Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2785

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    Manifestations of the Body: The depiction of the Human Body in the 16th Century Germany as expressed in Texts by Martin Luther
    (2007-04-25) Glockner, Gunther Johannes; Pfister, Guenter; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The foremost concern of this study is to articulate the thoughts and attitudes towards the notion of embodiment during the first half of the 16th century. The dissertation argues that in depicting the concept of the body within the social order as well as within the thoughts of an individual, one must look at the cultural traditions of that society, because assumptions of the body are always socially constructed. In capturing the voice of the time, attention is given to the texts of Martin Luther. The findings of the research show, that body perceptions of the time are encoded in church theology, scholastic philosophy, cultural practice, and institutionalized pedagogy.
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    The Mother of All Russian Cities: Three Perspectives on the Rise Of Kievan Russia in the 9th Century: The Multiethnic State of the Rus' in the Historical-Cultural Framework of the 'Normanist Controversy'
    (2005-06-23) Pasternak, James Michael; Oster, Rose-Marie; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis examines the ethno-political factors involved in the founding of the first 'Russian' state in Kiev in the 9th century. The rise of Kiev is considered through the historical frame of the so-called 'Normanist Controversy,' which was initiated by German academicians at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the 18th century. The questions of early Russian state history are contextualized through an analysis of the history of the nationalistic internal politics of the Controversy. This work assumes a multicultural approach to the question of Kievan Rus' identity which transcends the traditional polarized thinking of the 'Normanist' and 'Anti-Normanist' factions. Three principal 'ethno-political' representations of Kievan history emphasize the autochthonous character of the state formation process and consider the multicultural contributions of the Scandinavians, Slavs, and nomadic tribes during the Great Migration Period, as well as the cultural and political-economic influence of Byzantium on the rise of Kievan power.
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    Samoa - 'Perle' der deutschen Kolonien? 'Bilder' des exotischen Anderen in Geschichte(n) des 20. Jahrhunderts
    (2004-04-21) DiPaola, Kathrin; Frederiksen, Elke; Germanic Language and Literature
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation:SAMOA PERLE' DER DEUTSCHEN KOLONIEN? BILDER' DES EXOTISCHEN ANDEREN IN GESCHICHTE(N) DES 20. JAHRHUNDERTS Kathrin DiPaola, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Elke Frederiksen Department of Germanic Studies Comparable to a 'lost paradise' with its pleasant climate and peaceful inhabitants as well as its considerable profits from the export of copra, Western Samoa was considered the 'pearl' of the German colonial empire, which offered an ideal platform for portraying Germany as a 'model child' among the colonizing nations. Drawing on well-established 18th century stereotypes of the South Pacific as a place of archaic beauty, social equality, and uninhibited sexuality, German authors at the end of the 19th and early 20th century still used familiar images of the 'exotic other' to define and justify a new political, imperialistic, and ideological 'German self' within the colonial context. The selected travel narratives and novels Otto Ehlers' Samoa- Perle der Südsee (1900), Erich Scheurmann's Paitea und Ilse (1919), Emil Reche's Kifanga, Frieda Zieschank's Ein verlorenes Paradies (both 1924), and Herbert Nachbar's Der Weg nach Samoa (1976) are representative of a broader body of work that promotes the notion of a predetermined understanding of the 'self' and the 'other' as a form of national and individual identification in 20th century colonial literature. In order to reveal the most common stereotypes that propagated the image of a 'German South Pacific', postcolonial theories provide the appropriate analytical tools to describe and deconstruct existing dependencies between colonizing 'self' and colonized 'other' by asking the following key questions: Is the encounter between 'self' and 'other' characterized by specific patterns? How do these patterns pre-determine the 'other'? How does the portrayal of the 'other' define the 'self'? My analysis focuses on three major categories that are instrumental in the process of 'appropriating the other': 1) literary space vs. 'real' geography, 2) literary space and pre-existing images of the 'other', and 3) literary space and the exotic-erotic. A thorough investigation of the themes mentioned above, preceded by a general overview of constructed properties of the image of the 'South Seas', leads me to the conclusion that Samoa was indeed the proclaimed 'pearl' of the German colonial empire because it could easily be adjusted to changing political and cultural settings of 20th century German realities.