of the above works have anticipated the shortcomings of Carnival as a model of resistance and have thus redefined the Fool and the carnivalesque. So in my view, although the way the authors deploy these topoi maps only partially with Bakhtin's ideas about Carnival, these authors have understood the central concepts of the carnivalesque's ambivalence and its powers to subvert authority and use them productively to deal with the issues raised by the Third Reich.
22
Bagley, Petra M. "Somebody's daughter : the portrayal of daughter-parent relationships by contemporary women writers from German-speaking countries." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2134.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the complexities of daughterhood as portrayed by nine contemporary women writers: from former West Germany(Gabriele Wohmann, Elisabeth Plessen), from former East Germany (Hedda Zinner, Helga M. Novak), from Switzerland (Margrit Schriber) and from Austria (Brigitte Schwaiger, Jutta Schutting, Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch, Christine Haidegger). Ten prose-works which span a period of approximately ten years, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, are analysed according to theme and character. In the Introduction, we trace the historical development of women's writing in German, focusing on the most significant female authors from the Romantic period through to the rise of the New Women's Movement in the late sixties. We then consider a definition of 'Frauenliteratur' and the extent to which autobiography has become a typical feature of such women's writing. In the ensuing four chapters we highlight in psychological and sociological terms the mourning process a daughter undergoes after her father's death; the identification process between daughter and mother; the daughter's reaction to being adopted; and the daughter's decision to commit suicide. We see to what extent the environment in which each of these daughters is brought up as well as past events in German history shape the daughter's attitude towards her parents. Since we are studying the way in which these relationships are portrayed, we also need to take into account the narrative strategies employed by these modern women writers. In the light of our analysis of content and form we are able to examine the possible intentions behind such personal portraits: the act of writing as a form of self-discovery and self-therapy as well as the sharing of female experience. We conclude by suggesting the direction women's writing from German-speaking countries may be taking.
23
Neidorf, Leonard. "The Origins of Beowulf: Studies in Textual Criticism and Literary History." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11366.
Full textAbstract:
Beowulf is preserved in a single manuscript written out around the year 1000, but there are many reasons to believe that the poem was composed several centuries before this particular act of manual reproduction. Most significantly, the meter of Beowulf reveals that the poet regularly observed distinctions of etymological length that became phonologically indistinct before 725 in Mercia. This dissertation gauges the explanatory power of the hypothesis that Beowulf was composed about three centuries before the production of the extant manuscript. The following studies test the hypothesis of archaic composition by determining whether it is able to accommodate independent forms of evidence drawn from the fields of linguistics, textual criticism, and literary history.
24
de, Beer Amanda Erika. "„Wo ist der Junge aus dem Urwald?“ Abenteuer und koloniales Afrika in der Jugendliteratur." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/96813.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : Hierdie proefskrif is ’n ondersoek na die wyse waarvolgens Duitse jeugboekskrywers die koloniale periode in Afrika uitbeeld. Duitse avontuurliteratuur speel dikwels af in die koloniale periode in Afrika. Motiewe in die avontuurroman stem egter nie altyd ooreen met die historiese konteks en geografiese ruimtes nie. Dit skep die indruk dat so ’n verhaal tyd- en ruimteloos is en dat die historiese en geografiese konteks bloot die afstand tussen Afrika en Europa beklemtoon. In die lig van die feit dat Afrika en sy historiese konteks dikwels as eksotiese agtergrond dien, bespreek die studie die problematiek rondom die manier waarvolgens skrywers die koloniale periode in die avontuurliteratuur ontleed. Vervolgens word die vraag gestel tot watter mate die uitbeelding van Afrika sedert 1945 verander het. Die wyse waarop die koloniale periode in Afrika in Duitse jeugliteratuur uitgebeeld word, behoort dus ondersoek te word binne die konteks van die tradisionele avontuurliteratuur. Deurdat die studie gesentreer is rondom die avontuurliteratuur voor 1945 en avontuurboeke na 1945, stel die dissertasie ondersoek in tot watter mate jeugboeke en hulle uitbeelding van die koloniale periode verander het en in hoeverre die tradisionele avontuurliteratuur aan hierdie boeke ontleen is. In hierdie proefskrif word avontuurverhale en avontuurlike jeugverhale wat tydens die koloniale periode in Afrika afspeel, vervolgens ontleed. Die studie fokus op vier periodes: Eerstens word tradisionele avontuurstories en motiewe wat ’n belangrike rol speel in die uitbeelding van Afrika, geïdentifiseer. Die volgende tekste word ontleed: C.Falkenhorst se Der Baumtöter (1894), Gustav Frenssen se Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest (1906), Josef S. Viera se Bana Sikukuu (1924) en Gust in der Klemme (1933), Max Mezger se Aufruhr auf Madagaskar (1930) en Rolf Italiaander se Wüstenfüchse (1934). Tweedens ondersoek die studie die rol wat avontuurmotiewe – inisiasie, weerstand en verowering – speel in jeugboeke wat in die Federale Republiek van Duitsland gepubliseer is. Die volgende tekste word onder die loep geneem: Kurt Lütgen se ...die Katzen von Sansibar zählen (1962), Rolf Italiaander se Mubange, der Junge aus dem Urwald (1957), Herbert Kaufmann se Der Teufel tanzt im Ju-Ju-Busch en sy historiese roman Des Königs Krokodil (1959). Derdens ondersoek die studie watter rol avontuurmotiewe – die edel barbaar (edle Wilde), antiheld en die tweegeveg – speel in jeugboeke wat in die Duitse Demokratiese Republiek gepubliseer is. Die volgende tekste word analiseer: Ferdinand May se roman Sturm über Südwest-Afrika (1962) en Götz R. Richter se Savvytrilogie (1955 – 1963) en Die Löwen kommen (1969). Laastens stel die studie die vraag tot watter mate die kontemporêre avontuurliteratuur – soos Hermann Schultz se sendingroman Auf den Strom (1998) ’n nuwe ontwikkeling toon wat van die tradisionele avontuurliteratuur van die 19de en 20ste eeu afwyk.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT : This dissertation investigates how the African colonial period is portrayed in German youth literature. German adventure literature is often set in the African colonial period. However, motifs in the adventure novel do not always correspond with historical themes and geographical spaces. This gives the impression that such novels stand outside of time and space and that the historical and geographical context merely emphasize the distance between Africa and Europe. In light of the fact that Africa and its historical context are often reduced to an exotic backdrop, questions are raised about the way authors examine the colonial period in the adventure literature and how the portrayal of Africa has changed since 1945. The question how the African colonial period is portrayed in German youth literature is therefore examined within the context of the traditional adventure literature. Reflecting on adventure literature before 1945 on the one hand and adventure stories after 1945 on the other, this study examines to what extent youth books and their portrayal of the colonial period have changed and how these books relate back to the traditional adventure literature. For this purpose, adventure stories and adventurous youth stories and –novels that are set in the colonial period in Africa are analysed and the study focuses on four periods: Firstly, traditional adventure stories and motifs that play an important role in the portrayal of Africa are identified. The following are analysed: C. Falkenhorst’s Der Baumtöter (1894), Gustav Frenssen’s Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest (1906), Josef S. Viera’s Bana Sikukuu (1924) and Gust in der Klemme (1933), Max Mezger’s Aufruhr auf Madagaskar (1930) and Rolf Italiaander’s Wüstenfüchse (1934). Secondly, the dissertation investigates what role adventure motifs – initiation, resistance and conquest – play in the youth literature of the Federal Republic of Germany. The following are analysed: Kurt Lütgen’s …die Katzen von Sansibar zählen (1962), Rolf Italiaander’s Mubange, der Junge aus dem Urwald (1957), Herbert Kaufmann’s Der Teufel tanzt im Ju-Ju-Busch and his historical novel Des Königs Krokodil (1959). Thirdly, the study examines adventure motifs – noble savage (edle Wilde), anti-hero and the duel – in the literature published in the German Democratic Republic. These are Ferdinand May’s novel Sturm über Südwest-Afrika (1962) and Götz R. Richter’s Savvy-Trilogie (1955-1963) and Die Löwen kommen (1969). Lastly, the dissertation poses the question to what extent the contemporary adventure literature – like Hermann Schulz’ missionary novel Auf dem Strom (1998) – shows a new development which deviates from the traditional adventure literature of the 19th and 20th century.
25
Simon, Mary. ""...wurze und aller crûte craft und arzâtlîche meisterschaft..." : zur Darstellung der heilkundigen Frauen in den mittelhochdeutschen hüfischen Epen." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=26328.
Full textAbstract:
Women have been healers since the dawn of humankind. They had learned their medical skills in a natural way since, as child bearers, they were also the first midwives, nurses, health carers, apothecaries and physicians.That women were skilled in the practice of medicine and that female healers were an accepted part in medieval medical practice is evident from the numerous references describing medical treatment as found in the courtly Middle High German romances. In this study, I will first offer an overview of the medical knowledge and practice of the Middle Ages. Then I will present literary examples and incidences portraying women as healers as described in the German courtly romances of Tristan by Gottfried von Stra$ beta$burg, Erec and Iwein by Hartmann von Aue, and Parzival and Willehalm by Wolfram von Eschenbach, in order to elucidate and complete the image of the medieval female healer.
At the time when these romances were created, medical knowledge and practice were greatly influenced by the transmission and reception of Greek & Arabic medical works which formed the basis of a new Latin medical learning. This in turn provided the basis for a growing vernacular European medical literature. On the one hand, medical practice was still based on traditional folk medicine with the female healers preparing and using simple herbal remedies; on the other hand, they resorted to exotic compound medicines, such as theriac, which was closer to the learned book medicine.
26
Seward, James W. "The German exile journal Das Wort and the Soviet Union." PDXScholar, 1990. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4104.
Full textAbstract:
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 the policies of that country. As the level of hysteria grew with the successive purges and public show trials in the Soviet Union, the journal adopted an even more eulogistic and militant attitude: any criticism or expression of doubt about Soviet policy was equated with support for Fascism. Thus the ability of the journal to contribute to the formation of a true common front in Europe to oppose Fascism was compromised from the outset by its total support for the Soviet Union. The Popular Front policy foundered on this issue, and that portion of German literature in exile which was to form the first generation of East German literature was inextricably bound to the Soviet Union well before the German Democratic Republic came in to existence.
27
Winkelmann, Cathrin. "The limits of representation? : the expression and repression of desire in 20th-century German lesbian narratives." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=38437.
Full textAbstract:
This study investigates the expression and repression of desire in four 20th-century German-language lesbian prose texts. I examine in chronological order three novels and one novella: Der Skorpion (1919) by Anna Elisabet Weirauch; Lyrische Novelle (1933) by the Swiss author Annemarie Schwarzenbach; Der Schlachter empfiehlt noch immer Herz (1976) by Margot Schroeder; and, finally, Bilder von ihr (1996) by Karen-Susan Fessel. While not concentrating on any single literary work, the excursus on texts from the period between the Third Reich and the Second Feminist Movement in Germany provides a brief analysis of the (lack of) lesbian literary developments during this time.Drawing on diverse lesbian-feminist and queer strains of criticism, this study provides a close examination of the narrative elements, strategies, and styles used to inscribe lesbian desire into the literary works selected for analysis. The investigation explores how these texts utilize narrative conceptualizations of lesbian desire, critiques of heterophallocentric language and representation, and strategies to create lesbian narrative spaces that challenge the heterosexual presumptions and trajectories which traditionally underlie conventional Western romance narratives. The constructions of "lesbian" identity presented in the texts are fundamentally connected to the creation and operation of these narrative spaces. Thus, in order to contextualize my interpretations and literary analyses, I situate the texts in the respective socio-historical and political contexts in which they were written and received.
The unresolved problems, prevailing tensions, and their individual differences notwithstanding, the narratives examined here collectively contribute to a lesbian counterdiscourse to the 20th-century German literary establishment. By exploring the strategies invoked in these texts to represent a desiring textual lesbian subjectivity, this study hopes to make visible a tradition of Germanlanguage lesbian literature---a fragmented and often marginalized literature---over the last century and to offer German literary studies insights from the periphery of the dominant heterosexual culture. However, this investigation simultaneously and paradoxically also contests the very positioning of German lesbian literature and criticism at the margins by proposing their strategic integration into the German literary canon.
28
Liston, Andrew Adams. "The ecological voice in recent German-Swiss prose." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11287.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis seeks to investigate the ecological theme in German-Swiss prose of the last thirty years. The role of nature has understandably always been significant in Swiss literature. In a nation that has eked out its living, in such an impressive and violent landscape, there is of necessity a highly developed awareness of the environment. Furthermore, the close relationship between mankind and the environment is inherently ambiguous, with each acting alternately as curse and blessing to the other. The bond between people and geography is made all the more vital in the Alps, where existence is under the constant threat of avalanches and landslides. In light of this heightened environmental sensibility, it is unsurprising that, with the growing profile of ecological debate in general, Swiss writers should demonstrate an acute cognisance of the significance of ecological problems. The notion of an ecological voice takes the discussion further. The question is posed whether these works merely represent a reflection of societal concern for the environment, or whether literary responses may constitute solutions. This investigation therefore contributes both to literary criticism on Swiss writing and to the understanding of the role of conceptualisation in finding solutions to ecological problems. To explore and analyse these ideas, this thesis considers a representatively broad spectrum of differing responses to ecological crisis. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of recent Swiss ‘Öko-Literatur', but instead to be an investigation of the variety of narrative strategies employed in this period of growing ecological awareness.
29
Polak, Victoria. "Religious and moral concepts in the eighteenth-century German novel of sensibility : from Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's 'Leben der schwedischen Gräfin von G+' to the end of the 1770s." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13391.
Full textAbstract:
In my introduction I analyse the state of research in my subject. No detailed study of the subject has been conducted in recent years, hence there exists no work which takes account of recent conclusions in the examination of Sensibility in its entirety. I, therefore, consider it important to trace the origins of a movement in European culture. I draw attention to possible influences from philosophy and psychology which have tended to be neglected in favour of too exclusive emphasis on Empfindsamkeit as secularised Pietism. The main part of my thesis is devoted to detailed interpretation of five novels covering a period 1747 to 1776. This study yields various conclusions. In the novel as a genre, as in theoretical works on Empfindsamkeit, there is no polarity between the Enlightenment and Sensibility. Each of the novelists analysed is concerned to proclaim the necessity of achieving a balance between reason and emotion. In the novels of Gellert and La Roche this is explicitly stated in the form of moral instruction to the reader, while the fate of the heroes of Goethe and Miller perhaps suggests indirectly that such an equilibrium might be desirable. In particular the earlier authors I study equate moderation in feeling with virtue. Here these novelists advocate only feeling in the cause of virtue, while at the same time arguing that those who are capable of "true feeling" are by definition virtuous. In the sphere of religion, all novelists show a tendency to regard Christianity as a matter of emotion on the one hand and of practical ethics on the other. While there was a shift in emphasis from Tugendempfindsamkeit to the cultivation of feeling for its own sake, perceptions of the nature of religions and virtue remained constant.
30
McLaughlin, Eleanor. "Unconscious Christianity : a neglected element in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's late theology." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:18cc7914-ce11-4743-aec9-e9eb0a7be7de.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis I argue that unconscious Christianity (unbewußtes Christentum), referred to by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in several of his later writings, is a significant idea in his late theology. There has as yet been no in-depth study of this theological concept as it appears in Bonhoeffer's work, and I therefore aim with this thesis to begin a new conversation in Bonhoeffer studies on this important topic. Bonhoeffer does not offer a definition of unconscious Christianity, but by analysing the ways in which he uses the term in his writing, I offer a constructed definition of unconscious Christianity as used by Bonhoeffer. The first three chapters of the thesis build towards this definition with a close analysis of each relevant text. By examining unconscious Christianity alongside other theological ideas in Bonhoeffer's prison writing, I show how an awareness and understanding of unconscious Christianity adds depth to readings of Bonhoeffer's late work. This thesis also clarifies the differences between unconscious Christianity and religionless Christianity, and shows how unconscious Christianity fits alongside the other, more widely-studied, concepts present in the later writings, such as the world come of age. This work demonstrates that there is movement within Bonhoeffer's thoughts on unconscious Christianity and points to Bonhoeffer's readiness to allow his personal circumstances to inform his theology. It also shows how unconscious Christianity represents a shift within Bonhoeffer's theology. This thesis also makes the subsidiary point that Bonhoeffer's prison fiction should be considered as theological writing. Through it Bonhoeffer addresses not only unconscious Christianity as discussed in this thesis, but many other issues that reoccur in his theological prison letters. I conclude by showing how an understanding of unconscious Christianity is beneficial not only for Bonhoeffer studies, but for contemporary theology more widely.
31
Wolpert, Friederike J. M. "Writing the Orient : Johannes Schiltberger's Reisebuch (1394-1427)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f9b99a1d-e7c1-446f-82bd-6c9b17607024.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is the first book-length study of Johannes Schiltberger's Reisebuch, the German-language account of the Bavarian crusader's approximately 30-year captivity and enforced travels in the Middle East under the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389-1403), the Turko-Mongolian warlord Timūr (r. 1370-1405) and his successors. It investigates the Reisebuch's representation of the Orient. My reexamination of the manuscript and print transmission from c. 1450 to 1600 has shown that there were various versions of the Reisebuch in circulation, and I base my reading of the work on this basic multiplicity and variety. This variance is pertinent for a literary interpretation of the Reisebuch because the manifest narrative and material transformations go hand in hand with differing thematic foci, narratological and representational strategies, so that one can confidently contend each version of the Reisebuch negotiates a distinct relationship with the eastern 'other'. I argue that the transmission diverges into three strands as (1) an abridged chronicle that emphasises the complexity of political and military relations in the East; (2) a proto-ethnographic account with a focus on religious diversity; and (3) six paratextual reconceptualisations of the Reisebuch as Turcica in early print. In short, my study engages with the transmission and transformation of material, on the one hand, and with the consequences of this creative process for cultural ideas, on the other: it asks what role 'rewriting' - deliberate and inventive adaptation - plays in the Reisebuch's portrayals of the East. My thesis therefore provides not only the first in-depth reading of Schiltberger's Reisebuch as a 'medieval multi-text' (a term coined by Iain Macleod Higgins to indicate the inter-textuality and intra-textuality common to the medieval travel account) but highlights its representational process as multiple, polyvocal and dynamic.
32
Schroeder, Elfrieda Neufeld. "Fragmented identity, a comparative study of German Jewish and Canadian Mennonite literature after World War II." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ60565.pdf.
Full text
33
Nicholls, Angus 1972. "The mantic art : an examination of the notion of the daemonic in the writings of Plato, Goethe and Goethe's contemporaries." Monash University, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/9148.
Full text
34
Hostert, Thomas. "L'amor cortese provenzale fra hohe Minne e dolce stil novo." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79948.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis, a literary historic path on the development of the lyric expression of courtly love will be created. The path will take us from the Provence through Germany and Sicily, and up to the Tuscany of the thirteen's century. The poetic characteristics of the hohe Minne and dolce stil novo will be particularly highlighted in order to facilitate the comprehension of their similarities and differences. It is understood that it will not be possible to offer a complete interpretation of the two lyric expressions. Rather, this thesis wishes to offer a basis for the development of further comparative studies between the German and Italian lyric expressions that were inspired by the Provencal courtly love. As representatives of the evolution of the poetry of love in Germany and Italy, Walther von der Vogelweide and Guido Cavalcanti were chosen for the innovative character of their poetry and the artistic quality of the results they achieved.
35
Moamai, Marion. "Krebs Schreiben : Krebserkrankungen in der deutschsprachigen Literatur der siebziger und achtziger Jahre." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=41720.
Full textAbstract:
In the 1960's, cancer became one of the dominating diseases of our time and this has, in the last two decades, been increasingly reflected in German literature. This thesis examines a number of such texts (diaries, autopathographies, short stories and novels) from a literary and psychosocial standpoint.First, a brief outline of the literary and social context attempts to answer questions concerning the production and reception of this 'cancer literature'. The following thematic analysis examines the role of cancer as a signifier. It shows that endo- and exogenic conceptions of the disease are present, and that mood changes of the afflicted person determine the meanings that are attributed to it. The ways cancer affects the social and bodily identity and different aspects of treatment are analyzed next. Finally, a chapter is devoted to the aesthetics of cancer, examining the metaphors used to describe the disease and the rhetorical means to represent the anxiety that accompanies it.
This study is intended not only as an interdisciplinary analysis of a chapter of contemporary German literature but as a contribution to a better understanding of how cancer is viewed and experienced.
36
Rockhill, Paul Hunter. "The Reception Theory of Hans Robert Jauss: Theory and Application." PDXScholar, 1996. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/5153.
Full textAbstract:
Hans Robert Jauss is a professor of literary criticism and romance philology at the University of Constance in Germany. Jauss co-founded the University of Constance and the Constance group of literary studies. Hans Robert Jauss's version of reception theory was introduced in the late 1960s, a period of social, political, and intellectual instability in West Germany. Jauss's reception theory focused on the reader rather than the author or text. The original reception of a text was compared to a later reception, revealing different literary receptions and their evolution. Jauss's Rezeptionsgeschichte (history of reception) illustrated the evolution of the reception of texts and the evolving paradigms of literary criticism that they were a part of. However, Jauss's essays proved to be more of a provocation for change in literary criticism than the foundation for the next literary paradigm. The empirical studies discussed in this thesis reveal the.idealism of Jauss's theory by testing main ideas and concepts. The results show the inapplicability of Jauss's theory for practical purposes. The intent of this study is to illustrate the origins, development and impact of Jauss's version of reception theory. The interrelationship between the social environment, the institutional reforms at the University of Constance, and the methodology of reception theory are also discussed. The new social values in West Germany advocated individualism and questioned status quo institutions and their authority. This facilitated the establishment of the University of Constance, which served as the prototype for the democratization of German universities and the introduction of Jauss's reception theory. With the democratization of the university, old autonomous faculties were broken down into interdisciplinary subject areas. The Old Philology and New Philology department were made into the sciences of language and literature and ultimately introduced as the all-encompassing literaturwissenschaft. Five professors from the Slavic, English, German, Classics and Romance language departments gave up direction of these large departments to work together under the Constance reforms in an effort to form a new concept of literary studies. The result was the socalled theories of "reception" and "effect" which they continue to research.
37
Schneider, Stefanie Maria. "Gegen-Stimmen/Gegen-Blicke : Zeitgenössische literarische (De-)Konstruktionen deutsch-afrikanischer Identitäten." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86404.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates counter-voices, counter-gazes and (de-)constructions of German-African identities in contemporary German literature. In extended application of postcolonial concepts it examines the way in which post-colonial views and counter-views on Germany and Africaare produced and how in the process alternative identities are created and negotiated. Analyzing poetry, short stories and novels by Black German authors (May Ayim, Ika Hügel-Marshall, ManuEla Ritz and Olumide Popoola) as well as by African literary voices writing in German (El Loko, Daniel Mepin, Philomène Atyame and Luc Degla), the thesis looks at and evaluates strategies of literary hybridization, responses to and deconstructions of the colonial imaginary, transcultural positioning and world literary perspectives.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek enkele teenstemme, teenblikke en (de-)konstruksies van Duits-Afrika identiteite spruitend uit Duitsland en dié uit Afrika in hedendaagse Duitse literatuur. Deurʼn uitgebreide toepassing van postkoloniale konsepte,ondersoek die tesis die wysewaarop die post-koloniale sienings en teenstandpunte oor Duitsland en Afrika geproduseer word en hoe in die proses alternatiewe identiteite geskep en onderhandel word. Deur die ontleding van gedigte, kortverhale en romans deur swart Duitse skrywers (May Ayim, Ika Hügel-Marshall, ManuEla Ritz en Olumide Popoola) sowel as Duitse werke deur literêre stemme uit Afrika (El Loko, Daniel Mepin, Philomène Atyame en Luc Degla), bekyk en evalueer die tesis strategieë van literêre verbastering, antwoorde op en dekonstruksies van die koloniale denkbeeldige, transkulturele plasing en wêreld literêre perspektiewe.
38
Batista, Miguel. "Bildung and initiation : interpreting German and American narrative traditions." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14616.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is divided into two main parts. The first, comprising the three initial chapters, looks, in chapter one, at the specifically German origins of the Bildungsroman, its distinctive features, and the difficulties surrounding its transplantation into the literary contexts of other countries. Particular attention is paid to the ethical dimension of the genre, i.e. to the relation between the individual self and the exterior world, and how it affects individual formation. The focus then shifts to American literature, and the term 'narrative of initiation' is recommended as a credible alternative to 'Bildungsroman'. Allowing for similarities between them, it is none the less strongly suggested that the Bildungsroman of German origin and the American narrative of initiation should be seen as being intrinsically different, principally because of the different cultural backgrounds that shaped them. Several features of the theme of initiation are postulated as decisive factors in the discrepancies between the initiatory narrative and the Bildungsroman. Analysis of six texts - three of each literary tradition - follows, to provide support for the theoretical discussion of the terms introduced in chapter one. Three Bildungsromane are considered in the second chapter, namely Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Stifter's Der Nachsommer and Keller's Der grune Heinrich, and three narratives of initiation in chapter three: Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Their relevance to the tradition of German and American fiction as a whole and as precursors of Mann's Der Zauberberg and Hemingway's The Nick Adams Stories is considered. A direct comparison between Mann's and Hemingway's texts constitutes the second part of this thesis, wholly contained in chapter four. In addition to a comprehensive critical reading of both narratives, the contemporaneity of Der Zauberberg and The Nick Adams Stories is taken into account, and consequently special consideration is given to the texts' close relation with the cultural and historical realities of the early twentieth century, particularly the impact of the First World War. With the assistance of Jung's theories, an increased awareness of death and of the dark side of the psyche - though dealt with differently in both texts - is put forward as a significant factor in the deviation of Der Zauberberg and The Nick Adams Stories from the traditions of the Bildungsroman and of the narrative of initiation. This departure leads to a re-appraisal of the relation between the protagonists and their society, and to a new ethical attitude that presupposes different, more modem conceptions of what Bildung and initiation represent in the context of the early twentieth century. How and why they changed and if they survived as literary notions are questions this thesis attempts to answer.
39
Aulls, Katharina. "Mutter-Tochter Beziehungen in deutschsprachigen Romanen im Jahrzehnt nach dem "Jahr der Frau"." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=74348.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines mother-daughter relationships in six novels written by German speaking women authors in the decade after the "Year of the Woman." Three novels depict positive mother-daughter relations: Ausflug mit der Mutter (1976), by Gabriele Wohmann, Gestern war Heute (1979), by Ingeborg Drewitz, Die dreizehnte Fee (1983), by Katja Behrens. Three others portray a negative mother-daughter relationship: Die Eisheiligen (1979), by Helga Novak, Die Zuchtigung (1985), by Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch, and Die Klavierspielerin (1983), by Elfriede Jelinek. Common to all novels is a strong autobiographical tendency and the central importance of the mother in the development of the daughter's self-identity.The complexity and problems of mother-daughter relationships are analyzed as an outcome of female socialization within a patriarchal society. Chapter I deals with historical, economic and psychological oppression of women. The resulting internalization of the role of inferiority and dependency leads to the subsequent repression of their own daughters. Chapter II discusses new contributions in the fields of psychology and sociology to the understanding of female identity formation through relationships. Chapter III provides a two-pronged analysis of each novel by describing the individual mother-daughter relationship in comparison with the outcomes of Chapters I and II, and by addressing the narrator's process of putting the experience into a unique literary form and thus contributing to women's literature.
Themes that are unique in each novel are: the emotional stress of the adult daughter trying to redefine her relationship with her widowed mother (Ausflug mit der Mutter), the dichotomy of woman in her nurturing role as mother and in her quest for self-realization (Gestern war Heute), the difficulty of breaking the repetitive cycle of the female role of dependency (Die dreizehnte Fee). All of the following novels assess the damaged self-identity of the daughter caused by a destructive mother. While the daughters survive due to fierce resistance (Die Eisheiligen) or escape into the world of art (Die Zuchtigung) there is no hope for the daughter in Die Klavierspielerin due to her identification with the oppressor.
40
Kane, Lynn Marie 1977. "The Influence Of Basso Continuo Practice On The Composition And Performance Of Late Eighteenth- And Early Nineteenth-Century Lied Accompaniments." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/3057.
Full textAbstract:
xi, 387 p.A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: MUSIC MT49 .K36 2006
The use of basso continuo in the performance of many late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century genres is well documented, yet the influence of this practice on the Lieder during that time has never been fully explored. This dissertation analyzes Lied accompaniments of the period in relation to the recommendations found in contemporary thorough bass treatises in order to demonstrate that continuo practice did have an effect both on what composers were writing and how the songs were being performed. The majority of written-out Lied accompaniments from the late eighteenth-century conform to the recommendations given by treatise authors on matters of texture, distribution of the notes between the hands, octave doublings, parallel intervals, embellishments, and relationship of the keyboard part to the solo line. Furthermore, figured basses were still printed in some songs into the early part of the nineteenth century. Well-known nineteenth-century Lied composers, such as Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms also frequently use these simple, continuo-like keyboard parts, and incorporate common continuo techniques for filling out chords into their more complex accompaniments. The fact that continuo practice, a tradition in which improvisation played a large role, continued to have such a pervasive influence on the printed Lied suggests that additions and embellishments can be made to what is written on the page. Furthermore, evidence from secondary sources, statements by musicians of the period, and clues in the music itself confirm that composers did not always intend for performers to play exactly what is notated. In this dissertation, I argue that in many of these songs the musical score should be viewed as only a basic outline, which can then be adapted depending on the skill level of the performers, the available keyboard instruments, and the context of the performance. Principles from the continuo treatises serve as a guide for knowing what additions to make, and I offer suggestions of possible applications. Appendices detail the contents of 50 continuo treatises published between 1750 and 1810.
Adviser: Dr. Anne Dhu McLucas Committee: Dr. Marc Vanscheeuwijck, Dr. Marian Smith, Dr. Kenneth Calhoon
41
Schor, Ruth. "Eine alltägliche Tätigkeit : performing the everyday in the avant-garde theatre scene of late nineteenth-century Berlin." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f182a548-e450-4efa-a3a0-478461d44ab6.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation situates late nineteenth-century Berlin's reception of naturalist drama in contemporary discourse about European modernism, which to date has disregarded the significant impact of this cultural environment. Examining the Berlin avant-garde's demand for "truth" and "authenticity," this study highlights its legacy of promoting more honest and dynamic forms of human interaction. Sketching the historical background, Chapter 1 demonstrates how the reception of Henrik Ibsen in Berlin fuelled creative strategies for a more honest approach to theatre. From literary matinees to more egalitarian ways of directing theatre, this moment in cultural history significantly shaped people's understanding of theatre as a tool for social criticism and as a means of creating a sense of intimacy. Two important figures are highlighted here: literary critic and theatre director Otto Brahm, central to the promotion of naturalism, and his more prominent protégé Max Reinhardt, who developed Brahm's legacy. Situating these developments in a theoretical framework, Chapter 2 draws on the concept of "the everyday" as set out by Toril Moi, Stanley Cavell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein to link the role of the ordinary on stage to the avant-garde's search for authenticity and truthfulness. Through this framework, Ibsen's social dramas from A Doll's House to Hedda Gabler (Chapter 3) can be seen perfectly to exemplify this shift in perspective from the 1880s through the 1890s, revealing the complexity of truthfulness in communications. Tracing these themes in other dramatic works, innovative readings of Arthur Schnitzler's Liebelei (Chapter 4) and Rainer Maria Rilke's Das tägliche Leben (Chapter 5) shed new light on these two fin-de-siècle authors. By highlighting these authors' previously unrecognised connections with Berlin's avant-garde theatre scene and their dramatic exploration of interpersonal connection, this study shows both how theatre functioned as a tool to examine human relationships and to what extent twentieth-century literature was grounded in this way of thinking.
42
Johnston, Gregory Scott. "Protestant funeral music and rhetoric in seventeenth-century Germany : a musical-rhetorical examination of the printed sources." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27359.
Full textAbstract:
The present thesis is an investigation into the musical rhetoric of Protestant funeral music in seventeenth-century Germany. The study begins with an exposition on the present state of musicological inquiry into occasional music in the Baroque, focusing primarily on ad hoc funeral music. Because funeral music is not discussed in any of the basic music reference works, a cursory overview of existing critical studies is included. The survey of this literature is followed by a brief discussion of methodological obstacles and procedure with regard to the present study.
Chapter Two comprises a general discussion of Protestant funeral liturgy in Baroque Germany. Although numerous examples of the Divine Service in the Lutheran Church have survived the seventeenth century, not a single order of service for the funeral liturgy from the period seems to exist. This chapter provides both the social and extra-liturgical background for the music as well as a plausible Lutheran funerary liturgy based on documents from the period and modern studies.
Prosopopoeia, the rhetorical personification of the dead, is the subject of Chapter Three. After examining the theoretical background of this rhetorical device, from Roman Antiquity to the German Baroque, the trope is examined in the context of funerary sermonic oratory. The discussion of oratorical rhetoric is followed by an investigation into the musical application of the concept of prosopopoeia in various styles of funerary composition, from simple cantional-style works to compositions in which the personified deceased assumes certain physical dimensions.
Chapter Four includes an examination of various other musical-rhetorical figures effectively employed in funeral music. Also treated in this chapter are musica1-rhetorical aspects of duple and triple metre, where triple metre in particular, depending on the text, can be understood figuratively, metaphorically or as a combination of both. As this chapter makes clear, owing to the perceived antithetical properties of metre and certain figures, musical rhetoric was often used to illustrate the distinction between this world and the next.Arts, Faculty of
Music, School of
Graduate
43
Herrmann, Karin Ulrike. "Die Rolle der Hexe in den Märchen der Brüder Grimm und Ludwig Bechsteins." PDXScholar, 1988. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3815.
Full textAbstract:
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 brothers Grimm and of Ludwig Bechstein because these three scholars count among the most important fairy tale narrators in the German-speaking region. I will limit my examination to the witch in fairy tales because of all the figures she seems to have the most impact on the audience.
44
Cobb-Jordan, Amy. "The study of English, French, German and Italian techniques of singing related to the female adolescent voice." Thesis, view full-text document, 2001. http://www.library.unt.edu/theses/open/20011/cobb-jordan%5Famy/index.htm.
Full text
45
Okoko, Lorna Ayiemba. "Interkulturalitat und Afrikabilder in der zeitgenossischen Jugendliteratur." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/96094.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Globalization and the inherent shrinking of geographical boarders have rendered modern societies progressively culturally heterogeneous spaces. Increased encounters between people from different cultures have thus become a normal occurrence. Germany is in no way an exception to this socio-cultural phenomenon and has witnessed an emergence of multi-cultural societies, leading to concerted efforts in developing intercultural competence in all spheres of influence. Literature plays a pivotal role in the representation and transfer of culturally determined imaginations and perceptions of the “other”. This role is further emphasized in the case of children’s and youth literature, which has an imminent pedagogical function. For a long time, research in children’s and youth literature has received very little attention as an integral part of literary studies; this is observed both in English and in German literature, though the pace of development differs slightly (Hunt 1999; Weinkauff and Glasenapp 2010; Ewers 2000). In Germany, historical development of children’s and youth literature as an autonomous area of literature and field of study was influenced by societal values and attitudes as well as perceptions of childhood. This has continued to be the case, though recent research indicates a growing emphasis on children’s literature as a tool to develop literacy as well as an appreciation of the aesthetic value of literature. A third component is the intercultural aspect it is able to offer. Impelled by the paucity of systematic analyses of the representation of Africa in German children’s and youth literature, this dissertation sets out to offer a critical appraisal of intercultural aspects and the image of Africa in contemporary German youth literature. A corpus of literary works has been selected for this purpose. The central thesis of the study is that these literary works are involved in a sustained debate of questioning and contesting numerous representations of Africa and Africans. Given the fact that the study touches on several overarching issues, it draws from diverse theoretical perspectives that include intercultural theories on perceptions of the cultural “other” and “imagology” as well as postcolonial studies, with reflections on the pedagogical nature of youth literature. The study considers intercultural and postcolonial theories as conceptualized by Hofmann (2003; 2010), Mecklenburg (2003, 2006; 2008), Gutjahr (2002; 2010) and Göttsche (2003; 2010; 2011; 2012) as well as considerations on imagology as conceptualized by O’Sullivan (1989; 2000) and Beller (2007). In its exploration of the representation of Africa and Africans, this dissertation shows how literary works make use of diverse artistic, stylistic and narratological strategies and devices as possible ways of presenting and rethinking long-held perceptions about Africa. The present study proposes a reading and an appraisal of the corpus of literary texts as important discursive tools that allow for the expansion of self-conception and definition of otherness and the relationship to this otherness, thus contributing to increased intercultural awareness and competence among young readers.
AFRIKKANSE OPSOMMING: Globalisering en die gepaardgaande krimping van geografiese grense het moderne samelewings algaande omskep in kultureel heterogene ruimtes. Sodoende het toenemende ontmoetings tussen mense van verskillende kulture ʼn normale gebeurtenis geword. Duitsland, geen uitsondering op hierdie sosiokulturele verskynsel nie, was getuie tot die totstandkoming van multikulturele samelewings en dit het gelei tot doelgerigte pogings om interkulturele vaardigheid in alle invloedsfere te ontwikkel. Letterkunde speel ʼn deurslaggewende rol in die verteenwoordiging en oordrag van kultureel bepaalde verbeeldings en persepsies van die “ander”. Hierdie rol word verder beklemtoon in die geval van kinder- of jeugliteratuur, wat ʼn belangrike pedagogiese funksie het. Vir ʼn lang tyd het navorsing in kinder- en jeugliteratuur baie min aandag geniet as ʼn integrale deel van literêre navorsing en dit kan in Engelse sowel as Duitse letterkunde opgemerk word, hoewel die pas van ontwikkeling effens verskil (Hunt 1999; Weinkauff en Glasenapp 2010; Ewers 2000). In Duitsland is die historiese ontwikkeling van kinder- en jeugliteratuur as ʼn outonome veld van letterkunde en van navorsing beïnvloed deur die samelewing se waardes en houdings sowel as persepsies van kindwees. Dit word steeds voorgesit hoewel onlangse navorsing toon dat daar groter klem geplaas word op kinderliteratuur as ʼn manier om geletterdheid asook ʼn waardering vir die estetiese waarde van letterkunde te ontwikkel. ʼn Derde komponent is die interkulturele aspek wat dit kan bied. Aangespoor deur die gebrek aan sistematiese analises van die uitbeelding van Afrika in Duitse kinder- en jeugliteratuur, beoog hierdie proefskrif om ʼn kritiese waardering te bied van interkulturele aspekte en die beeld van Afrika in kontemporêre Duitse jeugliteratuur. ʼn Korpus van literêre werke is geselekteer vir hierdie doel. Die sentrale hipotese van die navorsing is dat hierdie literêre werke betrokke is, dikwels ten spyte van hulself, in ʼn volgehoue debat oor die bevraagtekening en betwissing van verskeie uitbeeldings van Afrika en Afrikane. Die studie raak verskeie oorkoepelende kwessies aan en steun daarom op diverse teoretiese perspektiewe wat interkulturele teorieë oor persepsies van die kulturele “ander” en “beeldstudies” insluit, sowel as postkoloniale studies en beskouings van die pedagogiese aard van jeugliteratuur. Interkulturele en postkoloniale teorieë soos voorgestel deur Hofmann (2003; 2010), Mecklenburg (2003; 2006; 2008), Gutjahr (2002; 2010) en Göttsche (2003;2010; 2011; 2012) asook oorwegings oor “beeldstudies” soos voorgestel deur O’Sullivan (1989; 2000) en Beller (2007) sal in aanmerking geneem word. In die ondersoek na die uitbeelding van Afrika en Afrikane wys hierdie dissertasie hoe literêre werke gebruik maak van diverse artistieke, stilistiese en narratologiese strategieë en middele as moontlike maniere om tradisionele persepsies oor Afrika voor te stel en te heroorweeg. Hierdie studie stel ʼn lees en waardering van die korpus van literêre tekste voor as belangrike diskursiewe instrumente wat ruimte laat vir die uitbouing van selfbeskouing en definisie van andersheid en die verhouding tot hierdie andersheid, om sodoende ʼn bydrae te maak tot die verhoogde kulturele bewustheid en vaardigheid onder jong lesers.
46
Weber, Undine S. "Wolfgang Koeppens auseinandersetzung mit der tradition: aspekte der intertextualität in der so genannten nachkriegs‐trilogie." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020833.
Full textAbstract:
Wolfgang Koeppen’s three post‐war novels have often been called a trilogy, purely based on their publication in rapid succession in the early 1950s. This study establishes a connection between the works by looking at their roots in Irish, Anglo‐American, French and German modernism, and shows up links between Wolfgang Koeppen, James Joyce, E.E. Cummings, Charles Baudelaire and Thomas Mann. This comparative analysis concludes, by integrating socio‐political factors of life in West Germany after World War II, that Koeppen transcends the modernist tradition – the fact that modernism has become tradition, i.e. it has become “classic”, in contradiction to being “modern”. Koeppen’s texts do not only allude to and build on classic texts and refer to stylistic and narrative modernist elements such as stream‐of‐consciousness and sketching a fragmented society in turmoil; the very act of recurring to myths and texts of the Western canon in order to depict the disaffected individual is an almost post‐modern one.
47
Pnevmonidou, Elena. ""Liebes-Töten" : zur Objektwerdung der Frau im Roman der Frühromantik : Novalisʹ Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Friedrich HÜlderlins Hyperion, Friedrich Schlegels Lucinde." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=84537.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this comparative study of Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen , Holderlin's Hyperion, and Schlegel's Lucinde is to develop a comprehensive overview of the role of woman in conceptions of male subjectivity in Early German Romanticism. The reading of the novels developed here examines the Early Romantic poetics with a specific view to the conceptualizations of woman contained therein. The Early Romantic 'Project' consists in the rewriting of the subject and the world in the medium of poetry. Tanscendental poetry, the fragment, allegory, and irony are intended to invoke the presence of an absence, that is the absolute. In the concrete praxis in the novels, these concepts of Early Romantic poetics imply conceptualizations of woman. They articulate a specific approach in the encounter of the male subject with the female object. At the center of Romantic poetics lies the encounter with woman. The unique situatedness of the romantic subject is, indeed, crystallized in this encounter.Early Romanticism is situated between Kant and Hegel. The post-Kantian subject experiences a crisis of legitimation. Lacking an unmediated access to the object, it is fragmented and threatened. Early Romanticism, however, also prefigures Hegel, inasmuch as the crisis does not consist in the loss of the object, but rather in the encounter of two subjects. The three novels are juxtaposed here because this position between the loss of the object and the crisis of the encounter with the other as subject leads to a paradoxical conceptualization of woman as an uncanny object of desire. In all three novels, the constitution of the male subject and the possibility of poetry depend on the encounter with woman. However, the possibility of woman emerging, indeed, as subject represents an extreme threat. As a consequence, the constitution of the male poetic subject requires the simultaneous assimilation of femininity and the shielding against woman. Hence, the three novels are love stories that narrate the death of woman. However, woman is fundamentally uncanny because even the presence of the dead woman represents a threat. The constitution of the male subject and novel unfolds, therefore, in three stages; the encounter with woman, the assimilation of femininity and death of woman, and the removal of any traces of that death.
48
Templeton, Inez H. "What's so German about it? : cultural identity in the Berlin hip hop scene." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/75.
Full textAbstract:
Literature on the appropriation of hip hop culture outside of the United States maintains that hip hop engenders local interpretations no longer reliant on African-American origins, and this research project is an attempt to determine the extent to which this is the case in a specific local context. My thesis is an effort to move beyond the rhetoric of much of what constitutes the debates surrounding globalisation, by employing a research strategy combining theoretical analysis and direct engagement with the Berlin hip hop scene. My project not only aims to uncover the meanings young people in Berlin give to their hip hop practices, but intends to do so within a framework that does not ignore the discursive spaces in which these young people are operating. This is particularly relevant because of the complex ways in which race and ethnicity are related to German national identity. Furthermore, this thesis is concerned with the ways in which the spaces and places collectively known as Berlin shape the cultural practices found there. While hip hop belongs to global culture, it is also the case that the city of Berlin plays a significant role in determining how hip hop is understood and reproduced by young people there.
49
Tonkin, Kati. "Marching into history : from the early novels of Joseph Roth to Radetzkymarsch and Die Kapuzinergruft." University of Western Australia. European Languages and Studies Discipline Group, 2005. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2005.0085.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis takes as its starting point the consensus among scholars and interpreters of Joseph Roth’s work that his writing can be divided into two periods: an early “socialist” phase and a later “monarchist” phase. In opposition to this view, a reading of Roth’s novels is put forward in which his desire to make sense of post-Habsburg Central Europe provides the underlying logic, thus reconciling his early novels with Radetzkymarsch and Die Kapuzinergruft. The first chapter addresses the common contention that the transformation in Roth’s work is the result of a deep identity crisis. An alternative reading of the relevance of Roth’s identity to his work is offered: namely, that Roth’s conviction that identity is multivalent explains his rejection of both nationalism and other “solutions” to the problems of post-war Europe, a sentiment that finds expression in his early novels. The interpretation of these novels, which represent Roth’s early attempts to give literary form to contemporary reality, is the focus of the second chapter of the thesis. In the third chapter Radetzkymarsch is analyzed as a historical novel in the terms first proposed by Georg Lukács, as a novel which facilitates the understanding of the present through the portrayal of the past. Paradoxically, it is the historical form that most effectively captures and illuminates the complex reality of Roth’s contemporary times. The fourth and final chapter demonstrates that Die Kapuzinergruft is not simply an inferior sequel to Radetzkymarsch, a nostalgic evocation of an idealized lost Habsburg world and condemnation of the 1930s present, but rather continues the dialogue between past and present begun in Radetzkymarsch. In this novel, written before and in the immediate aftermath of the Anschluß of Austria to Nazi Germany, it is not Roth but his narrator who takes flight from reality, behaviour that Roth condemns as leading to the repetition of mistakes from the past and the failure to prevent the ultimate political catastrophe.
50
Hales, Barbara. "Dark mirror: Constructions of the femme fatale in Weimar film and Hollywood film noir." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187445.
Full textAbstract:
The femme fatale is a marker for the past is evident in the film noir work of German exile directors. These directors created a femme fatale character similar to Weimar examples of the sexual woman icon, using Weimar cultural constructions as a template for their work in Hollywood. The femme fatale figure in film noir is specifically an enigma or duplicitous mystery, a woman with a gun who threatens the male protagonist. She represents a piece of the male character's past often seen through the structure of the voice-over and flashback. These narrative devices enable the male protagonist to rework this jaded past vis-a-vis his relationship to the femme fatale and his fatal attraction to her. The film noir femme fatale is linked to German exile directors' desire to review a past that has been lost and cannot be recuperated. In the case of the Weimar femme fatale, she is a sign for the trauma of World War I and the ensuing political/social crises of the Weimar republic. The femme fatale in her castrating capacity is a marker for historical upheaval and male subjectivity in flux. She is ultimately the scapegoat for male questions of self and a split subjectivity brought on by historical events such as war and the experience of exile. Her various guises include the criminal woman, the technological entity, and the double.