Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item American Blackness and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Twenty-First Century German Literature and Film(2014) Wall, Christina Noelle; Frederiksen, Elke P; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study represents a unique examination of the convergence of constructs of Blackness and racism in twenty-first century novels and films by white Germans and Austrians in order to demonstrate how these texts broaden discourses of Vergangenheitsbewältigung. The increased prominence of minority voices demanding recognition of their national identity within Nazi successor states has transformed white German perceptions of "Germanness" and of these nations' relationships to their turbulent pasts. I analyze how authors and directors employ constructs of Blackness within fictional texts to interrogate the dynamics of historical and contemporary racisms. Acknowledging that discourses of `race' are taboo, I analyze how authors and directors avoid this forbidden discourse by drawing comparisons between constructs of American Blackness and German and Austrian historical encounters with `race'. This study employs cultural studies' understanding of `race' and Blackness as constructs created across discourses. Following the example of Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark (1992), my textual analyses show how these constructs create a "playground for the imagination" in which authors confront modern German racism. My study begins with a brief history of German-African American encounters, emphasizing the role American Blackness played during pivotal moments of German national identity formation. The subsequent chapters are divided thematically, each one comprised of textual analyses that explore discourses integral to Vergangenheitsbewältigung. The third chapter examines articulations of violence and racism in two films, Oskar Roehler's Lulu & Jimi (2008) and Michael Schorr's Schultze gets the blues (2008), to explore possibilities of familial reconciliation despite historical guilt. The fourth chapter compares the Besatzungskinder protagonists of two novels, Peter Henisch's Schwarzer Peter (2000) and Larissa Boehning's Lichte Stoffe (2007), with the (auto)biographies of actual Besatzungskinder Ika Hügel-Marshall and Bärbel Kampmann, exposing the modern discursive taboo of `race' as a silence stemming from historical guilt. The final chapter demonstrates the evolution of German conceptualizations of historical guilt through the analyses of Christa Wolf's novel Stadt der Engel (2010) and Armin Völckers's film Leroy (2007).Item Exotik, Erotik und Haremkultur: Zur Gender-Problematik im deutschen Orientalismus des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts(2014) Baysal Walsh, Melda Ina; Frederiksen, Elke P.; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Arabian nights, oriental women, the harem, exoticism, and eroticism: what else comes to mind when thinking of the colorful world of the Orient? In order to challenge these Western stereotypes, which have been abundant since the Middle Ages and reflect only a few of the many prejudices contained in the Western understanding of "Orientalism" , my study examines cultural representations of oriental, African and occidental women in literary texts by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German and Austrian writers (Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ida Hahn-Hahn, Peter Altenberg, Else Lasker-Schüler) as well as in the visual arts. Stereotypical images of oriental women are based on assumptions and claims made by eighteenth-century Western philosophers and travellers (e.g. Kant, Herder, Forster), creating misinterpretations of the Orient which appeared to be the perfect place to act out "male" fantasies. While using cultural studies approaches including oriental, post-colonial, and gender studies, this dissertation establishes a new theoretical framework on Gender and Orientalism, and aims to contribute significantly to a new understanding of the Orientalism debate within the German and European contexts. An in-depth discussion of the "harem" as cultural text and multifaceted metaphor discloses this realm as a space for cross-cultural female encounter where hybrid identity formations of culturally diverse women arise.Item Rilke's Russian Encounter and the Transformative Impact on the Poet(2014) Finney, Victoria; Beicken, Peter U; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Russian culture had a pivotal role in the development of Rainer Maria Rilke's poetic perception and evolution. As late as 1922, Rilke emphatically claimed that Russian culture made him into what he is. Decades earlier, during his visits to Russia in 1899 and 1900, Rilke encountered many Russians from different walks of life: writers, artists, intellectuals and ordinary folk. Having immersed himself in the study of Russian language, literature, visual arts and religious ritual, Rilke prepared himself for a most intensive acculturation of Russia as a cultural other. This cultural encounter often has been critiqued as shallow and tainted by the poet's preconceived Western ideas. In contrast, by examining opposing critical views, this study investigates, interdisciplinarily and from the perspective of transculturation, how three central concepts of Rilke - poverty, love, and the artist's role - were substantially transformed by his absorption of Russian cultural and literary discourses. Russia is defined here as a `representational space,' employing Henri Levebvre's concept of geographical space consisting of both physical attributes and imaginary symbols. Using Wilhelm Dilthey's concept of `lived experience', the study approaches Rilke's Russian encounter as a holistic intercultural experience on both conscious and unconscious levels. Incorporating these theoretical aspects into a modified concept of transculturation, the study transcends the question of accuracy of Rilke's Russian depictions so often raised in biographical studies that insist on positivistic factuality. Instead, approached transculturally, Rilke's Russian encounter highlights the transformative changes that the poet's subjective perceptions and poetic development underwent. This is enhanced by the references to and analyses of Rilke's works informed by his Russian encounter. Most significantly, Rilke's transculturation as informed by his transformative Russian encounter generates the development of the concept of a compassionate imagination based on the idea of universal interconnectedness. This fostered Rilke's unique view of the individual as an integral part of a universal unity, by which the individual is considered inherently worthy regardless of limiting attributes such as social class or gender. This perception channeled Rilke's idea that the tragedy of the poor and the root of modern inability to love are to be found in the constant construction of identities imposed on an individual by others. For Rilke, after his Russian encounter, art's purpose was to create awareness of the individual's place in the universal unity.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.