<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)

<p>This thesis consists of a biography of Reinhold Schneider and a translation of two stories which appeared in his 1943 collection of short stories entitled Die Dunkle Nacht. Each story is followed by notes which give explanations concerning historical background, biblical concepts and expressions, and problems in translation. The Bibliography is divided into "Works Cited" and "Works Consulted" for the reader who wishes to do further research on this author.</p> <p>The purpose of this thesis is to provide the English-speaking reader with an introduction to Reinhold Schneider, one of the few people who both wrote and published anti-Nazi literature within Germany during the Second World War. This courageous writer, who saw his role as giving his people "a helping word", sought to direct them back to the Absolute, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. He also reminded them that the conscience is an indestructible part of man. The emphasis of this thesis presents itself equally in both Parts One and Two to show that Schneider deserved such names as "a voice in the wilderness" and "Germany's conscience" during this difficult period of history.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis discusses the Institution of the Duel in the dramas and prose works of Arthur Schitzler, and presents a translation into English of the novella Leutnant Gustl.</p> <p>A preliminary chapter provides short biographical details and outlines the general cultural, political and social atmosphere of the times.</p> <p>The concluding chapter discusses the translation and points out certain specific problems.</p> <p>All quotations from Schintzler's Dramas and Prose Works are from the following editions:</p> <p>Arthur Schnitzler, Gesammelte Werke: Die dramatische Werke.</p> <p>2 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1962.</p> <p>Arthur Schnitzler, Gesammelte Werke: Die erzáhlenden Schriften.</p> <p>2 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 1962.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Felix Mitterer is a well-known Austrian playwright who has yet to receive extensive recognition in North America. He writes in the tradition of the <em>Volksstück</em>, a genre which is usually associated with clichés, crude comedy, sentimentality and entertainment for the masses. But increasingly, authors have manipulated the traditional aspects of this genre to create <em>Volksstücke</em> with a socially critical message. Mitterer has been associated with a movement begun in the late sixties known as the "new socially critical <em>Volksstück</em>." Most writers of this movement address provocative themes, but have alienated the intended audience of the <em>Volksstück</em>, the ordinary people, by creating works which are cynical, surreal or violent. Mitterer has modified the socially critical <em>Volksstück</em> so that it appeals to a wide audience.</p> <p>I will analyze how Mitterer has accomplished this by examining his two most popular and widely performed plays, Besuchszeit and Sibirien. I will explore his presentation of provocative themes - alienation resulting from a lack of communication, the problematic nature of traditional gender roles, difficulties arising from unrestrained progress, and the dehumanizing nature of institutions - and his manipulation of traditional <em>Volksstück</em> elements in order to demonstrate his unique combination of the mundane and the artistic. Then I will examine the critical response to performances of these two works in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, focusing on newspaper reviews, the major source of information on his works, in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of his method of presentation. I will conclude by showing how he has modified both the traditional and the new socially critical <em>Volksstück</em> to create a more human version of this which appeals to a wide audience while achieving critical and scholarly recognition.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>As an instructor of beginners' German, the author of this thesis was introduced to the computer as a medium to teach foreign/second languages and wished to discover how effective the computer is as an aid to language learning.</p> <p>In order to look at the effectiveness of computer assisted language learning, the author of this thesis looked into the history and development of computer assisted language instruction and summarized the research in Part 1 of this thesis.</p> <p>To give the author first-hand experience with computer assisted language instruction, some computer exercises were prepared by her to be used in a pilot study conducted during the academic year 1989-90. A discussion of effective topics taught by computers as well as the set-up and results of this pilot study are given in Part 2 of this thesis.</p> <p>Finally, Part 3 of this thesis contains some general conclusions about computers as a medium in the language classroom. The most interesting conclusion, the computer's affect on student motivation, is drawn directly from the comments of the students involved in the pilot study as well as the author's own experience with language students using the computer as a learning tool.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis is a translation of chapters 5, 6, and 7 of German author Zafer Senocak's most recent novel "In deinen Worten" (In Your Words). It is part of a group translation project, the special nature of which will be the focus of the reflection that follows the translation and that explains the special challenges that the work with this particular text in this particular setting posed. Zafer Senocak is well-known German author and former writer-in-residence of the Department of German Studies of the University of Arizona. His work is very important in the field of German Studies. The following document contains the translation of the aforementioned chapters, followed by a reflection on the translation process.

<p> Austrian author and public official Heinrich Joseph von Collin (1771/1772&ndash;1811) composed anti-Napoleonic poetry in the early nineteenth-century in an effort to motivate his German-speaking contemporaries to support liberal efforts to resist the foreign aggression and local tyranny posed by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769&ndash;1821). Though Collin enjoyed international fame during his lifetime, today he is neglected by the general reading public in Germany and Austria, as well as by scholars who specialize in the literature of his age. </p><p> The following chapters explore the historical discourses in the nationalist and patriotic elements of Collin&rsquo;s literary work, as well as his concept of duty, and contrast these discourses with the understanding of these terms in the German-speaking world after World War II.</p>

Whilst the theme of the influence of one culture upon another has always been regarded as a legitimate subject of literary study, that of the image of one culture reflected within the literature of another culture has not. M-F. Guyard appears to have been the first critic to draw attention to the significance of this aspect of comparative literature. However, his claim that this constituted a serious aspect of literary research was not widely accepted. Critics, most notably R. Wellek, dismissed the subject as trivial: "One cannot be convinced by recent attempts ... to widen the scope of comparative literature in order to include a study of national illusions, of fixed ideas which nations have of each other." Wellek considered such a widening of the scope of comparative literature as 'dissolving literary scholarship into social psychology and cultural history'. These remarks, made in 1958, reflect the then fashionable New Criticism. The conviction that literary study should be divorced from all reality that exists beyond the bounds of the literature studied has been superceded in more recent times by a wider view of the function of literary criticism. With this has emerged a greater readiness to regard such comparative themes as a valuable contribution to literary research. The themes of images and influences are in fact complementary aspects of the same area of study, since it is through influences that an image emerges. A negative image is the result of negative influence on either an individual author or a particular culture. The study of the image of another culture and the influence of that culture is a parallel to the study of the reception, within anyone culture, of older traditions of that same culture. The latter is regarded as a valid subject of literary research, therefore the same must be true of the former. The particular theme of Oriental influences in German literature has received little critical attention. Studies have been made of the image and influences of India and Indian thought in German literature, but China has been neglected almost entirely. There are exceptions: Hermann Hesse, the most obvious example of the assimilation of Chinese thought, has been the subject of two detailed studies. Adrian Hsia's Hermann Hesse und China considers the whole of Hesse's life and work, and documents the latter's interest in Chinese literature and philosophy, whilst Ursula Chi's Die Weisheit Chinas undrDas Glasperlenspiel, demonstrates the application of Chinese thought in Hesse's writings. The existence of these two studies precludes Hesse from the present work, since it is not now possible to make any further contribution to this aspect of the problem. However, these two studies do not consider other authors, and do not place Hesse in the wider context of Sino-German literary relations. The present study does not, therefore, duplicate anything contained within these works but, rather,indicates that Hesse is not the exceptional figure that these isolated enquiries would appear to make him. Apart from these two works on Hesse, one can refer only to Rose's introductory article and investigations of individual authors, and to Chuan Chen's Die chinesische schone Literatur im deutschen Schrifttum of 1933. The latter is a study of translations of Chinese literature. It does not discuss works that are based upon Chinese motifs and only briefly examines German works that are adapted from Chinese originals. M. Davidson's uncompleted bibliography is of only limited value and contains many inaccuracies. More recently, Brecht has been the subject of a number of investigations that fall within the scope of the present thesis, as indicated in my discussion of his work. The fact that a single study has appeared dealing with Brecht's adaptation of twelve Chinese poems serves to indicate the neglect that earlier adaptors of Chinese poetry have suffered. The present study is intended to make a contribution to the investigation of the image of China by examining the role of Chinese themes in German literature. In doing so, it attempts to document the frequency of such themes and to explain their popularity whilst also considering the influence of China, and Chinese literature and thought on German authors. The main part of this study deals with twentieth-century German literature written before the end of 1945, the latest work being Brecht's Der kaukasische Kreidekreis. It is felt that 1945 is a significant point at which to halt the present study since post-war German literature, whilst possessing such obvious examples of Chinese influences as Hermann Kasack's Die Stadt hinter dem Strom of 1947, would require a separate approach. In order, however, to give an historical perspective to the literature of the twentieth century and to highlight the peculiarities of the modern response to China, a chapter is included surveying the historical development of the image of China in German literature and thought from earliest times to the end of the nineteenth century. Whilst a number of brief individual studies of various aspects of the historical image of China do exist, no single work covers the overall development. It is felt, therefore, that this chapter constitutes a necessary part of the present investigation. It is the intention of this study to isolate the features of the German literary response to China by examining works that use Chinese originals as a source, works that are adapted from or styled on Chinese sources, works set in China, works of a literary nature that discuss China, and works that, in the broadest sense, exhibit Chinese influences. The authors examined are not intended to be an exhaustive catalogue but, rather, representative of the various aspects discussed. Thus, in each case, the more popular authors are dealt with in detail, whilst works by other authors are included to demonstrate the popularity of such themes. The present work is not intended as a sinological study and does not attempt to criticise the accuracy of the work of sinologists. The majority of the texts discussed are free adaptations or imaginative creations. Where the accuracy of works is discussed, it is their accuracy to the source used by any particular author. However, where obvious discrepancies arise between a source used by a German author and a more accurate European translation of the original, this is pointed out. The discussion is not intended as a philological investigation of the works in question, but as a general literary enquiry into the use of certain themes and motifs. Nevertheless, the frequent distortion of original works presented in free German form does require comment, which is validated by reference to the work of recognised sinologists. Since a certain section of the discussion turns around the influence of Taoism, and since this philosophy is, by its very nature, elusive, obscure and barely distinguishable from other forms of religious mysticism and philosophical Idealism, an excursus is added which uses philosophical or pseudo-philosophical discussions and free adaptations of Taoist writings to support the thesis of the popularity and influence of Taoism in the twentieth century. Again, this is not intended as a sinological investigation, but as an attempt to ascertain the significance that Taoist thought gained during the period studied. The themes of influence and image merge within the various works discussed. These influences range from the poetic, through the religio-philosophical to the overtly political. No strict division between these various images and influences is attempted except where they fall into one clear category. The conclusion does, however, attempt to distinguish between these three categories, which often co-exist in the work of individual authors. Much of the literature discussed is of a trivial nature and belongs to the often neglected area of popular literature. Discussion of such works is necessary, since they constitute a large part of the material by which images and influences are communicated within cultural groups. Whilst one may be critical of the quality of these works, the literary critic must not ignore the existence of such literature which can help to qualify the cultural climate in which more valuable objects of literary interest are produced. Since it cannot be expected that the reader is familiar with the works that are discussed, it is often necessary to give a brief indication of the contents of these works in order to illustrate certain aspects of style and tone which typify the author's attitude towards China. Similarly, though the present author does not wish to burden his reader with facts on Chinese history and philosophy, certain details are indispensable for an understanding of particular works, and are included accordingly.