<p>This dissertation explores arguments against legal and authoritarian structures as thematized by four works of fiction from distinct periods of German history: Jacob Wasserman's Der Fall Maurizius (the Weimar Republic), Arnold Zweig's Das Beil von Wandsbek (the Third Reich), Manfred Bieler's Das Kaninchen bin Ich (post-war division of Germany), and Thomas Brussig's Leben bis Männer (Germany after reunification). The aim of my analysis is to define how each work builds a "case" against the state. It conducts a literary analysis of each work, which it places in its own cultural and political context. It then compares this case to German theories of law to determine points at which the work is in dialogue with pressing questions of justice particular to its legal epoch: Der Fall Maurizius (1928) builds a case against the state by juxtaposing positivist and natural law, yet ultimately cannot avoid the axiomatic nature of each position; Das Beil von Wandsbek (1938-43) is a Marxist morality play whose concept of justice proves insufficient to its own implied standards; Maria Morzeck oder Das Kaninchen bin ich (1969) engages the GDR's 1961 law reform directly, yet in its development from GDR film to FRG novel softens its critique of the state by thematizing its own literary limitations; and Leben bis Männer (2001) argues against Germany's post-reunification trials of former GDR border guards, but exposes its own plea for a sympathetic view of the GDR.</p> / Dissertation

Germany can be considered a country of immigration due to the fact that there have been several waves of immigrants moving to Germany from different countries due to various circumstances. One of the immigrant groups addressed in this thesis is the group of young Turks who were invited to work in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1960. This group is referred to as the pioneer generation of the guest workers. Whereas the second and third-generation of guest workers are known as the foreigner generation and the resident generation, respectively. Additionally, another group addressed in this thesis is the more recent group of refugees who fled from the civil war in Syria, which started in 2011. In order to investigate the guest workers’ and refugees’ identities within the foreign literature, I will use Anthony Gidden’s identity concept of choice of identity. Moreover, the notion of identity will be further analyzed through both the rhetorical and linguistic choices as well as the topics discussed in the literature. The aim of this thesis is first to analyze the identity of authors that belong to different groups (author identity) of foreign literature (pioneer literature, foreigner literature, resident literature, and refugee literature), and secondly to examine the identity of the foreign literature itself (literature identity). Thus, I will also address the question of what foreign literature (especially refugee literature) means to German literature. In regards to the author identity, the rhetorical and linguistic choices reveal the following: First, the pioneer generation unites the parts of its Turkish and German identity into a personal identity; secondly, the foreigner generation forms its identity by integrating elements from Turkish and German, as well as other languages or dialects (e. g., English, slang, North German dialect); and lastly, the resident generation’s identity is more deeply rooted in the guest culture (Germany) than the identities of the other two groups. In contrast, the refugee’s identity cannot be analyzed based on language because it is not originally written in German but rather translated. Finally, in regard to the literature identity, it is evident that through the distribution of refugee literature, the readership should become more informed about Arabic-speaking countries, as well as more aware of the stereotypes towards Arabic-speaking people that should be reduced. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 11, 2018. / Ausländerliteratur, Flüchtlingsliteratur, Gastarbeiterliteratur, Identität, Inländerliteratur, Pionierliteratur / Includes bibliographical references. / Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe, Professor Directing Thesis; Birgit Maier-Katkin, Committee Member; Alina Dana Weber, Committee Member.

In this thesis, I interpret Adelbert von Chamisso’s novella Peter Schlemihl, Patrick Süskind’s novel Das Parfum, F.W. Murnau’s film Nosferatu, Werner Herzog’s film Nosferatu, and E. Elias Merhige’s film Shadow of the Vampire in light of Jacques Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage in order to explore the significance of the loss of external representation, be it the form of a visual reflection, visual shadow, or odor. Lacan’s theory states that the moment a child first recognizes his or her reflection in the mirror is the beginning of an individual’s ego-formation and thus is significant for mature development. I argue that experiencing a reversal of this process would cause a reversion to a psychological pre-mirror stage, which would fracture the ego, and thus eventually result in the person’s immaturity. This process, however, is not just individual; this is owing to the social aspect of the mirror stage, transitivism, by which one misidentifies with an “other.” Because societies mark the protagonists of the works I am analyzing as “other” owing to their loss of external representation and reject them, these figures, in fact, constitute as “inappropriate other[s].” I borrow this term from Trinh T. Minh-Ha’s because it helps trace these figures’ ambiguous social status: although they are outsiders in their respective societies, they succeed in performing as insiders for limited periods of time. As the members of the respective societies misidentify with these “inappropriate others” in all the works I interpret, their mirroring processes and self-images are affected. In Peter Schlemihl, the protagonist learns the value of his shadow when he trades it for a bag of endless gold. Despite the shadow serving no real purpose, he is later ostracized because of his lack of representation, revealing the immaturity of a society which values the symbolic (the shadow) over the real (the person who casts the shadow). I read this narrative as the text’s critique of a society which values one’s external representation over one’s real self. Similarly, in Das Parfum, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is feared and detested from infancy due to his being born without a body odor. Ironically, his almost supernatural sense of smell makes up for this seemingly minor deficiency. Grenouille’s goal becomes creating the ultimate perfume, which he does by murdering virgin girls for their scents. He is caught, but on his execution day, he uses his master perfume to manipulate everyone into loving him. As I argue, Süskind’s Das Parfum critiques not only a society that is so deceived by a murderer’s odiferous representation that those gathered to watch the spectacle of his death eventually embrace him but one that has also created the conditions for this murderer to flourish in its midst. In the third chapter, I show that the curse of the vampire is an abstraction of the mirror stage. Because each vampire loses all human, corporeal existence, he (or she) clings to vampiric representations (Count Orlok, bird, rat, etc.). These films also critique the societies which let themselves be deceived by the vampire’s representations with disastrous consequences. Shadow of the Vampire takes the role of representation even further when it shows how the protagonist, the director Murnau, ironically sacrifices the lives of his crewmembers to a real vampire, his lead actor, in order to make the most realistic vampire film of all time. In this case too, as I argue, the film levels a criticism of a society that values representation above everything else, and primarily visual representation, in this case, the body-less medium of cinema. In sum, my thesis connects canonical works of German literature and international film that have not yet been interpreted together, and especially not in light of Lacanian mirroring. By this combination of primary sources and this new reading, the interpretation highlights new and relevant dimensions of these works’ social and aesthetic critique, which they share across time and media. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 09, 2018. / inappropriate other, Jacques Lacan, mirror stage, otherness, psychoanalysis, shadow / Includes bibliographical references. / A. Dana Weber, Professor Directing Thesis; Christian Weber, Committee Member; Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe, Committee Member.

Inaug.-Diss.--Bonn. / Lebenslauf. "Texte": p. 79-80. "Literatur": p. 81-82.

This dissertation examines literary texts published in the 1980s which confront the loss of individuality and self-identity in GDR society: Der fremde Freund (1982) and Der Tangospieler (1989) by Christoph Hein, and Flugasche (1981) and Die Uberlauferin (1986) by Monika Maron. The dissertation shows that whereas Hein's texts don't construct a fundamental antagonism between individual and society, Maron's novels increasingly reveal the attack on individuality in socialist society. Chapters one and two consider the background of the texts of the eighties: the socialist ideology of the "self" and the GDR 'counter tradition' of non-conformist characters. Chapter three, an analysis of Der fremde Freund, reads Christoph Hein's main character as an "ohnmachtiges Ich," unable to cure her almost silenced self. Both the damaged self and the society's "unaufgearbeitete" fascist past become destructive if they are neglected and denied, and it is necessary to acknowledge the social and psychosocial past in order to cure the individual and his/her society. Chapter four is an analysis of Der Tangospieler. The tango player is a historian unable to think historically, a lack the text considers (self)destructive. Hein's historian functions as metaphor for a socialist society that has forgotten its own historical mission. Chapter five, an analysis of Flugasche, shows a "rebellisches Ich" who succeeds in resisting her own tendency to become fully conformist. The origin of a "crisis of the self" can be located in the actions of the individual who is simultaneously victim and his/her own enemy. Chapter six, an analysis of Die Uberlauferin, shows that Maron's depiction of a destroyed self in her second novel becomes the starting point for her vision of a healed self. But here Maron disengages from the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the "socialist individual." The dissertation concludes that Maron's rejection of socialist realist narrative techniques and conventions can be read as an indication of the author's conviction that socialist ideology and/or its practice destroys individuality. Hein, in contrast, continues (in 1989) to believe in the capability of GDR society to be reformed.

The works of author, musician, and disc jockey Thomas Meinecke (*1955), both in content and in form, dismantle previously maintained conceptions of authorship, readership, and the literary text. My dissertation has two goals: firstly, the introduction of Meinecke and his literary works at the intersection of postmodernist and postcolonial debates, music and literature, fiction and academic theory; secondly, a cultural studies analysis of his novels The Church of John F. Kennedy (1996), Tomboy (1998), Hellblau (2001) and Musik (2004), with special consideration paid to identity formation within postmodern and postcolonial frameworks. By using a cultural studies approach, I deconstruct Meinecke's literary sampling, mixing, and remixing of national, sexual, and gender identities; ethnicity, and race. To position his works within German contemporary pop literature, I compare Meinecke's works to those of his colleagues at Suhrkamp and in the DJ scene, namely Andreas Neumeister (Angela Davis löscht ihre Webseite, 2002) and Rainald Goetz (Rave, 1998). By reading his methods of text production as literary DJ-techniques (reminiscent of sampling, scratching, and remixing in the DJ culture), I define his works as sound literature, critically examining the analogies text/soundtrack, quotation/sample, and author/DJ. As opposed to Montage and Cut-up, the concept of literary sampling of pre-existing materials opens up the postmodern discourse on intellectual property and plagiarism in literature and necessitates a close analysis of the political function of Meinecke's literary sampling. I also observe emerging literary rhythms and analyze the way in which they facilitate interaction among author, reader, and texts. In my analysis of this reconfiguration of authorship and readership, the reader has more power than initially assumed: by using reception theory, I argue that the death of the author does not result in the rebirth of the reader but leads to the notion of the reader as a DJ.

This paper examines a series of light metaphors in Goethe's Faust. The purpose is to display a connection between each light metaphor and major developments in Faust's character, namely his development from a restless scholar imprisoned in his study to a blind man shortly before his death. The order in which the light metaphors are introduced is not chronological; rather they follow a thematic sequence from night to day to night. The purpose of this particular progression is to show more clearly Faust's movement from one mindset to the next. The order, moonlight to rising sun to rainbow to setting sun to inner light, reinforces much of what is claimed in this paper's main argument. I assert that a series of light metaphors are connected to Faust as the subjective extensions and expressions of his thoughts about the nature of knowledge and man's place in relation to the Absolute in the wake of series of trials and tribulations. Furthermore, I argue that these light metaphors, when connected thematically as opposed to chronologically, trace the cyclical nature of Faust's, and possibly man's, intellectual enterprise. This thesis combines my own interpretation of the main text with those of other major scholars in the field in order to best argue my points. In the end it will be shown that the various light metaphors are connected to Faust's personal development and display the perennial disposition of human activity as he searches for truth and knowledge in a world of uncertainty. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester 2015. / May 27, 2015. / Faust, Goethe, Light, Metaphors / Includes bibliographical references. / Christian Weber, Professor Directing Thesis; Birgit Maier-Katkin, Committee Member; A. Dana Weber, Committee Member.

Abstract not available

Abstract not available

The Marchen of Christoph Martin Wieland and Johann Karl August Musaus are particularly suited to provide the context for a study of what Ludwig Tieck inherited from the Marchen of the Enlightenment. Between them these two authors reflect the major literary influences upon the development of the Marchen in Germany. They are also the authors against which Tieck defined himself, for the violence of his rejection of Wieland's works and the oft-repeated criticism of Musaus' tales betray the context of shared assumptions. Wieland represents in his Marchen the contribution of the French fairy tale literature, the loosening of normative aesthetics as well as the distanced attitude typical of the Rococo period toward the Enlightenment's view of the perfectibility of mankind. Musaus' tales mark a pivotal point in the adaptation of folk material to the requirements of high literature, particularly that moment when the Marchen's adoption of novelistic techniques moved it into the mainstream of popular literature. Between Wieland and Musaus we also have representatives of the debate on the role of the marvelous in literature, a debate, which was crucial in the rise of the Marchen. Their Marchen apply and illustrate the theories of Gottsched and Breitinger concerning the marvelous. Musaus, concerned to link the imagination to the intellectual faculties, grounds the marvelous as much as possible in reality by using processes of association, and logical progression. Wieland anchored the marvelous in the individual's subjective view of the world and human sensuality. Thus both authors limited the marvelous to a few "episodes" or moments of a story. Musaus' grounding of the marvelous showed Tieck the possibility of creating the peculiar ambiguous quality that he gives to the depictions of the real world in his Marchen. Wieland's grounding of the marvelous in human nature, particularly in sensuality, has many repercussions throughout Tieck's Marchen. Though it is possible to see in the turn to the Marchen a disaffection with the assumptions of the Aufklarung on the part of all three authors, Tieck's scepticism is deeper and finds a more radical expression in the Marchen.