This paper discusses the themes and styles Marlene Streeruwitz uses to support a feminist perspective. The themes discussed are silence, motherhood, oppression, and the body. Streeruwitz's text brings the historical and contemporary silence of women to light and exposes personal and social oppression. By including aspects of women's lives, such as the role of mother, Streeruwitz provides a new literary perspective of women. This is further enhanced by the text's insight into the physical aspects of womanhood. Finally, Streeruwitz's writing style, which is characterized by minimalistic sentence structures and phrases, as well as unusual punctuation, endorses a form of writing that is more representative of women's experiences in opposition to the vast history of literature formed from the male's perspective in a patriarchal society.

In an attempt to widen interpretations, this study first explores the myths associated with Friedrich von Hardenberg, commonly known as Novalis, which have resulted in the neglect of material interpretations of his works. After an introduction to Hardenberg's theory of the Self and Karl Marx's theory of alienation, an analysis of Hardenberg's most widely read work, Heinrich von Afterdingen, demonstrates how Hardenberg was as concerned with the material and the social relations among human beings and their labor as he was with their spiritual endeavors. The self-development of Heinrich, the main character in Afterdingen, is chronicled in this study with special attention given to his material existence as well as the material existence of the people he encounters. This study demonstrates that Afterdingen can be read as a handbook for the development of the Self according to the theories of Hardenberg and Marx, in which the Self cannot favor the spiritual realm, or inner existence, at the expense of its material and social relations. Rather, these two spheres are both important for full self-development.

The literary works of Heinrich von Kleist (17771811) have long been an important influence on thinkers and writers interested and engaged in the German cultural tradition, particularly due to the enigmatic and highly problematic nature of his narrative approach. In recent years, however, there has been a notable surge of interest in Kleists works, which has led to the production of several articles, papers, and even entire conference panels dedicated to the investigation of his oeuvre from various angles. Why does Kleist still fascinate his readers so much, and what is it about his texts that allow for such a large and varied body of interpretation? In this thesis, I will argue that it is crucial to examine closely the interface of text and reader when analyzing Kleists novellas, specifically "Die Marquise von O" and "Das Erdbeben in Chili." I will then attempt to establish a link between Kleists unique reaction to the philosophical debates concerning epistemology and aesthetics that were taking place during his short lifetime and the experience of the reader when confronting Kleists texts. I will examine these questions first with the aid of narratology and reader-response theory, particularly by examining the issues of closure and focalization in the two narratives. Furthermore, I will illustrate how a narratological/reader-response approach to Kleists work can also inform a feminist critical approach and, likewise, how a feminist analysis can complement the former. In the final chapter, I will conduct a feminist analysis, focusing on both form and content in the two novellas to show how Kleists work both structurally and thematically challenges male Enlightenment values such as order and logic. These analyses ultimately illustrate how Kleist displaced the philosophical questions with which he was grappling into the realm of the text-reader interface, thus emulating and illuminating with this relationship the selfs quest for knowledge and meaning in the world.

Transatlantic slavery and the literary imagination The challenges of turning transatlantic slavery into literature A polyphony of historical voices: Caryl Phillips’s dialogic imagination Literary imagination and the Zong Massacre: Fred D’Aguiar and David Dabydeen Perspectives

This essay revisits Ian McEwan’s extremely successful novel Saturday, and interrogates its exemplary assessment of the British cultural climate after 9/11. The particular focus is on McEwan’s extensive recourse to the writings of Matthew Arnold, whose melancholy outlook on culture and anarchy McEwan basically translates into the 21st century without much ideological fraction. This relapse into Victorian liberal humanism as consolation for a Western world besieged by the contingencies of terrorism is extremely problematic. Not only does it wilfully ignore the transcultural realities of modern Britain, it also promotes an ahistorical and apolitical mode of critical inquiry which may be called reductive at best in view of the global challenges that the novel addresses.

Vor und nach dem Erscheinen von Martin Walsers Buch "Tod eines Kritikers" warfen ihm einige Kritiker Antisemitismus vor. Ausgehend von dieser kontrovers diskutierten Publikation, wird das Werk Martin Walsers im Zusammenhang mit seinen Äußerungen zu Juden kritisch untersucht.

Aus dem Inhalt: Die Beurteilung des Azdak im Kaukasischen Kreidekreis, einer der relativ komplexeren Gestalten in Brechts Werk, ist in der Forschung äußerst kontrovers. Die Meinungen der Gelehrten gehen erheblich auseinander und reichen von der Sicht des "Armeleuterichters" als einer "messianischen Gestalt" einerseits oder eines "Mephisto" andererseits, über den Eulenspiegel oder eine "geheimnisvolle Widerstandsfigur" bis hin zum "Chaoten" oder sogar einer politischen Chiffre "Essdek" (d.i. Sozialdemokrat). Angesichts der bereits bestehenden Vielfalt nicht selten absurd anmutender literarischer Querverweise zu Azdak will die folgende Untersuchung die lange Reihe der Vermutungen nicht zusätzlich verlängern, vielmehr nur auf eine der literarischen Quellen hinweisen, die für die Entstehung der Azdak-Figur maßgeblich gewesen sein könnte.

rezensiertes Werk: Gegen das große Umsonst : vierzig Jahre mit dem Dichter Volker Braun / Ingrid Pergande ... (Hrsg.). - Berlin [u.a.] : Pergande und Kaufmann, 2009. - 335 S. : Ill. ISBN 978-3-00-027239-4

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rezensiertes Werk: Sich aussetzen : das Wort ergreifen ; Texte und Bilder zum 80. Geburtstag von Christa Wolf / hrsg. von Therese Hörnigk im Auftr. des Literaturforums im Brecht-Haus und in Zusammenarbeit mit der Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung. - Göttingen : Wallstein-Verl., 2009. - 192 S. : Ill. ISBN 978-3-8353-0481-9