"Auf unserem Papier findet das meiste gleichzeitig statt": Zum Projekt der Gegenweltgeschichte in Günter Grass' "Der Butt" in kulturökologischer Perspektive

Author(s): Nathalie Kónya-Jobs / Language(s): German Issue: 18/2021

In this article, the novel The Flounder is re-read from the perspective of environmental literary criticism and with a view to the highly topical issues of education for sustainable development. The line of argument moves along the central questions for Grass’s work about the importance of fairy tales and myths for literary-anthropological processes of the formation of meaning, his Enlightenment criticism, his critical understanding of history, his poetics of ‚Vergegenkunft‘ and his examination of feminism, ecology and dystopian visions of the post-human age. The article closes with an outlook on relevant research desiderata. An overview table for a selection of thematic, relevant works should serve as an inspiration to rediscover Grass as a representative of ecocriticism in schools and universities.

"Auschwitz hin, Supermarkt her". Das musikalische Erschreiben der Gesellschaft der 1970er Jahre in Eckhard Henscheids "Die Mätresse des Bischofs"

Author(s): Martin Schneider / Language(s): German Issue: 26/2017

The article interprets Eckhard Henscheids novel "Die Mätresse des Bischofs", first published in 1978, as an attempt to use musical writing in order to transform the German society of the late Seventies. The novel creates a textual score, in which different manners of contemporary social speech are interlaced with the memory of National Socialism, war and the Holocaust. In this context, the article relates Henscheid’s so far undervalued novel to the writings of Thomas Bernhard and the musical philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno.

"Die Verführung zur Freiheit" oder: Europas Werte er-lesen mit Literatur

Author(s): Sabine Anselm / Language(s): German Issue: 18/2021

The essay Fans of Europe (Europas Liebhaber) brings up the issue of whether cultural education can be reflected in literature. By this one shows that essay writing is a profitable manner of confrontation and in the context of the school education of values a contribution towards the education for Europe can be customized. Thus literature unfolds a socio-political action within the framework of aesthetic education. This is important considering exactly the present-day developments and it is significant because of this as both the teenagers and young adults belong to one and the same generation, who grew up in a peaceful and united Europe: on the one hand one develops the conscience of shared European values and on the other hand one contributes to the education for peace.

"Little Allies": Hermynia Zur Mühlens Märchen als phantasievolle Lernspiele

Author(s): Christiane Baumann / Language(s): English,German Publication Year: 0

Zur Mühlen is known as the most important German-speaking author of proletarian fairy tales. This essay examines the concept of propaganda and the meaning of play in her writing style, which not only set the theme for her fairy tales throughout the 1920s, but also for her last fairy-tale collection, Littles Allies, which was neglected by researchers. This article debunks the widespread theory that Zur Mühlen gave up her leftist beliefs and returned to her Catholic roots while in exile.

"Procesi" i Franc Kafkës mes realitetit dhe literalitetit

Author(s): Muhamet Peci / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 25/2020

Franc Kafka is one of those authors that have endowed an incomparable inheritance in the context of world literature. His novel “The Process” is one of the most debatable and this discussion on the novel has continued to this day amongst art and literature personalities, but has also expanded onto other fields. The connection between the fictional time to the historical one, but also the expansion beyond the historic perspective is one of the aspects of interest to this article. The problem of space can also be discussed from the same perspective. Although a specific time and space pertaining to reality is alluded to in the text, nevertheless this fact is hidden in the novel which provides an impression that this historic time and space might not exist and might be ahistoric. Elements and situations of the absurd in the novel form a very important element in this article. Duly noted in “The Process”, such situations are then reflected upon while considering Kafka’s oeuvre. Starting from elements of the absurd, certain conclusions will arise about the interpretation of the work and its reception in different times and spaces.

"Svijet je otišao..."

Paul Celan i apsolutno pjesništvo

Author(s): Žarko Paić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 10+12/2014

U onome što slijedi neće biti riječi o još jednoj interpretaciji Paula Celana. Doduše, bit će govora o jednoj njegovoj pjesmi i održanom zahvalnom govoru povodom dodjele nagrade Georg Buchner 1960. godine. Naziv pjesme je »Veliki užareni svod«, a zahvalnog govora »Meridijan«. U suvremenoj filozofiji te su dvije »stvari« mišljenja i kazivanja obrađene u različitim prigodama u predavanjima i ogledima Hansa-Georga Gadamera, Jacquesa Derride i Philippe Lacoue-Labarthea, među inim koji su se osmjelili pristupiti tamnoj rijeci Celanova pjesništva. Kada kažemo da neće biti riječi o interpretaciji, tada se pretpostavlja da bi moglo biti govora o nečem drugom. Interpretacijom se odmotava tekst onog što je već napisano i ima značajke događaja pisanja. Etimologijski, inter-pretare upućuje na izlaganje, posredovanje, tumačenje. Razumijevanje nečeg kao nečeg zahtijeva misaonu djelatnost izlaganja same stvari. Na taj se način interpretacija pojavljuje medijem između djela i sudionika u njegovu značenju. Budući da nema izravnog pristupa djelu, intuitivnog ili racionalnog, tekst zahtijeva svoje tumače. Postoje ipak poteškoće u razumijevanju djela koje tumači razlažu u dijalogu s drugim tekstovima i drugim interpretacijama. Samoizlaganje teksta interpretacija je njegove otvorenosti značenja. U tom smislu hermeneutika govori o iskustvu djela u odnosu na iskustvo subjekta. Već je Gadamer u interpretaciji umjetničkog djela kao uvjeta mogućnosti dijaloga iz razumijevanja same stvari mišljenja pokazao da dijalog ne proizlazi iz stajališta »subjekta« u razgovoru, nego iz iskustva samog djela koje se otvara u razumijevanju.

(Ne)odmjereno pisanje

Author(s): Ilija Trojanow / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 3-4/2019

Poetološko predavanje održano u okviru projekta Sarajevska poetička docentura na Filozofskom fakultetu u Sarajevu 22. 05. 2019. godine.

(Nie)Pamięć o wiekach średnich w powieści Mai Jurkowskiej Katedra

Author(s): Joanna Godlewicz-Adamiec / Language(s): Polish,German Publication Year: 0

Literature is one of those areas of human activity which functions within the culture of memory. It is indeed one of the means of creating memory – many narratives are concerned with the way in which individuals and communities remember and forget, as well as the way in which they forge their own identity. Modern literature has made the exploration of memory patterns one of is most important themes. The paper constitutes an attempt to analyse the literary images of the cathedral in connection with the patterns of individual and communal memory in Maja Jurkowska’s novel Katedra in the context of Polish and German memory discourse.

(On Manova, Dariya. “Sterbende Kohle“ und „flüssiges Gold”.Rohstoffnarrative der Zwischenkriegszeit…)

Author(s): Nikolina Burneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

(Re)Negocjacje kultur pamięci – słowo wstępne

Author(s): Joanna Godlewicz-Adamiec,Dominika Wyrzykiewicz / Language(s): Polish,German Publication Year: 0

Memory – Discourse – Identity. Interdisciplinary Reflections is a bilingual book aligning with the memorial discourse trend. It contains reflections on the condition of man and the world in the context of Polish and German memory discourse in the post-war culture. The authors refer to the category of memory in public and private dimensions and present various approaches to the issues of memory turn and transformations concerning mutual relations and interpenetration of literature, music, art. And contemporary media. The book includes the papers written by German and Polish studies scholars, historians, and art. Historians from Poland, Germany and Spain.

,Ent-Spatialisierung‘? oder: Das Scheitern der insularen Existenz in THEODOR STORMS Novelle Waldwinkel, mit Seitenblicken auf RAABE und STIFTER

Author(s): Torsten Voß / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2019

The article deals with successful and unsuccessful constructions of the island utopia (which, however, are not bound to any real island, as in so many designs of the century, which are, however, briefly referred to), in terms of narrative issues and approaches from the Spatial Turn, and connects them with resolution tendencies of the so-called romantic “loneliness of the forest.” Das Odfeld (1889) by RAABES and Die Narrenburg (1844) by ADALBERT STIFTER’S are discussed, and in particular THEODOR STORM’S greatly underrated and little-interpreted novel Waldwinkel (1874), as an unattractive and there-fore innovative counter-model, which shows openly how time, and history itself, break into the spatial utopia, and thereby transfer it to a realistic level.

25 години Немска библиотека във ВТУ

Author(s): Sashka Pencheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

A DRAMA THAT WAS NOT PLAYED IN HUNGARY. DRAMATIC WORKS OF PRESSBURG SCHOLAR AND WRITER TOBIAS GOTTFRIED SCHRÖER (1791 – 1850)

Author(s): Slávka Kopčáková,Pavol Zubal / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2021

The study deals with the dramatic works of a writer, professor of the Evangelical Lyceum of the Augsburg Confession in Pressburg, Tobias Gottfried Schröer. As a citizen of German descent striving to avoid the harsh censorship of the time, between 1820 and 1849, he published his works under various pseudonyms. Under his real name, he published only textbooks and three compendia intended for the Lyceum students. In Germany (Leipzig, Hamburg, etc.), he was quite a well-known writer; his short stories, poems and plays were published in various almanacs and collections. His drama work is almost unknown, and the number of his plays (existing as primary sources, including those that are only referred to), we estimate at fifteen so far. They were written approximately between the years 1806 and 1846, which testifies to their author’s lifelong interest in theatre and story dramatizations. A historical drama Leben und Thaten Emerich Tokoly’s und seiner Streitgenossen [The Life and Deeds of Emerich Tököly and His Comrades-in-arms by A. Z.] (1839), published in Leipzig under the pseudonym of A. Z., and a comedy Der Bär [The Bear] (1830) can be considered the most important.

A németszakosság társadalmi természete (1873–1945)

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Hanna Biró / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2012

The goal of the paper is to explore the social history of the teaching of German language and literature in secondary schools in a period in which the German language was necessary for intellect-based careers and in elite education (1895–1945). The researcher’s interest is in comprehending what was specific to humanities education and to the profession of teaching in a secondary school. The most relevant social factor motivating someone in a choice of German studies was ethnic provenience. The marker of being “German” identified in one’s personal name was less decisive in this respect than the ethnic character of the socializing environment of graduates of humanities. A further factor refers to the religious denomination of graduates – Jews, Lutherans and Unitarians can be said to have had more of an affinity for German studies; while the attitudes of Calvinists to German studies were negative. With an obvious over-representation of women, German studies graduates had usually descended from affluent families – and this was also reflected in study results. The most typical occupational areas where the parents of students pursuing German studies usually occur are those of the armed forces (soldiers, security and police), and professions associated with the intelligentsia where the German and Jewish middle-class were over-represented (doctors, physicians, lawyers, bankers, businessmen etc.). Surveys taking on board regions show that the most important environmental factor here was everyday utilization of the German language; thus, members of the German-speaking minority, Hungarians living in German-speaking areas of the Dualist Monarchy and also foreigners who utilised the German language in Hungarian-speaking areas as a “lingua franca” were all keen to choose German studies.

A Poetics of the Holocaust? Three Exemplary Poets

Author(s): Efraim Sicher / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2020

Whether or not we understand the Holocaust to be unique or following a series of catastrophes in Jewish history, there is no doubt that the writing that came out of those traumatic events is worth examining both as testimony and as literature. This article looks again at Holocaust poetry, this time circumventing Adorno’s much-cited and often misquoted dictum on poetry after Auschwitz. The essay challenges the binary of either “Holocaust poetry is barbaric and impossible” or “art is uplifting and unaffected by the Holocaust.” I analyse three individual cases of Holocaust poetry as a means of both survival and testimony during the Holocaust – not retrospectively or seen by poets who were not there. Aesthetic and ethical issues are very much part of a writing in extremis which is conscious of the challenge well before Adorno and critical theory. In a comparison of Celan, Sutzkever, and Miłosz we can see their desperate attempt to write a poetry that meets the challenge of the historical moment, for all the differences between them in their cultural backgrounds, language traditions, and literary influences. As I argue, although scholars and critics have read these poets separately, they should be studied as part of the phenomenon of grappling with an unprecedented horror which they could not possibly at the time understand in all its historical dimension and outcome. We should no longer ignore their sources and antecedents in trying to gauge what they did with them in forging a “Holocaust poetics” that would convey something of the inadequacy of language and the failure of the imagination in representing the unspeakable, which they personally experienced on a day to day basis. By not reading “after Adorno” we can arrive at a more nuanced discussion of whether there is a Holocaust poetics.

Abejoti dėl laiko. Belaikiškumas vėlyvojoje Paulio Celano kūryboje

Author(s): Inga Bartkuvienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 4/2019

The poetry of Paul Celan has a reflected intention to ask about the temporal determination of human being and simultaneously questions the term and definition of time. In may of his works he reflects he the catastrophic transformation, the reflection also includes the revision of the conventional conception of time. He tries to show, that beside the usual forms of historical, causal und linear time, individuals also perceive timelessness. Paradoxically, the accomplishment of a historical event (Holocaust) evokes a consciousness of the historical caesura, and thus of the untold and the inhospitable. In his perception, for the poet, writing (after holocaust) means writing after apocalyptic break, where history does not exist, in other words surrounded by the timelessness. The task of preserving the memory of what happened in poetry goes hand in hand with the awareness of a disorder and often borders on the impossibility of verbalizing what has happened or even being able to express itself verbally. The experience of disconnection from the temporal sequence of events (through trauma) coincides with the moments of speechlessness, emptiness in consciousness, verbal utterance, and time experience overlap. This tendency is radicalized especially in his late work. In this article late works of Paul Celan, that deal with the questions of timelessness and manifestations of it are analysed (“Zeitlücke”, “Die Trombonestelle” “Largo” and others).

Abendliche Häuser. Eduard von Keyserlings Darstellung der adligen Welt und die von Marie von Ebner- Eschenbach. Vortrag in Brno /Brünn bei der Konferenz zum 100. Todestag der Dichterin am 22. April 2016

Author(s): Hans Dieter Zimmermann / Language(s): German Issue: 01+02/2016

Eduard Graf Keyserling wurde am 2. Mai 1855 nach dem julianischen Kalender, am 14. Mai 1855 nach dem gregorianischen Kalender in Schloss Paddern bei Hasenpoth in Kurland geboren. Kurland klingt wie der Name aus einem Märchen, Kurland aber gab es und gibt es immer noch. Es ist heute ein Teil der Republik Lettland. Es hat eine bewegte Geschichte. Lange stand es unter der Herrschaft der polnischen Könige, ab 1795 dann unter der des russischen Zaren, doch änderte dies wenig an seiner Verfassung und Lebensweise. Es war weitgehend autonom, ein fruchtbares Land, in dem der deutsch- baltische Adel den Ton angab. Und zu diesem Adel gehörte die Familie Keyserling.

Absolute Imagination: the Metaphysics of Romanticism

Author(s): Gregory S. Moss / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Carnap famously argued that metaphysics unavoidably involves a confusion between science and poetry. Unlike the lyric poet, who does not attempt to make an argument, the metaphysician attempts to make an argument while simultaneously lacking in musical talent. Carnap’s objection that metaphysics unavoidably involves a blend of philosophy and poetry is not a 20th century insight. Plato, in his beautifully crafted Phaedo, presents us with the imprisoned Socrates, who having been condemned to death for practicing philosophy in the Apology, has a dream in which he realizes that he ought to make music. In this dialogue, however, Plato indicates no hint of the scorn that Carnap has for metaphysics— rather Socrates’ friends find him setting Aesop’s fables to verse. In the modern era, Nietzsche re-introduced the ‘music making Socrates’ in his Birth of Tragedy. But Nietzsche is not the first to revive the concept in modern philosophy. Before Nietzsche’s call for a new music-making Socrates, the early German Romantics, in particular Schlegel, explicitly called for the identification of poetry and science in the concept of Poesie. As Schlegel writes: ‘Alle Kunst soll Wissenschaft werden, und alle Wissenschaft Kunst werden; Poesie und Philosophie sollen vereinigt sein.’ On the one hand, in Ion Socrates is not wrong to critique Ion for not knowing the significance of his own work. On the other hand, Socrates himself recognizes in Phaedo that he is guilty of failing to heed the call to make music. Long misunderstood, the Romantic concept of Poesie is not mere irrationalism, for it offers an aesthetic metaphysics of the Absolute. Romanticism is indeed a philosophy of the Absolute, but one which cannot conceive of any solution to the profound impasses that confront philosophical knowing except by learning to make music.

Abstieg in die Form. Deutsche Gegenwartsliteratur und das beschädigte Leben

Author(s): Jan Behrs / Language(s): German Issue: 29/2020

In Lukács’ early work, the concept of form is very concretely linked to modern man’s aesthetic experience of loss around 1900 and any attempt to update it hinges on the question whether Lukács’ method can be applied to the present at all. This article undertakes such an application of his method by relating two core concepts from "Soul and Form" – bourgeoisie and sentimentality – to three ›neighbourhood novels‹: R. Schamoni’s "Große Freiheit", H. Strunk’s "Der goldene Handschuh" and H. Fichte’s "Die Palette" all deal with extremely marginalized groups in society, and the question arises whether Lukács’ categories are helpful in describing the form chosen in each case.

Acculturation Process and Ethnic Identity of Immigrants in Germany

Author(s): Liudmyla Smokova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

In the present study, we discuss psychological acculturation, by which we mean the internal processes of change that immigrants experience when they come into direct contact with members of the host culture. The model we present builds on research in the areas of social and ethnic identity. Each of these perspectives is discussed in accordance with its relevance to the acculturative processes operating in immigrants. We understand ethnic identity as a dynamic state, that is determined by three components: (1) by the degree of inclusion in the group of one’s cultural origin; (2) the tendency to assimilate to the ethnic group of origin; and (3) the complementary tendency to differentiate from one’s own ethnic group. Social identity conveys belonging of the individual to different social categories and the value as well as emotional significance of this membership. We have sought to explain how the processes of social categorization, inand out-group identification and social comparison predetermine the direction of the acculturation process and hence the intercultural interaction and wellbeing of the youth from immigrant backgrounds in Germany. Results indicated that immigrants who have more identified themselves with dominant society have expressed the strong preference to integration strategies. The immigrants that had a high degree of ethnic identification have expressed the low preference to the integration as well to marginalization and assimilation. In its turn, the powerful feeling of belonging to an ethnic group and attitude towards the group promotes immigrants segregation choice.