This thesis explores the significance of the journey to Poland in contemporary German literature by women. The texts are Bronjas Erbe (2001) by Beate Rygiert, Himmelskörper (2003) by Tanja Dückers, Pawels Briefe (1999) by Monika Maron, Die Töchter (1976) by Jeannette Lander, and Kindheitsmuster (1976) by Christa Wolf. I argue that Poland, as the site of the Holocaust and of the expulsions, serves as a site of memory in these texts, and that the journey to Poland allows the Jewish and non-Jewish protagonists to come to terms with the past. During their journey, most of the protagonists find what they were looking for. Further, through direct contact with Poles and Polish culture, most of the protagonists are able to overcome prejudice and stereotypical thinking. Since both the authors and their protagonists belong to different generations, i.e., those who experienced WWII directly and their children and grandchildren, the ways in which family history is passed on from one generation to the next and how it is re-collected within the German Polish context is the major concern of these texts. The immediate contact with the Polish sites triggers a process of remembering in the first-generation protagonists who are then able to pass it on to their children to fill the gaps in the family’s collective memory. The members of the younger generations become actively involved in helping to restore this memory. While conflicts between the generations escalate in Poland, the process of working through these conflicts on Polish ground helps the family members to better understand each other. I read the texts through anthropologist Victor Turner’s three-phase model of separation, liminality, and reaggregation. Poland in the five texts can thus be interpreted as a liminal space or, to use Mary Louise Pratt’s term, a contact zone. Since the texts focus on the experience of the female protagonist and traveler, the role of women as keepers of family memory is also stressed. Because of their intense probing of ethnic stereotypes and the legacy of the past, the five texts can be seen as contributing significantly to fostering a better understanding between Germans and Poles and non-Jewish and Jewish Poles. / Thesis (Ph.D, German) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-21 19:51:55.603

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This thesis sets out to analyze the work of Helga Schubert, Helga Königsdorf and Monika Maron. It concentrates on their neglected short prose, undertaking an in-depth analysis of the authors’ themes as well as examining their responses to reality. The overwhelming sense of entrapment in a ‘stagnant’ society is the primary pre-occupation of all three authors; yet they each communicate this in different ways. Schubert endeavours to remain apolitical, although her criticism is aimed increasingly directly at the GDR. Königsdorf is party-loyal and sees society’s ills as a product of a distortion in values linked to industrialization. Maron, the dissident, consciously attacks the regime in her writing, using literature itself as means to expose the corruption of the state. By focusing on women, this study intends to further the establishment of female writers in mainstream academic discourse. The thesis reflects not just the political concerns of GDR writers, but also their philosophical and social approaches to life. An analysis of their short fiction provides a more complete overview of the authors’ development, thereby complementing studies of their novels. These women’s writings have become valuable documents of an era which is irrevocably past. Such studies as mine, therefore, provide a useful key to understanding post-Wende literature.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:17:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 6924585 bytes, checksum: 47287fb7fdad45d1e5e85df391339003 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-23 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In addressing the ethnic-racial issue, we do so with reference to some issues of political, ideological, social and identity. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to analyze the process of construction of the territory and the ethnic territoriality in the maroon community Grilo, based on memorialistic reports and founding myths. The investigated community is located in the municipality of Riachão do Bacamarte, in the Mesoregion of Agreste Paraibano. In this investigation we are going to emphasize the relations and the resistance process of black men and black women from Grilo in the construction of the material and immaterial identity in their territory. From the theoretical and methodological standpoint we emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary debate in geography, in this context, and seeking to extend our gaze in this investigation, we have been reviewing the literature on the topic in documents and bibliographies, as well as field work which constitutes the most important step in the elucidation of the social, political and cultural phenomena in the community. Based on the above, we highlight that the combination of these methodologies enabled the construction of the text that makes up this dissertation. Thus, some issues have led us to affirm that the territory of the maroon community Grilo represents to the group not only ownership of a territory marked by power relations as a political strategy, but the maintenance of the memory inherited from ancestors and passed on to descendants which materialize in dances, neighborly relations, customary solidarity, among other aspects that contribute to the construction of territoriality / Ao abordar a questão étnico-racial, toma-se como referência algumas questões de natureza política, ideológica, social e identitária. O objetivo desta dissertação é de analisar o processo de construção do território e da identidade étnica da Comunidade quilombola Grilo, com base em relatos memorialistas e nos mitos fundadores. A comunidade ora investigada localiza-se, geograficamente, no município de Riachão do Bacamarte, na Mesorregião do Agreste Paraibano. Nesta investigação, destacamos as relações e o processo de resistência dos negros e das negras do Grilo na construção da identidade material e imaterial com o território. Do ponto de vista teórico-metodológico, ressaltamos a importância do debate interdisciplinar na ciência geográfica, assim, buscando ampliar o nosso olhar nesta investigação, procedemos a uma revisão da literatura sobre o tema em documentos e bibliografias, e do trabalho de campo, que é a etapa mais relevante na elucidação dos fenômenos materiais e imateriais da referida comunidade. A combinação dessas metodologias possibilitou a construção deste texto, que compõe a Dissertação de Mestrado. Nessa perspectiva, algumas questões nos levam a afirmar que o território da comunidade quilombola representa para o grupo não só a apropriação de um território marcado pelas relações de poder, como estratégia política, mas também a manutenção da memória herdada dos ancestrais e repassada aos descendentes que se materializam nas relações de vizinhança, solidariedades costumeiras, que contribuem na construção da territorialidade

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