<p>This study offers a detailed analysis of the main character of Bertolt Brecht's play Schweyk im zweiten Weltkrieg. The play has, to a large extent, been neglected, criticised and generally regarded as a second-rate Hork. One of the objects of this study is to destroy that view. Schweyk is seen as conforming to a typically Brechtian pattern, in that he is basically a character made up of two conflicting, socially conditioned sides. This study attempts to bring these two sides into perspective, thus showing Schweyk in his true light. Schweyk is basically seen to be following a campaign of "opponierendes Mitläufertum" and as such is closely linked with Brecht's most significant political publication "Fünf Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben der Wahrheit". At the end of the character analysis a definition of Schweyk is formulated based on the qualities of the aforementioned political treatise, so that some observations can be made on the terms "Schweyk figure" and "Schweykian philosophy", both terms which seem to have been abused by the critics. From these observations and the character analysis of Schweyk, it then becomes quite obvious that Schweyk im zweiten weltkrieg is of fundamental importance, since in the character of Schweyk Brecht seems to express his philosophy of life in the clearest, most unequivocal manner.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis contains a translation of five stories from Georg Heym's collection of short stories entitled Der Dieb: Ein Novellenbuch. The major emphasis of the thesis is on the translation. Each of the translated stories is followed by a cornmentary in the form of footnotes. These footnotes point out the specific problems encountered in translating this work and they explain and comment on particular words and images.<br />The discussion serves as a general introduction to the five short stories. The main themes and literary style of each story are briefly analyzed.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>A critical and comparative analysis of the comic elements in Duerrenmatt's works.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The results of an intensive analysis of writings by Franz Fühmann will not be presented in the traditional form of a discussion, but rather as an actual recreation in another language of the specific texts under study.</p> <p>This thesis, then, presents three stories from Franz Fühmann's 1977 collection entitled Bagatelle, rundum positiv in English translation.</p> <p>A preliminary chapter serves to introduce this contemporary writer from the German Democratic Republic, and to acquaint the reader with the cultural, political scene within which Fühmann has been working.</p> <p>In the concluding chapter, particular problems encountered in translation are pointed out, and solutions to these problems are explained. These solutions were devised subsequent to my gaining insight into the material.</p> <p>The bibliography catalogues all literature produced by Franz Fühmann prior to 1980, and also everything written on him and his work to date. It is intended to be a list of all the sources available for an eXhaustive Fühmann study, not merely a catalogue of the publications actually used for the purpose of this thesis.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This paper begins with an examination of Gottfried1s probable background and interests, which are seen to vary greatly from those of his contemporaries. These differences manifest themselves in the poet's unusual degree of concern for matters of an artistic nature and the purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance which Gottfried attributes to art within his poem.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This study represents an analysis of the function of nature within the novels of Theodor Fontane. Nature is examined in its bearing on the form and content of individual novels, attention being given to the chronolhgical development of Fontane's work. An attempt is made to assess the significance of nature in the writer's art as a whole.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The gradual change in attitude to modern theatrical dialogue is outlined and an investigation of frisch's dialogue is carried out. It is established that the lack of communication manifest in the dialogue between characters on stage has as its counterpart a high level of communication between stage and audience. The means whereby this is achieved lies in the manipulation of dalogue in- and cross-stage.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the types and amounts of speaking activities in which beginning foreign language students engage, in order to determine how and to what extent students practice the language artificially in drills, directed dialogues and other forms of pseudo-communication, and how and to what extent they use the foreign language as a real means of communication.</p> <p>Seventeen grade 10 and grade 11 German classes in Hamilton-Wentworth publicly supported secondary schools were observed, and teacher questionnaires were completed by twenty local German teachers to verify the accuracy of the observations.</p> <p>The results of the observations and the questionnaires reveal that student talk in elementary foreign language classes is largely in the foreign language (86%),<br />but that this talk falls almost exclusively in the artificial range (98%). Only 2% of everything spoken by the students in grade 10 classes was real communication in the target language. Further, the data indicate that real communication activities do not increase substantially at the grade 11 level.</p> <p>Student exposure to real uses of the foreign language occurred primarily in the form of listening comprehension, in that 75% of all real communication spoken in German in<br />the grade 10 classes was the teacher giving instructions or making explanations. Even in this category, teachers used more English than German (61% English). In general a tendency was shovm both by teachers and students to use English whenever real communication was intended.</p> <p>Real communication is believed to be essential both to student motivation and to student achievement at the earliest stages of foreign language learning. Yet real<br />communication activities rarely occurred in the beginning foreign language classes observed in this study. Teachers cited two major obstacles in achieving real communication with their first year students: their limited vocabulary and their limited knowledge of structure. Teachers who overcame these two obstacles in the observations achieved real communication via the following technique: by using the vocabulary and structure from a drill, text, or dialogue which the students had already mastered to ask the students personal questions. This technique may be utilized as a follow-up step to every practice activity from the beginning of foreign language study and needs only to be planned and practiced regularly for real communication in elementary foreign language classes to substantially increase.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This study assesses the importance of the contribution made by Uwe Johnson in his novels to the development of contemporary realistic writing, by examining political and<br />social problems raised by the post-war ideological division of Europe and the complex question of individuality in modern society. Johnson's three novels are considered on a comparative basis, with regard to narrative structure, settings and characterisation, in order to indicate his principal interests as a novelist and as an observer of society, and to sugeest significallt changes of emphasis within the novels.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis sets out to assess the special characteristics of the irony of the narrator in Wieland's Don Sylvio. The investigation centres upon close analysis of the main text. But, for perspective and accuracy of evaluation, this analysis is set within the context of th irony of the narrator as it is empirically defined in a brief review of other selected novels.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)