In modern times German authors have made ample use of the Job-theme. The study examines the transformations that the story of Job has undergone in German narrative and dramatic works from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Der neue Hiob (1878) to Fritz Zorn's Mars (1977). The most striking feature of these works lies in their diverse characterization of the Job-figure. As a mythical figure he remains synonymous with the sufferer, but he may be characterized as patient or impatient, humble or arrogant, innocent or guilty, rich or poor, courageous or cowardly; he may be a Jew or a Christian, a Nazi or an anti-Nazi, a believer or an agnostic. The authors have retained most of the characters included in the Old Testament story. The Job-figure usually has a wife (who doubts and despises God), a number of children (who die in an impending disaster), and several friends (who accuse him of wrong-doing). Concerning the plot, most writers have excluded any prologue in heaven. The suffering of the Job-figure (usually brought on by the loss of loved ones, by physical pain and by mental agony) is always central to the story. More often than not, however, the modern Job-figure exhibits a form of impatience and impiety once misfortune has struck. A theophany (literal confrontation with God) does not occur, but a divine agent may be provided in the form of a dream or a vision, or indirectly by nature. An epilogue (the restoration of Job's health, possessions and children) is usually omitted, but some authors imply a renewal of Job, so as to suggest a purpose for and a hope after his arduous trials. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

The thesis explores the vexed concept of Heimat in recent German culture. Heimat evokes an exclusive group, founded on the idea of the unity and homogeneity of its members. Conflicts arise around the concept because it constructs oppositions between those who belong and those who do not, insiders and outsiders, the domestic and known in opposition to the foreign and strange. Historically, the concept has been used to tell a story about the cohesion of the German nation; it has also, however, been used to assimilate, eliminate, or exile its Others. The thesis examines how the legacies of the concept and its narrative reverberate through the nation-building process of Germany today. The concept of Heimat is active in films, literature, the law and contemporary German society. The argument is that the concept of Heimat still shapes German identity in ways that use old forms and oppositions to respond to recent social changes. It is argued further that the tensions around the concept have not diminished, but are spreading into many different areas of German everyday life. Two films by Edgar Reitz provide the starting point for exploring the tensions around Heimat in contemorary German culture. Following readings of texts by Jewish-German, Austrian- German, Swiss-German, Persian-German, Rumanian-German, East and West German authors show the concept persisting in different forms with different consequences, according to the different cultural contexts. In each of these contexts, the concept of German Heimat produces both social cohesion and social tensions. As much as people are united by the concept, they are also driven apart by its differentiating and disintegrating mechanisms. Motivated by the search for communal intimacy, the concept also has the effect of controlling and manipulating what appears different and alien. As such a network of interests and strategies it is not merely closed, fixed and bounded, as desired perhaps by the dominant cultural groups, but rather open for contestation and negotiation within and across national borders. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

There is a divergence of views in German First World War literature concerning the presentation of medical aspects and nursing experiences. Although all accounts of the war claim implicitly to present the truth about a section of, or even the whole of, the war, be they diaries, letters or war fiction, variations arise due to the individual attitude, perspective and intention of each author. This thesis examines a range of different types of fictional and non-fictional war literature: diaries, letters, reports, narratives and novels written by or about participants during or after the war, taking due account of the precise relationship to the experience, the intent of the writers and the context of their accounts. Some of these are based on personal experience and provide an imnediate impression of the war. Some use personal experience, but not specific historical details, to look at the war in retrospect, conditioned by the (additional) medical knowledge of the late 1920s. Others blend fictional and historical characters and events. Although the standpoint of the individual ordinary soldier and sailor, or officer, predominates in writings of this kind, writings both by and about women and other non-combatants involved in the war have been included. German material is compared with American, British and French accounts wherever possible and practicable. A preliminary section (chapters 2+3) provides the reader with a detailed and necessary historical overview of the organization of the German lieeressanialtswesen. between 1914 and 1918, followed by an examination of the discrepancy between the historical experience and perception of the Lazarett in the German literary context. The second part of the work (chapters 4-6) examines descriptions and perceptions of specific medical aspects of the war from the point of view of those immediately involved in the Yermuncletenliirgarge: surgeons and medical practitioners, paramedical orderlies and stretcher-bearers as well as nurses. The largest part (chapters 7-12) examines the medical effects of the war as perceived in different literary and non-literary contexts, ranging from straightforward wounds, shell-shock and other psychological phenomena, to the effects of poison gas and chemical warfare, venereal diseases, self-inflicted wounds and the medical implications of trench warfare, followed by an analysis of the motif of 'war as disease'.

No description available.

Orientador: Márcio Orlando Seligmann Silva / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T13:12:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Santos_BrunoMendesdos_M.pdf: 1426800 bytes, checksum: d5e451f4db00da1f0cfd93ce9ad5765b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Este trabalho trata dos limites entre memória e ficção em algumas obras de Günter Grass (1927-) - a saber, O tambor (1959), Gato e rato (1961), Anos de cão (1965) e Nas peles da cebola (2006) - tendo em vista o seu teor testemunhal sobre o período entre guerras e pós-guerra, levando em conta a situação do autor como sujeito e objeto social, em um dos ambientes mais representativos da história global no século XX. Com o suporte de teorias da literatura, da cultura e da filosofia, além do aparato de textos críticos, ensaísticos e jornalísticos, bem como de outros textos literários sob perspectiva comparativa, deseja-se observar os processos de ficcionalização da memória individual, de romanceação da autobiografia e de construção da memória cultural através da literatura / Abstract: This work deals with the boundaries between memory and fiction in some pieces of Günter Grass (1927-) - namely, "The tim drum" (1959), "Cat and mouse" (1961), "Dog years" (1965) and "Peeling the onion" (2006) - taking into account its testimonial content from Nazism and postwar era, considering the author's position as social subject and object, in one of the most representative environments of world history in the twentieth century. Using theories of literature, culture and philosophy as support, as well as critics, essays and journalistic texts, besides other literary texts in a comparative perspective, it aims to observe the processes of fictionalizing individual memories, writing an autobiography in the form of a novel and building cultural memory through literature / Mestrado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Mestre em Teoria e História Literária

This thesis intends to show how the application of the Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect), originally formulated by Brecht, serves to express different Weltanschauungen in the works of Dürrenmatt, Frisch and Handke. The main emphasis is on the works of Peter Handke however, in order to demonstrate the changes in the interpretation of the alienation effect, some of the plays by Dürrenmatt and Frisch are analysed.

No description available.

This study examines the relationships between intercultural theory, German Studies (in South Africa) and post-war migration literature written in Germany. Migration literature as intercultural literature, and German Studies adopting an intercultural philosophy are thus associated by an intercultural aspect that also links both to a global network of intercultural relations. The study places emphasis on relationships rather than areas of research. This means that areas of research are looked at in terms of how they relate to other areas of research and other contexts. The underlying idea is that intercultural understanding can be taught at an academic level as an avenue towards building intercultural competence. At the same time, theories of an intercultural understanding should be informed by experiences that helped build intercultural competence. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.