Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2785
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Item "Schweigen als Herausforderung": Silence as a Generational Challenge in the Post Holocaust Works of East German Jewish Authors Jurek Becker and Barbara Honigmann(2020) McDaniel, Jocelyn; Beicken, Peter; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines how two postwar Jewish writers from the former German Democratic Republic, Jurek Becker, a child survivor of the Holocaust, and Barbara Honigmann, a descendent of returned Jewish communist emigres and a second-generation writer, depicted and challenged a culture of silence, “Schweigen,” concerning Holocaust memory and Jewish identity in postwar Germanophone societies. This study emphasizes the unique East German context that influenced both authors. “Schweigen” is defined as a societal phenomenon of binary emotional trauma. Facing the inevitable "Schuldfrage" (Jaspers, 1946), many postwar Germans found it arduous to come to terms with the inhumanity of the Third Reich, while many Jewish victims suffered from the shame of survival. In the GDR, “Schweigen” was compounded by the state’s propagation of antifascism and a prescriptive cultural heritage, Kulturerbe, encompassing the abdication of guilt from the fascist past, the minimization of Jewish victimhood, and misappropriation of Holocaust memory. Becker and Honigmann, whose parents were victimized by the Third Reich, grew up in the GDR, a communist state. Foremost, their family backgrounds, generational attitudes, and perceptions of East German socialism shaped their contrasting writings concerning the cultural silencing of Holocaust memory and complexity of Jewish identity. Literary trauma theory, memory studies, and gender studies bring these (dis)continuities into focus. Five chapters are devoted to the authors’ development in the GDR and their literary responses to “Schweigen” within the limitations of East German cultural heritage. Both oeuvres are therapeutic undertakings impacted by experienced and inherited Holocaust-trauma. The analyses of Becker's life and his novels, Jakob der Lügner, Der Boxer, and Bronsteins Kinder, reveal his adoption of the humanist tradition of socialism that stands against the dangers of fascism, while dissenting from the GDR’s official cultural doctrine. In life and writing, Honigmann forsakes East German Kulturerbe by recreating her own German Jewish identity and cultural heritage. Her autofictive works reject communism and the generational assimilation of her family in favor of Jewish spirituality, feminist assertions, and multiculturalism. The comparison of both authors and their Holocaust-relevant writings likewise endeavors to counter the dual waning of Holocaust memory and East German national memory.Item "Barbarous Berlin": Narratives of Queerness, Space, Survival, and Memory in a Liminal City(2018) Joyner, Raleigh; Baer, Hester; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The intent of my work is to explore the relationships between history, space, community, and movement in and through the city of Berlin throughout the last century. I trace common threads of liminality, memory, survival, and the relationships between the urban space and the individual over a 100-year period. The three periods that I particularly focus on are the Weimar era (1919-1933), the division of Germany and Berlin (1961-1989), and the reestablishment of Germany as a united country (1990-present).Item The Sword and the Pen: Life Writings by Militant-Authors of the Việt Minh and Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)(2016) Hoang, Phuong; Orlando, Valerie K; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines four life writings by militant-authors of the Việt Minh and Front de la Libération Nationale (FLN): Ngô Văn Chiêu’s Journal d’un combattant Viet-Minh (1955), Đặng Văn Việt’s De la RC 4 à la N 4: la campagne des frontières (2000), Si Azzedine’s On nous appelait fellaghas (1976), and Saadi Yacef’s two-volume La Bataille d’Alger (2002). In describing the Vietnamese and Algerian Revolutions through the perspectives of combatants who participated in their respective countries’ national liberation struggles, the texts reveal that four key factors motivated the militants and led them to believe that independence was historically inevitable: (1) a philosophical, political, and ideological framework, (2) the support of multiple segments of the local population, (3) the effective use of guerrilla and psychological warfare, and (4) military, moral, and political assistance provided by international allies. By fighting for the independence of their countries and documenting their revolutionary experiences, the four militant-authors leave their mark on the world using both the sword and the pen.Item "Je ne vous dirai point, mon très cher fils" Correspondance de Catherine de Charrière de Sévery 1780-1783(2016) Lanz, Anne-Marie; Benharrech, Sarah; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the principles of education imbued in a three year correspondence between an eighteenth century woman and her teenage son from the French speaking region of Vaud, current day Switzerland. Despite her great respect for the literature and ideas of the new pedagogues of the Enlightenment, especially J.J. Rousseau and Mme de Genlis, Catherine de Charrière de Sévery maintained the traditional perspective of education of the Ancien Régime. To explore the concepts of education and instruction through the epistolary practice, this research is based on the corpus of 107 letters that Mme de Sévery wrote to her son Vilhelm between 1780 and 1783. Additional documents - among them Mme de Sévery’s diaries - from the particularly rich archival holdings of this aristocratic family have been used to complement her correspondence. Most previous studies on family correspondence have dealt with mothers to daughters, or fathers to sons, whereas this research is centered on letters between a mother and her son. The location of this family – Lausanne and the Pays de Vaud – provides a particular regional perspective due to two factors: immersion into a region uniformly Protestant, and the dual-influence of Germanic and French cultures. The study analyzes the educational principles that appear throughout Mme de Sévery’s letters by comparison with three literary works of the 18th century: a familiar correspondence, the Lettres du Lord Chesterfield à son fils (1776); the fundamental education treatise by J.J. Rousseau, Émile, ou de l’Éducation (1762); and a pedagogical treatise written by Mme de Genlis as an epistolary novel, Adèle et Théodore, ou lettres sur l’éducation. Using letters as the main tool to guide her son’s upbringing, Mme de Sévery highlights the moral and family values that are most important to her and leads him to find his place in society.Item Violencia politica en la narrativa colombiana(2015) Hidalgo, Chila Beatriz; Aguilar Mora, Jorge; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although Colombia has been hailed as a long-standing democracy in Latin America, the country has lived in a State of permanent war for two centuries. In the nineteenth century, Colombia was the scene of eight general civil wars, fourteen local civil wars and three military uprisings. Also, in the twentieth century, it witnessed one of the biggest insurrections in the Western Hemisphere, followed by the longest of its wars that is elusively called “La Violence”. This dissertation addresses precisely the political violence triggered by the rivalry of the two traditional political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives in the 1940s and 1950s. By using two early representative works of what critics have deemed a genre in its self, “the violence novel in Colombia," this work traces a systematic political violence that is rooted in a long history but manifest new scenarios and practices. The first novel is Carlos Pareja’s El Monstruo (1955), which recounts the details of the assassination of the liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on April 9, 1948, and the subsequent wave of violence that destroyed downtown Bogotá. The second work is Daniel Caicedo’s Viento seco (1954), which presents the political terror implemented by the conservative governments of Mariano Ospina Pérez (1946-1950) and Laureano Gómez (1950-1953), in order to obliterate the liberal leaning citizens. Through these textual reenactments of violence, the reader can access a history that has been suppresses and censored by the Sate while gaining an understanding of the methodology behind the rituals of political violence. This study reveals how the State suspends all legal structures becoming a criminal State, a State that is the enemy of its own society and that only can be exposed by the testimony of literature. As a theoretical framework, this dissertation dialogues with fundamental concepts explored by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamín, Elias Canetti, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Also, it engages the specific anthropological studies of María Victoria Uribe, Donny Meertens and Pierre Clastres, in order to reveal the cultural symbolism of biopolitical rituals that feed on bodies and death. This reevaluation of “La Violencia” can help contextualize for the waves of violence that have subsequently affected Colombia.Item Viajeros españoles a Rusia: Cartografía de una ilusión, 1917-1939(2015) BECERRIL LONGARES, MARIA ELENA; NAHARRO-CALDERÓN, JOSÉ M; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Spanish travel accounts and their search for a better society in the USSR between the 1917 Russian Revolution and the end of the Spanish Civil War (1939) were marked by socialist ideas that had taken strong root in early 20th century Spain. Eventually, the II Spanish Republic (1931-39) was perceived as a possible springboard for spreading the worldwide worker’s revolution. New Humanist ideals were also combined with theories of perfect governance and the renaissance of Utopias. Antonio Machado, a poetic icon, praised the revolutionary “goodness” early on and was an advocate for the need for change among Spanish society. Battleship Potemkin and other films contributed to the Spanish proletariat’s revolutionary awakening and participation. In this socio-historical context, ideologically diverse intellectuals began their travels to the USSR seeking to confirm firsthand the “Russian experiment.” They ranged from later renowned authors such as Rafael Alberti, Max Aub or Manuel Chaves Nogales to the forgotten, like León Villanúa or Amado Blanco. Upon these voyagers’ return to Spain they availed themselves of a myriad of literary genres: testimony literature, personal memoirs, autobiography, travelogues and parodies, their impressions and experiences quickly becoming widespread. Therefore, my dissertation dissects the impact and reception of the Russian Other throughout these diverse Spanish traveler’s accounts, imaginaries, and their reader’s reception as well as the structural changes evident in this diverse corpus and its authors. It also turns a critical eye towards the Russian miracle agitprop rhetoric and the decline and crisis of the USSR Spanish travel examples, particularly during the post 1939 Spanish Civil War exile, the Cold War and Stalinism horror revelations.Item MAPPING GERMANY'S COLONIAL DISCOURSE: FANTASY, REALITY AND DILEMMA(2013) OKAFOR, UCHE ONYEDI; FREDERIKSEN, ELKE; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: MAPPING GERMANY'S COLONIAL DISCOURSE: FANTASY, REALITY, AND DILEMMA Uche Onyedi Okafor, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013. Dissertation directed by: Professor Elke P. Frederiksen Department of Germanic Studies School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures This project engages Germany's colonial discourse from the 18th century to the acquisition of colonies in East Africa during the period of European imperialism. Germany's colonial discourse started with periphery travels and studies in the 18th century. The writings of German scholars and authors about periphery space and peoples provoked a strong desire to experience the exotic periphery among Germans, particularly the literate bourgeoisie. From a spectatorial and critical positioning vis-à-vis the colonial activities of other Europeans, Germans developed a projected affinity with the oppressed peoples of the periphery. Out of the identificatory positioning with the periphery peoples emerged the fantasy of "model/humane" colonialism (Susanne Zantop). However, studies in Germany's colonial enterprise reveal a predominance of brutality and inhumanity right from its inception in 1884. The conflictual relationship between the fantasy of "model/humane" colonialism and the reality of brutality and inhumanity, as studies reveal, causes one to wonder what happened along the way. This is the fundamental question this project deals with. Chapter one establishes the validity of the theoretical and methodological approaches used in this project - Cultural Studies, New Historicism and Postcolonialism. Chapter two is a review of secondary literatures on Germany's colonial enterprise in general, and in Africa in particular. Chapter three focuses on the emergence of the fantasy of "model/humane" colonialism as discussed in Johann Reinhold Forster's Observations made during a Voyage round the World, 1778, and its demonstration in Joachim Heinrich Campe's Robinson der Jüngere, 1789. Section one of chapter four discusses the constellations which provided the impetus for colony acquisition (Friedrich Fabri's Bedard Deutschland der Colonien?, 1879), and the activities of Carl Peters, the founder of German East Africa as depicted in Balder Olden's Ich bin Ich. Der Roman Carl Peters, 1927. Section two examines German colonists' efforts to consolidate Germany's hold on the colonial property (Frieda von Bülow's Der Konsul. Vaterländischer Roman aus unseren Tagen, 1891, and Im Lande der Verheißung: Ein deutscher Kolonialroman, 1899). Chapter five discusses the concept of dilemma in the conflictual relationship between the fantasy of "model/humane" colonialism and the reality of colonialism. Chapter six summarizes the findings of the project.Item Hechos de orillas: Nuevas expresiones de la identidad judeo-argentina contemporanea(2007-04-13) Ran, Amalia; Sosnowski, Saul; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The search of the Jewish immigrants for a consolidated identity, social and cultural integration, and recognition within the "official" History of Argentina is narrated through a web of personal stories and family genealogies that disclose the struggles with the collective memories in order to create a new "text": the story of the Jewish Argentineans. After more than a century of Jewish presence in Argentina, what is the importance of these stories for the current identification of these individuals? What is the significance of "being a Jew" -a descendant of immigrants, the other for many generations-, and of "being Argentinean" -a citizen with full political rights and a social actor? This dissertation focuses on novels created in Argentina, Spain, France, United States and Israel by descendants of Jewish immigrants to Argentina and by those born in that country. It examines the current shifting trends in defining the personal and collective identity of Jewish Argentineans in Argentina and its Diaspora. I assess the relevance of geographical spaces, national boundaries, languages and gender for the personal identification with the "imagined community" of the argentinidad and propose different ways to resolve the identity crisis of these individuals whose personal stories had been excluded from the canonical History documented by the state. I argue that the nostalgic return to the migrant past, the revision of symbolic national patrimonies and the redefinition of the collective identity enable new self expressions, and analyze the significance of these discourses through three different perspectives: first, I examine the impact of the distance created by the passing of time. The novels use the "Wandering Jew" as a literary resort in order to dialogue with past events and present an alternative version of it. Second, I evaluate the relevance of geographical distances and linguistic gaps in the formation of the national, cultural and personal identities, upon the nostalgic return to the past, and a sense of dislocation associated with this act. Finally, I examine the importance of biographical elements, such as gender, class and generational differences, for the Jewish and Argentinean identification at the beginning of the XXI century.