2024-03-29T12:19:29Zhttps://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/oai/requestoai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/118242021-07-27T02:00:30Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Kling, Jutta Cornelia
author
2014-09
This thesis identifies strategies of queer/irony in the writings of Lord Byron, Heinrich Heine, Theodor Fontane, and Oscar Wilde. Key to the understanding of irony is Friedrich Schlegel's re-evaluation of the concept. The thesis establishes an approach to the multifaceted concept of irony and identify key concepts of queer theory. The focus, however, is close reading. First, Lord Byron's epic satire Don Juan is read with regards to the interplay of narrative strategies and the depiction of gender, homoeroticism and the concept of the child. Furthermore, reviews published at the time of the publication of Don Juan are examined: Why did the reviewers reject the work so violently? Second, in Heine's Buch der Lieder we find ironic strategies that Richard Rorty subsumed into the concept of 'final vocabularies.' By acknowledging the formulaic nature of language in general and Romantic tropes in particular, Heine succeeds in subverting a heteronormative discourse on love and desire. Heine's Reisebilder – 'Die Reise von München nach Genua' and 'Die Bäder von Lucca' – depict the limits of queer/irony: Where meaning is fixed, as in the case of the Platen polemic, irony loses its propensity to contain multitudes. Third, Theodor Fontane's novels of adultery are read against the background of irony as established through a Schlegelian reading of Frau Jenny Treibel and a queer reading of Ellernklipp. The novels Unwiederbringlich and Effi Briest question notions of truth and map the danger of knowledge. At the core of this chapter lies the notion of 'knowledge management,' a strategy closely related to irony. The figure of the courtier Pentz in Unwiederbringlich becomes a harbinger of dangerous, queer knowledge similar to the way Crampas' use of Heine quotations negotiates sexually suggestive knowledge in Effi Briest. In a final step, the aforementioned queer/ironic strategies are employed to read texts by Oscar Wilde. Are the strategies as inferred in the other chapters valid for Wilde's writings as well? We find that, in a time where homoerotic behaviour was heavily sanctioned, ironic writing had become a liability. Wilde's ironies are too opaque for the reader: They have become a movement where nobody is allowed to 'play along.'
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11824
On knowingness : irony and queerness in the works of Byron, Heine, Fontane, and Wilde
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133932019-04-01T09:03:28Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Hollis, Margaret Mair Cameron
author
1969-09
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13393
The significance of the description of works of art in German prose fiction from 1830-1900
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/112892019-04-01T09:03:31Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Strauss, Werner
author
2004-07
This study describes and analyses the treatment of male characters in the work of the East German author, Irmtraud Morgner. The main focus of the thesis is on Morgner’s handling of masculinity in relation to her treatment of the fantastic. Given that the majority of scholarship on Morgner concentrates on feminist aspects of her work, the aim of this thesis is to redress this imbalance by concentrating on the importance to her fictional narratives of male figures. The ways in which Morgner portrays her male characters shed significant new light on the function of the fantastic in her work. A detailed analysis of her texts shows that Morgner excludes all but a few of her male characters from the fantastic. By investigating the reasons for this, the thesis seeks to contribute to a better understanding of Morgner’s complex views on gender issues. The argument is advanced that Morgner’s treatment of her male characters and their interaction, or lack of interaction with the fantastic, reveals a more nuanced disillusionment with society than emerges from examinations of her female characters alone. Such a reading therefore permits a deeper and more differentiated understanding of her work.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11289
The representation of male figures in the fiction of Irmtraud Morgner
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/7132019-07-01T10:05:07Zcom_10023_102com_10023_29com_10023_105col_10023_104col_10023_107col_10023_874
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Taylor, Judith Louise
author
2009-06-23
The project examines how German- and English-speaking translators of selected
Maigret novels by the Belgian crime writer Georges Simenon have dealt with cultural
and linguistic specificity, with a view to shedding light on how culture and language
translate. Following a survey of different theories of translation, an integrated theory
is applied in order to highlight what Simenon’s translators have retained and lost from
three selected source texts: Le Charretier de la Providence (1931), Les Mémoires de
Maigret (1951) and Maigret et les braves gens (1961). The examination of issues of
linguistic and cultural specificity is facilitated by application of an integrated theory
of translation coupled with the methodology devised by Hervey, Higgins and
Loughridge (1992, 1995 and 2002). In addition, consideration of paradigms of
detective fiction across the three cultures involved, and Simenon’s biography and
wider oeuvre, help elucidate the salient features of the selected source texts. In view of
the translators’ decisions, strategies for minimising various types of translation loss
are presented. While other studies of translation theory have examined literary and
technical texts, this study breaks new ground by focussing specifically on the
comparative analysis of detective fiction in translation.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/713
Comparative literature
Crime
Culture
Detective fiction
French
German
Maigret
Simenon
Stylistics
Translation
The specificity of Simenon: on translating 'Maigret'
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/7892019-04-01T09:02:39Zcom_10023_102com_10023_29com_10023_105col_10023_104col_10023_107col_10023_874
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Hauswedell, Tessa C.
author
2009-11-30
This thesis analyses processes of discursive European identity formation in three cultural journals: Esprit, from France, the British New Left Review and the German Merkur during the time periods 1989-92, and, a decade later, during 2003-06.
The theoretical framework which the thesis brings to bear on this analysis is that of the European Public Sphere. This model builds on Jürgen Habermas’s original model of a “public sphere”, and alleges that a sphere of common debate about issues of European concern can lead to a more defined and integrated sense of a European identity which is widely perceived as vague and inchoate. The relevancy of the public sphere model and its connection to the larger debate about European identity, especially since 1989, are discussed in the first part of the thesis.
The second part provides a comparative analysis of the main European debates in the journals during the respective time periods. It outlines the mechanisms by which identity is expressed and assesses when, and to what extent, shared notions of European identity emerge. The analysis finds that identity formation does not occur through a developmental, gradual convergence of views as the European public sphere model envisages. Rather, it is brought about in much more haphazard back-and-forth movements. Moreover, shared notions of European identity between all the journals only arise in moments of perceived crises. Such crises are identified as the most salient factor which galvanizes expressions of a common, shared sense of European identity across national boundaries and ideological cleavages.
The thesis concludes that the model of the EPS is too dependent on a partial view of how identity formation occurs and should thus adopt a more nuanced understanding about the complex factors that are at play in these processes. For the principled attempt to circumscribe identity formation as the outcome of communicative processes alone is likely to be thwarted by external events.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/789
European public sphere
European identity
Cultural journals
Intellectuals
Habermas
France
Great Britain
Germany
The formation of a European identity through a transnational public sphere? The case of three Western European cultural journals, 1989-2006
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/146162019-04-01T09:03:33Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Batista, Miguel
author
2003
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.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14616
Bildung and initiation : interpreting German and American narrative traditions
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/112872019-04-01T09:03:36Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Liston, Andrew Adams
author
2005-03
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.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11287
The ecological voice in recent German-Swiss prose
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133612019-04-01T09:03:36Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Wishart, Ruth
author
1994-07
This thesis examines the poetry of Georg Trakl within the context of literary decadence in Europe at the turn of the century (1880-1914). It provides an analysis of Trakl's early writing, and traces themes of literary decadence which recur throughout his work, particularly in the late prose and the dramatic fragment of 1914. In so doing, it also undertakes a comparative study of Trakl's poetry and decadent literature in Austria, Germany, France and England. Chapter One looks at the literary background and attempts a definition of what was understood by literary decadence in France and Germany at the end of the nineteenth century. Chapter Two examines motifs of crime and horror in Trakl's writing, paying particular attention to the concept of Lustmord in the early dramas Blaubart and Don Juans Tod and the later dramatic fragment of 1914. Chapter Three examines the issue of sexual guilt, and the portrayal of women in Trakl's poetry, from the femme fatale of the early poetry to the figure of the sister and the androgyne in the later poetry. Chapter Four traces the theme of blasphemy from the early lyric to the last poetic utterances of 1914, and touches briefly on the question of Trakl as a Christian poet. Chapter Five looks at motifs of isolation, obsession with death and decay, and poetry as the expression of the poet's etat d'ame. Chapter Six provides an analysis of the language and style of the early poetry, focusing on Trakl's affinity with the style of literary decadence.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13361
Georg Trakl and the literature of decadence
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/112102019-04-01T09:03:37Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Berneaud, Jean Margaret
author
1947
The middle of the 19th century marks a stage in the development of childhood portrayal in German literature. But to take Keller as a starting point rather than Gotthelf, is to recognize in the former the deliberate selectiveness of the artist, and the importance given by him to the whole period of childhood. The wealth of present-day literature dealing with children and childhood would seem to make the drawing of any line of demarcation something of an arbitrary matter. Yet the name of Carossa not only establishes a link with Keller in the poetic interpretation of childhood, but points to a culmination of artistic achievement within our own times.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11210
The portrayal of childhood in German fiction from Keller to Carossa
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133412019-04-01T09:03:38Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Williams, John Rosser
author
1968-06
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13341
The image of the moon in Goethe's works
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133492019-04-01T09:03:39Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Burns, Barbara
author
1991-07
The thesis is an. attempt to refute the indictment of Storm's work as being sentimental and melancholy, arguing that such a judgment fails to take account of the writer's portrayal of tragedy in the final seventeen years of his life. Chapter One analyses a number of aspects of Storm's thought and experience which disposed him towards a tragic view of the world: this includes an examination of the possible impact of the popular philosophies of Feuerbach, the Materialists, Darwin and Schopenhauer, as well as the significance of his educational background, his career as a judge, and his attitude to family life, religion, politics and society. Chapter Two considers the aesthetic convictions underlying Storm's conception and portrayal of tragedy, looking also at the idea of the Novelle as a suitable medium for tragedy and at the relationship between the author's later work and the tragedies of Naturalism. Chapters Three to Five present a detailed study of six individual Novellen which treat themes representative of Storm's work. Chapter Three focuses on Storm's attitude to the destructive potential of prejudice and superstition in society, taking Renate (1878) and Ein Doppelganger (1886) as examples of "The Tragedy of Social Compulsion". Chapter Four investigates his pessimistic preoccupation with the subject of heredity, discussing John Riew' (1885) and Der Herr Etatsrat (1881) as cases of "The Tragedy of Genetic Compulsion". Chapter Five is entitled "The Tragedy of Personal Responsibility": it examines Ein Bekenntnis (1887) and Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (1883) as Novellen in which the leading characters incur specific moral guilt, and considers the nature and results of their attempts to atone for their crime.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13349
Theory and patterns of tragedy in the later Novellen of Theodor Storm
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/272112023-12-15T11:58:47Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Osborn, Sam
author
2022-06-17
In this thesis, I explore the concept of queer visibility in the German Democratic Republic. I analyse a broad selection of literary and film texts, to ascertain how sexual and gender identities were conceptualised in the GDR. I apply key principles from queer theory, to gain an understanding of lived experience of queer people in the GDR. The chapters are divided thematically, including gender, social control, reproductive futurity, representation, and normativity. In Chapter One, I discuss gender roles and gendered imagery in the film, Alle meine Mädchen (1981); a collection of archive materials, and the short story by Detlef Opitz in 1990, 'LUST/IG. eine landschaft'. I show that the understanding of gender in the GDR was flexible; in the broadest sense, gender non-conformity includes many lesbians and gay men in its definition, positioning them on a spectrum between conventional gender roles. In Chapter Two, the discussion progresses to investigate the role of the family and the concepts of futurity. I come to understand futurity not as a unified influence, but as multiple forms of futurity, including socialist and alternative queer forms of futurity. Family structure leads to a wider discussion of social norms in Chapter Three where I position queer visibility as something to which individuals might strive but simultaneously as a quotidian, non-institutional form of surveillance. In Chapter Four, I engage with the question of representation and its differentiation from visibility. Often, representation leads to generalisation, tending towards greater normativity for queer representations, to avoid offending the sensibilities of cisheteronormative society. However, many queer sources were radical in their respective contexts and accepted by the queer community in the GDR. I make a significant contribution to the field of GDR studies, by bringing to light texts and other source material, the queer elements of which have previously been overlooked.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/27211
https://doi.org/10.17630/sta/351
GDR
Queer theory
Cultural production
Visibility
Gender
Futurities
Surveillance
Representation
Socialist Germany
German literature
German film
Trans studies
Gay and lesbian studies
Gender, queer imagery and queer visibility in the German Democratic Republic
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/152222019-04-01T09:03:41Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Mallett, Yvonne A.
author
1989-07
It is the purpose of this thesis to study a representative group of Middle High German poems, complemented in places by relevant Romance examples, in order to examine the image and position of the woman as portrayed through her relationships with her lover and the listening public. The first chapter looks at the early dialogue-songs which are characterised by the fact that the lovers do not generally communicate directly, but only talk about each other. Their sexual aspirations remain unfulfilled because of social restrictions. The last part of the chapter introduces an answered dialogue which gives new insights into the relationship between the protagonists and the listening public. The second chapter concentrates primarily on Reinmar's and Walter's dialogue-songs. It establishes that the image of the woman in these poems is determined by the poets' own needs and aims. The third chapter approaches the question of the variation of the image of the woman through an inquiry into the dawn-song. While following the development of the position of the woman from the potentially tragic to the comic it also illuminates the relationship between the woman and the male figures who appear in this genre. The final chapter sets against this an inquiry into the position of women in crusading and parting songs. These poems are all prompted by real-life situations. It concludes with a discussion of the way in which the woman's status depends upon her lover, as well as a description of changing attitudes towards the crusading movement. The most important overall conclusion is that the image of the woman is far more varied than is generally thought and that this diversity depends on the interplay between real-life observation and subsequent poetical relationship.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15222
So sprach daz Wip : women in dialogue with lover and court in Middle High German and Romance lyrics of the twelfth century and early thirteenth centuries
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/3172019-07-01T10:03:43Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Newman, Sigrid J.
author
2007-06-22
Through an examination of Joseph Roth’s reportage and fiction published between 1923 and 1932, this thesis seeks to provide a systematic analysis of a particular aspect of the author’s literary style, namely his use of sharply focused visual representations, which are termed Heuristic Visuals. Close textual analysis, supplemented by insights from reader-response theory, psychology, psycholinguistics and sociology illuminate the function of these visual representations. The thesis also seeks to discover whether there are significant differences and correspondences in the use of visual representations between the reportage and fiction genres. Roth believed that writers should be engagiert, and that the truth could only be arrived at through close observation of reality, not subordinated to theory. The research analyses the techniques by which Roth challenges his readers and encourages them to discover the truth for themselves. Three basic variants of Heuristic Visuals are identified, and their use in different contexts, including that of dialectical presentations, is explored. There is evidence of the use of different variants of Heuristic Visuals according to the respective rhetorical demands of particular thematic issues. It has also been possible to establish synchronic correspondences between the different genres, and diachronic correspondences within genres. Although there are examples within the reportage where the entire article is based on an Heuristic Visual, the use of Heuristic Visuals cannot be seen as a key organizing principle in Roth’s work as a whole. As his mastery of the technique reaches its highest point in the early 1930s, Heuristic Visuals are often incorporated into the reconstruction of a complete sensory experience. Analysis of Roth’s heuristic use of visual representations has led to important insights, including a reinterpretation of the endings of Roth’s two most famous novels: Hiob and Radetzkymarsch.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/317
Joseph Roth
Visual representation
Visual representation in the work of Joseph Roth, 1923-1932
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133902019-04-01T09:03:42Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Guthrie, Peter J.
author
1996
Dietrich von Bern was a figure of great importance in the Middle Ages, both in literary and cultural terms, in the German speaking area and beyond. Unlike other important literary figures, however, such as the Arthurian or Carolingian heroes, the literary form of the works in which he is the central character show extreme divergence in terms of theme and material. The "historical" epics show Dietrich in an essentially tragic role which has its origins in the narrative material of the Germanic heroic tradition. The aventiuren, on the other hand, show Dietrich pitted against a variety of unusual opponents, whose origins lie essentially in popular folk lore, and whose basic function is undoubtedly that of entertainment. This dissertation examines these two traditions with the premise that each of the works within them can inform us as to the reception and significance of Dietrich as a literary and cultural symbol in the thirteenth century. It is argued that the treatment of the "historical" tradition, as borne witness by the extant historical epics, demonstrates that this narrative tradition had lost much of its cultural and social relevance by the time these works were produced. The aventiuren, however, represent the literary adaptation of pre-existing traditional narrative elements, in a form which is much more immediately accessible to the thirteenth century public. It is further suggested that this narrative tradition was of sufficient independent strength not only to become the vehicle for resistance to incoming literary and social trends, but also to exert a certain influence over the development and reception of, in particular, later Middle High German Arthurian romance.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13390
The literary function of Dietrich von Bern in Middle High German heroic epic and aventiure
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/168342023-06-08T08:34:34Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Eck, Matthias
author
2017-06-22
In the quest for a positive alternative male gender identity (anti-hegemonic masculinity), this thesis
explores the representation of masculinities in contemporary German-language literature (focusing
on Austria) by examining selected works by Daniel Kehlmann, Doron Rabinovici and Arno Geiger.
The research combines close reading with critical theory on gender. While theory is used to
contextualize and critically evaluate findings from the texts, it is complemented and enhanced by
insights stemming from close reading, thereby contributing to the development of theory on
masculinities.
While there is evidence of hegemonic subversion in the novels, the three authors offer few
positive images of alternative masculinity. Kehlmann shows that hegemonic masculinity is a virtual
concept which provides gratification through fantasy. It impacts on reality because men accept it as
a standard for their own behaviour and social technologies constantly repeat this fantasy. Rabinovici
illustrates how Jewish men unsuccessfully try to live up to the standard of hegemonic masculinity
by switching identity. He shows how the male characters develop a fragile, weak masculinity as a
result of their parents’ silence about their experiences during the Holocaust. He also provides
examples of a positive masculinity which reflect the theory of a ‘gentle’ Jewish masculinity. Geiger
examines disintegrating hegemonic masculinity, helpless complicit masculinity, strategic passive
masculinity and caring masculinity. The latter category takes the concept of ‘gentle masculinity’
into a broader context. Again, memory of and communication about the Holocaust are shown to
impact on masculinity. The texts analysed disclose a gap between the ideal of masculinity and
reality. In order to bridge this gap the male characters adopt two strategies of evasion: evasion to
hide a softer and gentler side, and evasion into a world of fantasy where they pretend to live up to
the ideal of hegemonic masculinity.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16834
https://doi.org/10.17630/10023-16834
Masculinities in contemporary German-language
literature : strategies of evasion
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/9692019-04-01T09:03:42Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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White, Michael James
author
2010-06
This thesis proposes a new view of space in Theodor Fontane’s writing as both a mode of literary expression and an object of literary inquiry: space serves a poetic function and is a thematic concern. The research draws on theories of literary space which focus on spatial structures and topographies, as well as those which provide critical tools for analysing individual passages of description, especially focalisation, which elucidates the influence of the viewing figure in the text. Significantly, the subjective experience of a perceptive observer is central to Fontane’s conception of aesthetic processes, and as a result, an analysis of spatial representation often uncovers reflexive discourses on art, its function and value.
On the basis of this insight, this study provides new readings of a range of texts, including less well-established and non-fictional works, as well as recognised masterpieces. In Fontane’s local travelogues, the Wanderungen, the poetic function of space is rare, while many passages reflect on the environment’s potential significance. The early novels explore spatial representation as a means of constructing textual symbolism. Spatial representation in Vor dem Sturm functions as a strategy of relativisation; in Schach von Wuthenow and Graf Petöfy topographies and pregnant descriptions serve as commentaries on characters’ levels of awareness. The mature novels Irrungen Wirrungen and Unwiederbringlich explore the sources and practical implications of reading objects in the world as signs. Space retains its formal role, but the represented figural experience of the novels’ worlds becomes a vehicle for reflexive analysis of the world’s perceived meanings. Similarly, in Der Stechlin different types of relationships with exterior reality are expressed spatially, and, as elsewhere, the capacity for aesthetic appreciation is represented positively. This entails and indeed produces critical distance towards modernity: isolated Stechlin is a locus of poetry, a testament to literature’s importance and vitality.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/969
Theodor Fontane
Realism
Space
Description
Landscape
Topography
Focalisation
Aesthetics
The theme and poetic function of space in Theodor Fontane's works
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/109502019-04-01T09:03:45Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Crosby, Claire Darryl
author
1987
The thesis deals with fairy tales on the Viennese stage and their narrative sources from the beginning of the eighteenth century to 1848.
In the introductory chapter a statistical analysis of fairy tales illustrates that while the Viennese were greatly under the influence of fairy tales published in other German-speaking lands, the fairy tale on the Viennese stage did not follow the trends of the fairy tale in German literature.
The first of the three main chapters discusses the dramatizations of the oriental fairy tales shown in Vienna. Raimund's Der Diamant des Geisterkönigs is one example. Wieland' s fairy tales provided the Viennese dramatists with a lot of
source material, not only of oriental origin, but even of Italian origin too.
The second main chapter analyses the sources of Vulpius’s Die Saal-Nixe and looks at the different works inspired by this typical Sage der Vorzeit, including Hensler's Das Donauweibchen and Grillparzer's Melusine. The theme of the white deer links these works with the oriental tale about Cheheristany and La
donna serpente, an Italian play by Gozzi which provided Raimund with material for Der Verschwender.
The third main chapter studies the close interaction of the French and German folk tales in literature and on the Viennesestage. The two examples chosen are the stories about Rübezahl and Fortunatus. Special attention is paid to Musäus who wrote stories about both these folk-tale figures and whose collection of folk tales was a popular source of dramatization. The failure of the Grimm Brothers to inspire Viennese dramatists is contrasted with the success of popular authors, such as Langbein.
The conclusion summarizes first the sources of Viennese fairy-tale dramas and secondly the similarities and differences between the fairy tale on the Viennese stage and in German literature. And finally the demise of the fairy tale
is examined.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/10950
The fairy tale on the old Viennese stage
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/145372019-04-01T09:03:47Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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McKenna, Jennifer
author
2004
An idiom is a set phrase which is relatively syntactically and semantically fixed, and which produces striking stylistic and rhetorical effects. Advertising is a discourse type which is particularly rich in idioms: around half of all the German advertisements examined from Stern magazine and the RTL television channel contain at least one idiom. The idioms tend to occur in prominent, emphatic textual positions, and approximately half of the idioms which appear are modified in some way. The modifications typically produce deliberately creative effects, suggesting that idioms are not as invariable as has previously been thought. The most common type of idiom incorporated into German advertisements are idioms with not only the definitive figurative interpretation, but also a lexically, syntactically, and semantically feasible literal interpretation. These idioms are consequently referred to in this dissertation as "idioms with a viable literal interpretation" (abbreviated to "VLI idioms" in the text). Their literal sense tends to evoke strong mental imagery, which makes them a useful device for the visually restricted print medium in particular: approximately 42% of all the idioms in the magazine advertisements examined (as opposed to around 16% of all the idioms in the television advertisements) are VLI idioms. It is the uniformity of the mental imagery evoked by VLI idioms which highlights the fact that, contrary to traditional thinking, idioms are conceptual rather than linguistic in nature. Indeed, an idiom may be defined as the linguistic expression of general conceptual metaphors. The viable literal meaning of VLI idioms also makes them ideally suited to modification: around 70% of the VLI idioms in the magazine advertisements, and just over 88% of the VLI idioms in the television advertisements, are modified in some way. Nearly all of these modifications involve punning on the idiom's literal sense by means of the idiom's co-text and/or the advertisement's visual element. In short, linguists have hitherto underestimated the ubiquity and significance of idioms, especially with regard to the frequency with which they are modified. VLI idioms in particular are an important - but thus far overlooked - feature of German magazine and television advertisements.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14537
Idioms with a viable literal interpretation in German advertisements
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/69122021-04-16T02:06:19Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107col_10023_874
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Munderloh, Marissa K.
author
2016-06-25
This thesis examines how hip-hop has become a meaningful cultural movement for contemporary artists in Hamburg and in Oldenburg. The comparative analysis is guided by a three-dimensional theoretical framework that considers the spatial, historical and social influences, which have shaped hip-hop music, dance, rap and graffiti art in the USA and subsequently in the two northern German cities. The research methods entail participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a close reading of hip-hop’s cultural texts in the form of videos, photographs and lyrics. The first chapter analyses the manifestation of hip-hop music in Hamburg. The second chapter looks at the local adaptation of hip-hop’s dance styles. The last two chapters on rap and graffiti art present a comparative analysis between the art forms’ appropriation in Hamburg and in Oldenburg.
In comparing hip-hop’s four main elements and their practices in two distinct cities, this research project expands current German hip-hop scholarship beyond the common focus on rap, especially in terms of rap being a voice of the minority. It also offers insights into the ways in which artists express their local, regional or national identity as a culturally hybrid state, since hip-hop’s art forms have always been the result of cultural and artistic mixture. The theoretical focus on spatiality, historicality and sociality moreover reveals different and even contradicting manifestations of cultural hybridity and identity in hip-hop. In particular, this thesis looks at the formation of post-hybrid identities, with which hip-hop artists aim at expressing their multiculturality as an inherent part of their life in Germany.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6912
Identity
Hip-hop
Hybridity
Germany
Contemporary
Culture
The emergence of post-hybrid identities : a comparative analysis of national identity formations in Germany’s contemporary hip-hop culture
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133972019-04-01T09:03:48Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Ellis, Colin
author
1994-07
The self and its confrontation with a specifically "modern" world is viewed as a dominant theme of much German-language prose writing in the period 1945-1989. Chapter One considers factors giving rise to this preoccupation, their reflection in key literary works of the 1940s and 1950s, and literary and cultural changes in the 1960s. Frisch, Bernhard and Handke are introduced in the context of the period leading up to 1968, a year which is both the historical mid-point of this era and a symbol of the personal revolt crucial to each writer's development. The three subsequent chapters examine (respectively) the writings of Frisch, Bernhard and Handke, in each case concentrating on a series of works in which the vulnerable self struggles to survive in the face of a modern world frequently portrayed as alien, uncontrollable and destructive ; Frisch's three major novels Stiller. Homo faber, and Mein Name sei Gantenbein. Bernhard's five volumes of autobiography, and Handke's tetralogy Langsame Heimkehr all illustrate the theme of re-evaluation of the self by being turning-points in each writer's career. Chapter Five considers related tendencies in German literature after 1968; the "new subjectivity" of the 1970s, the debates generated by the rise of postmodernism and the dominance of mass media and popular culture in the 1980s. The sometimes puzzling forms assumed by German writing in this period are seen as reflecting a cultural and psychological unease, the portrayal of often harrowing inner experiences in the work of Frisch, Bernhard and Handke in particular demonstrating the awareness of an "other side". In their writings, the combination of historical and intensely personal elements creates a response in the reader which can stimulate his/her own self-scrutiny and personal re-evaluation, and lead to a kind of self-knowledge similar to that gained by the autobiographically-tinged central figures.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13397
The self and the modern world in selected German-language prose works : with particular reference to the writings of Max Frisch, Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133912019-04-01T09:03:49Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Polak, Victoria
author
1990-07
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.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13391
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
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133462019-04-01T09:03:50Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Quaile-Kersken, Irene A. M.
author
1989-07
Statements in Schiller's early essays seem to suggest that he adhered to the view of the dramatic illusion as a temporary escape from reality, an experience in which the spectator is encouraged to forget that he is in the theatre and be caught up in a deceptive and convincing illusion. Analysis of Schiller's dramatic and aesthetic theory and of his correspondence from 1790 onwards, however, shows that the ideas of moral freedom, aesthetic harmony and of the autonomy of art led Schiller to reject the ideal of convincing illusion which was current and popular in his time. In its place he wished to encourage awareness of the illusory nature of the stage action and drama which was obviously different from everyday reality in its subject matter and style. Analysis of Schiller's plays from Wallenstein to Wilhelm Tell shows that Schiller aimed at illusion of this type in his own practice. With reference to the dramatic illusion, Schiller's views actually come close to those of Brecht, in spite of statements to the contrary in Brecht's Kleines Organon für das Theater. The detailed analysis of Schiller's theory and of his later plays is preceded firstly by a chapter on problems associated with the topic of the dramatic illusion. Secondly, a background chapter considers influential developments in drama, dramatic theory and in aesthetics from the origins of western drama in Greek classical tragedy to the theatre of Schiller's time, to establish possible influences on Schiller or similarities between his views and existing traditions, and to suggest Schiller's position with regard to his contemporaries and to the historical development of the dramatic illusion.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13346
The dramatic illusion in the theory and later plays of Friedrich Schiller
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133982019-04-01T09:03:51Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Careless, Brian John
author
1977-10
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13398
The medieval German understanding of the crusades : a comparative liguistic analysis of concepts constituting the crusading idea in Middle High German poetry
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133532019-04-01T09:03:52Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Gullatz, Stefan
author
1999-03
This dissertation takes the many existing, predominantly Jungian psychoanalytic approaches to Hesse as its starting point and then proceeds to an original recasting of some of Hesse's key novels (particularly Demian and Per Steppenwolf though a brief outline for Das Glasperlenspiel is provided in the concluding chapter) in the light of a Lacanian psychoanalysis and philosophy and a generally 'structuralist' understanding. My aim is to uncover how strategies of narrative signification in the complex architecture of Hesse's novels retroactively produce the spark of meaning which Jungians consider evidence of an intrinsic, archetypal essence at the core of the self. The Steppenwolf chapter in particular is also devoted to an investigation of the way in which meaning and mourning as functions constitutive of the subject crystallise in the use of metaphorical and allegorical devices. Lupton's After Oedipus: Shakespeare in Psychoanalysis which outlines a comprehensive paradigm for the interrelation of tropic narrative devices and their psychoanalytic undercurrents is a constant point of reference in this thesis, along with the works of Slavoj Žižek, arguably the most creative and influential contemporary Lacanian critic.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13353
A Lacanian analysis of selected novels by Hermann Hesse
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133372019-04-01T09:03:54Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Galloway, Helen
author
1997-06
This thesis was conceived in response to the recent controversy in Hartmann scholarship concerning the existence of a psychological progression in Hartmann's characters. Whilst the majority of scholars argue that a progression does exist in these works, three scholars in particular, Rudolf Voβ, Hubertus Fischer, and Otfrid Ehrismann, claim that Hartmann remains unconcerned with the inner world of his characters. Instead, they suggest that he depicts perfect protagonists who are affected by a visitation of objective sin (Voβ), or who react primarily to the demands of secular honour (Fischer) or courtliness (Ehrismann). The present study attempts to re-examine the issue of ethical progression in Hartmann's three earliest narratives. This is achieved principally by considering the ability of the characters to perceive and to make ethical judgements on the basis of their mental deliberations. This evidence is considered in the light of the objections of the scholars mentioned above. In particular, their work has reminded scholarship that Hartmann's narratives cannot be interpreted in terms of modern individual morality. Similarly, their arguments lead one to surmise that an ethical dimension in these works would be likely to reflect Hartmann's status as a clerically-educated secular poet and the concerns of his secular audience, rather than specific theological developments relating to self-awareness. A moral dimension in these works would therefore be likely to be informed by lay ethical notions and a general awareness of theological concepts concerning perceptiveness, such as would be broadcast through the penitential system. The present study attempts therefore to set the evidence pertaining to perceptiveness and ethical behaviour in Hartmann's works within the context of the lay morality shared by this poet and his audience.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13337
The faculty of perception in the early narratives of Hartmann von Aue : with special reference to secular morality and penitential practice
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133512019-04-01T09:03:55Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Trainer, James
author
1959-07
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13351
Ludwig Tieck and the Gothic novel : a study of the literary relations of Germany and England in the late eighteenth century
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/181582021-08-13T12:56:22Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Leese, Michelle Jane
author
2019-06-27
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/18158
https://doi.org/10.17630/10023-18158
The impersonal passive in German of the type Es wurde getanzt : a structural analysis
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/26522019-04-01T09:03:56Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Niven, William John
author
1984
The following thesis examines the impact on the interpretation of Hebbel's
personality and works of National Socialist ideology and propaganda. It
comprises six chapters. The first five of these explore different areas
of ideological influence and provide evidence of the nature and extent of
this influence. The sixth chapter looks at the reception of Hebbel in the
National Socialist theatres and at the growth and development of the
Hebbel-Society between 1933 and 1945. The aim of the thesis is primarily
to break down the National Socialist view of Hebbel into its constituent
parts and to categorise these. An acquaintance with Hebbel's works and
beliefs reveals that the National Socialist view of him is largely
inaccurate and distortive. The thesis has to explain why the National
Socialists developed a false view of Hebbel. And it has to point as
frequently as necessary to the differences between Hebbel as he was in
reality and Hebbel as the National Socialists saw him. The thesis does
not present National Socialist interpretations as having totally
revolutionised Hebbel-reception. In two chapters in particular, the
second and the third, it will show how interpretations which were to
become characteristic of National Socialist Hebbel-reception were being
propagated long before 1933. Nevertheless the National Socialists
standardised the picture of Hebbel as a Nordic dramatist who was
committed to heroic ideals, anti-Semitic, politically conservative and
anti-liberal. The ideal aim of the thesis is to "purify" Hebbel's
character, works and beliefs of their association with National
Socialist values. At the same time it will be shown how easily and at
times almost imperceptibly a writer's views can be altered to make them
consistent with those of the interpreter.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2652
The reception of Friedrich Hebbel in Germany in the era of National Socialism
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/133892019-04-01T09:03:57Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107
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Harvey, Ruth Charlotte
author
1959-01
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13389
A study of the Middle High German Versnovelle : Moriz von Craûn with special reference to its literary and cultural background
oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/7612019-07-01T10:11:52Zcom_10023_105com_10023_29col_10023_107col_10023_874
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Williams, Katherine J.
author
2009-11-30
This study analyses five British translations of Bertolt Brecht's 'Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder'. Two of these translations were written by speakers of German, and three by well-known British playwrights with no knowledge of the source text language. Four have been produced in mainstream British theatres in the past twenty-five years. The study applies translation studies methodology to a textual analysis which focuses on the translation of techniques of linguistic "Verfremdung", as well as linguistic expression of the comedy and of the political dimension in the work. It thus closes the gap in current Brecht research in examining the importance of his idiosyncratic use of language to the translation and reception of his work in the UK. The study assesses the ways in which the translator and director are influenced by Brecht's legacy in the UK and in turn, what image of Brecht they mediate through the production on stage. To this end, the study throws light on the formation of Brecht's problematic reputation in the UK, and it also highlights the social and political circumstances in early twentieth century Germany which prompted Brecht to develop his theory of an epic theatre.
The focus on a linguistic examination allows the translator's contribution to the production process to be isolated. Together with an investigation of the reception of each performance text, this in turn facilitates a more accurate assessment of the translator and director's respective influence in the process of transforming a foreign-language text onto a local stage. The analysis also sheds light on the different approaches taken by speakers of German, and playwrights creating an English version from a literal translation. It pinpoints losses in translation and adaptation, and suggests how future versions may avoid these.
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/761
Translation studies
Translating drama
Bertolt Brecht
Lee Hall
David Hare
Hanif Kureishi
Robert David MacDonald
John Willett
Translating Brecht : versions of "Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder" for the British stage