The topic of this thesis is the problem of love in the work and life of Rainer Maria Rilke, especially his notion of “non-possessive love” which has given rise to a great deal of controversy in the Rilke-Literature. The essential motive underlying the thesis is my concern for the relationship between art and life, and specifically the conflict between the demands of intellectual and spiritual development and the biological-social imperatives to which the artist, like all human beings, is subject. To speak in general terms, my interest in Rilke’s view of love is part of a broad study of alienated and rebellious individualists, bent on developing themselves at all costs in an environment which is hostile to their inner impulses, and for whom the problem of love has been a focal point of their conflict with themselves and the world. The view of love put forth by such individualists as Kierkegaard, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Shaw, Unamuno, Camus, Sartre, - to name only a few authors mentioned in my bibliography – despite their many individual variations, have at least these characteristics in common: they are penetrating, uncompromising, unsentimental and disquieting. The same holds true for Rilke’s view of love. Rilke emphatically opposed the values implicit and explicit in the notions and practices of his culture in the areas of the relations between the sexes, the institution of marriage, the status of women and the function of sex in the life of the individual. Furthermore, his own experience, which, as he often pointed out, was by no means meant to be exemplary or typical, led him to investigate and reflect upon the nature of love as a principle of nature and of the human psyche. The fruit of this preoccupation was a fascinating, very complicated body of writings in which the problem of love plays a major role. In investigating this theme my primary aim has been to accurately represent and illuminate what Rilke meant by his provocative and often obscure statements about love; that is, it is first and foremost and interpretative paper.

Hanns Eisler routinely expressed his discontent with the state of music and society in the late 1920s in Die Rote Fahne—an organ of the Marxist revolutionary organization, the Spartakusbund, to which he often contributed. His 1928 essay “Man baut um,” among the most notable of these writings, declares that the high expenditures in art—such as the construction of a fourteen-million Mark opera house—to be the result of capitalist greed rather than a reflection of the desire for musical performances, as had been suggested. Although the cost of the new venue is the subject in this satirical passage, this contains a secondary accusation. With a grotesque sense of amusement, he suggests that schoolchildren are certainly content to go without breakfast because they understand the importance of the opera building. In doing so, he sheds light on the human consequences of material desires. Caustic accusations regarding various aspects of musical culture are a common occurrence in Eisler’s writings, particularly in the years surrounding his break with his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg—1924-1927. During this time, not only did Eisler become increasingly vocal in his printed critiques, but his ideologies became apparent in his compositional style as well. This thesis contends that two of his musical parodies between 1924 and 1927, Palmström (1924) and Zeitungsausschnitte (1925-1927) contain satirical criticisms of contemporary musical consumption and content, which are paralleled in his published prosaic critiques.

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<p>  </p> <p>The digital age has profoundly changed the film industry and how consumers are able to access media. To foster language development, this mixed methods study takes advantage of this technological progress and investigates how an audiovisual media-based curriculum can be designed for and implemented in an intermediate German language course. In this context, its effects on students’ listening comprehension competence are analyzed.</p> <p>A qualitative action research (AR) approach was pursued to systematically reflect and act upon the curriculum-related components of the project by taking instructor’s observations and students’ feedback into consideration. A review of the AR cycles concluded the film-based curriculum to be successful in an intermediate language learning context. It provided insight in students’ attitude towards chosen genres, the appropriateness of selected themes, audiovisuals, and tasks as well as suggestions for how a subsequent course should be altered in future iterations. </p> <p>A quantitative analysis consisting of four listening assessments and two language proficiency tests was carried out to examine whether progress of students’ listening comprehension skills can be determined. A comparison of the four listening tests suggests an overall positive trend in class and individual performance. An ANOVA analysis indicates that the four tests were significantly different and that a linear trend exists. However, a negative trend was observed when comparing the A2 and B1 language proficiency test. </p> <p>In conclusion, a film-based curriculum serves as a promising pedagogical approach in an intermediate second language context. Furthermore, the field of SLA would benefit from further research on how the presented approach can be applied to other proficiency levels and/or if the explicit teaching of listening strategies could help students ease observed challenges pertaining to their listening comprehension skills.</p>

This dissertation examines Elfriede Jelinek’s investigation of Austria’s and Western Europe’s “obscene fantasies” through her “perversion” of generic forms in three of her best-known texts (Die Liebhaberinnen, Lust, and Die Klavierspielerin). It also investigates how these texts, at first glance less overtly political than Jelinek’s later work, can be seen as laying the groundwork for her later, more political, analysis of Austrian fascism and racism. The dissertation is composed of three chapters; each investigates a central psychoanalytic concept (alienation, jouissance, perversion and sublimation) and reads a Jelinek text in relation to the genre that it is perverting, exposing the “obscene fantasies” that lie at its heart. Chapter One examines how Jelinek depicts alienation (in the Marxist, socialist feminist, and Lacanian senses) in her 1975 novel Die Liebhaberinnen, and explores how Jelinek’s depiction of alienation functions to make Die Liebhaberinnen an anti-romance. Chapter Two addresses whether Jelinek’s novel Lust (1989) is a pornographic or anti-pornographic text. I investigate the complex relationship between aesthetics and pornography, arguing that many other Jelinek scholars collapse the distinction between mass-cultural forms of pornography and the high-cultural pornography of Bataille and Sade, and thus fail to understand how her text is simultaneously pornographic and anti-pornographic. Chapter Three focuses on Jelinek’s novel Die Klavierspielerin (1983), examining the development of its protagonist as a (perverse) sexual subject, and her ultimate failure to achieve a stable sexual position and how Jelinek’s text perverts the genre of the Künstlerroman. It also discusses Erika’s training as a pianist as a possible causal factor of her perversions and lack of sexual identity, concluding that her inability to sublimate demonstrates the similarities (and differences) between the artist and the pervert, illustrating how Jelinek’s novel deviates from the traditional Künstlerroman. The dissertation argues that the disruption of genres is one of Jelinek’s most significant literary contributions, her works functioning to create a “negative aesthetics” as opposed to a positive reworking of generic forms. Jelinek rejects an identificatory mode of writing and refuses to create “positive” subjects, preferring instead to produce art that is a “critique of praxis as the rule of brutal self-preservation at the heart of the status quo” (Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, 12).

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following study focuses on communication problems which arise during medical consultation in Germany between immigrants with an inadequate language proficiency level and physicians, and on the negative effects of such miscommunication on the quality of health care. The study proposes the application of alternative teaching methods in integration courses – in particular suggestopaedia – to resolve these problems. As immigrants often suffer from acculturative stress suggestopaedic methods seem particularly appropriate because they help reducing negative mental attitudes (negative “suggestions”) by a multi-sensory preparation of learning materials. A didactised concept aiming to improve the overall ability of immigrants lacking language proficiency to interact in “Physician-Patient-Communication” is put forward in this study for the use in integration courses. It is assumed that enhancing the ability to ex-press oneself in the field of healthcare provision will reduce communication hindrances by reducing the fear of speaking during medical consultation and thus will lead to a better overall state of health among immigrants with an inadequate language proficiency level. The sug-gestopaedic methods implemented in the didactisation range from a suggestopaedic language text to a wide variety of exercises, which take into account the different channels of learning. A critical examination of the “can do” statements developed by the German “Goethe-Institut”, within the Framework “Curriculum for Integration Courses – German as a Second Language”, forms an important background for the didactisation presented in this study. The section on “Physician-Patient-Conversation” and its practical application in the textbook “Menschen” published by Hueber Verlag and used in integration courses are also closely considered. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die studie fokus op kommunikasieprobleme wat tydens mediese konsultasies in Duitsland ontstaan tussen immigrante met ontoereikende taalvaardigheid in Duits en doktors, en op die negatiewe gevolge van sulke wankommunikasie op die kwaliteit van gesondheidsorg. Die studie stel voor dat alternatiew onderrigmetodes in integrasiekursusse ingespan word, veral suggestopedagogiek, om dié problem die hoof te bied. Aangsien immigrante dikwels aan akkulturasiestres lei, word metodes wat op die suggesopedagogiek basseer as uiters toepaslik gesien deurdat negatiewe ingesteldhede met `n multisensoriese toepassing van leermateriaal bekamp kan word. `n Gedidaktiseerde konsep wat daarop gemik is om immigrante se algemene taalvaardighede te verbeter met betrekking tot dokter-pasient-kommunikasie word voorgestel vir gebruik in integrasiekursusse. Dit word veronderstel dat as die uitdrukvermoeë op die gebied van gesondheidsorg verbeter word, sal kommunikasiestruikelblokke verminder terwyl die die vrees om tydens `n mediese ondersoek te praat tot `n algemene verbetering in die gesondheidstoestand van immigrante met onvoldoiende taalvaardighede sal lei. Die metodes uit die suggestopedagogiek wat geïmplementeer word, strek van `n suggestopediese teks tot `n wye verskeidenheid oefeninge wat met verskillende leerstyle rekening hou. `n Kritiese ondersoek van die "kan“ beskrywings wat vir die "Kurrikulum vir Integrasiekursusse – Duits as Tweede Taal“ deur die Goethe Instituut ontwikkel is, maak deel uit van die belangrike agtergrond vir die didaktiese implementeringsvoorstelle van hierdie studie. Die afdeling "Dokter-Pasient-Gesprek“ en die praktiese toepassing daarvan in die teksboek "Menschen" wat deur die Hueber Verlag uitgegee is en in integrasiekursusse gebruik word, is ook onder die loep geneem.

Perhaps Bertolt Brecht's most obvious intention in connection with the theater was to help change the economic conditions, under which the people in a capitalistic society live. But, according to him, this could only be possible if the people were to develop a critical attitude and awareness of the contradictions that exist in such a society, in which "exploiters exploit the exploited", to put it in Brecht's straightforward terminology. It was his goal in the theater to help the spectator achieve this critical attitude. However, it was his opinion that this could only be done by rejecting the traditional theater of illusion, in which the spectator identifies completely with the characters and is "manipulated" by the supposed feelings of the hero and by the supposed necessity in the order of occurrences and by the supposed necessity of the occurrences themselves. To be critical means, of course, that not only are the feelings of the spectator involved, but also his thoughts. In order to introduce thought into the spectator, it was necessary for Brecht to break the spectator's illusion that he was participating in the actions on stage and that these actions were real. This led to the most significant of Brecht's theater contributions, which in English is perhaps, best called alienation. Actually, it is more accurate to say that his particular use of this element was his contribution. That is to say that his application of certain illusion-destroying techniques was not simply for aesthetic purposes, but rather for societal purposes. Each of Brecht's "alienations" leads in fact, in the ideal theater situation, to a revealing of some contradiction in the depicted societal conditions. It was my goal in this thesis to analyze the "alienation" as a countermovement to the theatrical illusion. In order to do this, it was necessary to analyze the theatrical illusion as well, which comprises the first part of the thesis. The second part is concentrated on "alienation". On a critical basis of acceptance and rejection of two selected thinkers on the subject of illusion I was able to arrive at a concept of illusion, which would also encompass Brecht's own writings concerning the topic. Since Brecht did not research the concept of illusion in a systematic manner, it was discovered in the course of researching his writings that Brecht was referring to two different phenomena with the same word, "illusion" Further, I discovered that it was possible to divide his "alienation" techniques into two different types, which corresponded to the limitation and hindrance respectively of the two types of illusion. I also attempted to construct a step-by-step process, through which the spectator goes whenever an "alienation" appears in a drama by Brecht. This "alienation-process" begins with application of the "alienation" and proceeds to the hoped for change in society. In the third and last part of the thesis I analyzed the main medium of "alienation" which is the language itself. This was done with the purpose in mind of researching Brecht's "alienation" method where it would be most fruitful. And since I was limited to the written text (a live presentation would reveal less of Brecht than of the director of the play), it was obviously the most appropriate research object for this purpose. In order to simplify it for the reader, I limited by references to specific dramas as much as possible to one play, namely "The Good Woman of Sezuan".

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-197).

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral--Edinburgh) under title: The linguistic analysis of modality. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-296).

Univ., Diss.--Halle-Wittenberg, 2003. / Literaturverz. S. 193 - 202.