Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item Hans Magnus Enzensberger: Ein romantischer Marxist?(2010) Hildebrandt, William Thomas; Frederiksen, Elke P; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The German poet, essayist, publicist and intellectual Hans Magnus Enzensberger has been difficult to clearly define for readers and critics alike. This investigation examines the complimentary interplay between important aspects of German Romanticism and dialectical Marxist thought in the aesthetic and socio-political contexts that have shaped Enzensberger's lengthy writing career. It aims to illustrate his underlying adherence to these principles as evidenced by his chosen subject matter and the aesthetic creation and destruction of the artistic self in his own work. Using a combination of romantic irony and dialectical movement, Enzensberger's continued position as a romantic Marxist can be shown in his constant productive appropriation of emerging social conditions, as well as in his adaptability and self-reflective intellectual growth. The analysis begins with Enzensberger's provocative early poetry and expands existing literary research by shifting the main focus to his more recent essay production.Item Die Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) als kulturelles Phänomen: Repräsentationen in literarischen Texten und anderen kulturellen Produkten(2009) Naylor, Sylvia; Frederiksen, Elke P.; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Red Army Faction (RAF), a radical West German left-wing terrorist group that existed from 1970 to 1998, has been the focus of numerous literary and non-literary texts. I argue that due to the appearance of the RAF in a wide variety of cultural products, such as literary texts, art, music, movies, and the media, one must now examine the RAF as a part of German cultural discourses. I analyze a broad spectrum of texts that are representative of the various portrayals of the RAF over the years, including the short story Lenau by Günter Herburger (1972), the drawing Gruppenbild mit Dame by Gerboth (1972), the film Die bleierne Zeit by Margarethe von Trotta (1981), the drama Berliner November by Holger Teschke (1987), the drama Leviathan by Dea Loher (1993), the drama Rinderwahnsinn by John von Düffel (1999), the painting Meinhof by Johannes Kahrs (2001), the film Baader by Christopher Roth (2002), and newspaper articles from the 1970s to the present. This research project presents an interdisciplinary analysis, incorporating the methodological paradigms of New Historicism and Gender Studies, in order to examine the RAF as a cultural phenomenon. I investigate the portrayal of the RAF in literary and non-literary texts since 1970 with the purpose of understanding how the representations in these texts can be interpreted as products of the political, cultural, and social environment from which they arose. This dissertation analyzes numerous aspects of the RAF discourse, including: (1) how did representations of the RAF in different areas, such as politics, literary texts, and the media contrast and/or influence each other? (2) how did portrayals of the RAF differ in West and East Germany? (3) how did representations of the RAF change over the years? and (4) how were female RAF members depicted in literary and non-literary texts and what role did gender identity in German society play in these depictions?Item Bildung and Gender in Nineteenth-Century Bourgeois Germany: A Cultural Studies Analysis of Texts by Women Writers(2008-05-30) Gary, Cauleen; Frederiksen, Elke P; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Throughout the course of the nineteenth century, the German Bildungsbürgertum used the civic and inner components of Bildung defined by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) as a means to characterize its social identity and prominence. Together with the transitions related to the industrialization of society in the second half of the century, the German intellectual middle class recognized the changes of Bildung that adapted to the expansion of the bourgeois public sphere but simultaneously upheld the construction of the "eternal feminine" that emerged during the period of Weimar Classicism around 1800. Therefore, the idea of Bildung became associated with the cultural reality of young men. This event leads to the question: If bourgeois society excluded women from the process of inner and civic Bildung, how did women in return view themselves as members of the Bildungsbürgertum? Drawing on both the inner and civic aspects of Bildung, this project investigates the interrelationship of Bildung and gender as portrayed in a variety of literary and non-literary texts. Selected writings by Fanny Lewald (1811-1889), Hedwig Dohm (1833-1919), Franziska Tiburtius (1843-1927), Gabriele Reuter (1859- 1941), and Ricarda Huch (1864-1947) reveal that many women created new interpretations of Bildung that were quite different from the mainstream conception defined by the male public voice. In addition, a variety of texts from the nineteenthcentury press shows how women simultaneously raised awareness of the gender paradox in Bildung in mainstream bourgeois culture, particularly by women associated with the nineteenth-century German bourgeois women's movement. The methodological paradigms of New Historicism and Gender Studies play a vital role in my analyses of women's Bildung as it existed in a cultural discourse of "otherness",and how women's Bildung changed and shifted throughout the course of the century. My project examines the role of gender within multiple contexts of Bildung as portrayed in the texts mentioned above. These discourses include upbringing, selfawareness, self-cultivation, literacy, institutionalized education, and vocational training. In addition, my analysis asks how Bildung played a role in either creating or breaking a woman's gender consciousness and idea of "self" in regards to the construction of "proper" femininity.Item Stoic Farmers, Silent Women: The Portrayal of the Icelandic Family in two Novels by Halldór Laxness(2008-05-05) Parker, Robert Jennings; Oster, Rose-Marie G; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nobel Prize winning author Halldór Laxness enjoyed using the "typical" Icelandic farmer as his protagonist. Always at his side are his family members, with whom interactions are often very limited and rather reserved. Within the dynamic of this stoic family, there are several discourses to be seen, all of which speak to the state of women and the hierarchy of the family in Iceland during this somewhat depressing time in their history. The minimal presence of voice is apparent throughout the majority of Laxness' works and is especially present in Independent People (1946) and Paradise Reclaimed (1960). A general silence from all characters, husbands and wives as well as sons and daughters, is an important element and helps to better understand the culturally reserved Scandinavian people, especially Icelanders.Item West Meets East: Multicultural Perspectives in Two Works of German Youth Literature(2008-05-05) Harrington, Stefanie S; Strauch, Gabriele; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the portrayal of multiculturalism in two works of German youth literature, Rafik Schami's Erzähler der Nacht (1989) and Aygen-Sibel Çelik's Seidenhaar (2007). The paper first provides an overview of the origin of the concept in German political and social discussions, background on literature by foreign-born authors, as well as an overview of children and youth literature, and its role in the socialization of youth. Next, it outlines the objective of this study and the background of the authors, novels and selection criteria. The paper then presents an analysis of both novels and discusses how each text constructs multicultural identities. Using the analysis, the paper concludes that youth literature plays an important role in breaking down stereotypes.Item Brazil after Humboldt - Triangular Perceptions and the Colonial Gaze in Nineteenth-Century German Travel Narratives(2008-01-30) Diggs, Cerue Kesso; Frederiksen, Elke P.; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project is a study of nine German travel narratives on Brazil written between 1803 and 1899, identifying their contribution to the discourses on German national identity in the nineteenth century. Famous German explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1834) influenced travelers to explore Brazil, the part of South America that he was not able to enter for political reasons. I approach their accounts from new historicist and post/colonial perspectives. My thesis is that these narratives help construct a German national identity that occupies a fluid (colonial) position in response to diverse "Others" encountered in colonial Brazil. While contributing to the study of travel literature, my dissertation contributes significantly to the field of German Cultural Studies by applying a post/colonial approach to the reading of German texts. Chapter I locates my investigation theoretically at the intersection between post/colonialism - the critique of colonization and colonial ideology - and new historicism - the reading of texts within their historical contexts, identifying discourses by juxtaposing them with various other contemporary texts. Katrin Sieg's concept of triangular thinking and Susanne Zantop's idea of colonial fantasies are instrumental in my reading. Chapter II places my selection of travelogues in the historical contexts of nineteenth-century Germany and Brazil, underscoring their paths to nationhood and changes in Wissenschaft. Chapter III shows that Alexander von Humboldt's influence on German explorers of Brazil is more evident in the scope of their research than in their writing styles. Chapter IV interprets German travelers as surprised yet critical flâneurs in Rio de Janeiro, as skeptical listeners to the stories of German immigrants, and seekers of Germania in their responses to Brazilian women. Chapter V shows how a German understanding of 'race' as an ingredient of national identity colors the travelers' anthropological observations of blacks and native populations in Brazil. Through various triangulations, German travelers to Brazil ambivalently identified with Portuguese colonizers and, at times, with colonized subjects (native populations, blacks), constructing diverse colonial/nationalistic fantasies in their narratives. All of these texts bare witness to specific historical events, and provide a comparative view of nationalism in nineteenth-century Germany and Brazil.Item Runic Magic(2007-05-03) Bishop, Christopher; Oster, Rose-Marie; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis seeks to illustrate that runes were considered magical even if also utilized as an alphabetic script. This argument will be achieved by first looking at scholarly arguments concerning the characters' origins. However, though runes may be compared to other scripts, there existed a belief among the Old Norse people that the runes contained more and that even their true origins could be found in the divine. These divine connections are not without problems as they seem to fall into two categories involving male and female divinities. In addition, it will be shown that the practice of runic magic can be separated into three major categories: curse, cure/protection, and prophecy. More mundane, but equally important subjects such as memorials and inheritance will also be explored. Finally, lingering traces of runes continuing until today will be viewed to gauge lasting effects of the runes even after their primary time period.Item 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.Item Mimetischer Zauber: Die englischsprachige Rezeption deutscher Lieder in den USA, 1830-1880(2005-04-22) Hadamer, Armin Werner; Frederiksen, Elke; Germanic Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The English-language reception of German songs in the United States was a textual practice that extended across many social contexts in the 19th century. Translation, adaptation and circulation of these songs were a form of rhetorical and quasi mimetic representation that helped various American discourses constitute their worlds and identities (Transcendentalism, reform movements, revivalism, education, popular culture, political parties and the Civil War). Homi Bhabha's concept of the "Third Space" is a valid approach to the reception as these discourses made German songs part of their negotiations of American national identity, class, moral values, gender, and ethnicity, thus creating their own usable as well as ambivalent German point of reference. German and American cultures did not simply coexist in symbiotic relations. Rather, as the reception shows, they constructed their identities and differences through multiple intertextual relations within a shared discursive sphere of song. Cultural transfer was thus as much an inside as an outside phenomenon. The dissertation builds on extensive archival research and a collection of several hundred German songs, each with melody and English text, ranging from the Classics, Romanticism, the Napoleonic Wars, to German, Austrian and Swiss folk songs. The main objective is to move the American reception of German songs from its hidden archival existence into the light of scholarly investigation by applying an interdisciplinary Cultural Studies approach. The dissertation uses Michel Foucault's discourse analysis to refine this approach methodologically, demonstrating with an in-depth archeology the discursive function of the songs within their contexts. Two results of this analysis are crucial. First, it goes significantly beyond the existing scholarship on German-American relations in the 19th century (New England Transcendentalists, immigrant history) as it explores the German within the wider contexts of American popular culture. Second, by doing so it reads these relations against their scholarly and collective narratives, sharing Walter Benjamin's emancipatory vision of history as a site of potentially many readings. In addition, the dissertation contributes to a broader understanding of German literature within the historical, cultural and interdisciplinary contexts of German Studies.Item 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 LiteratureABSTRACT 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.