Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

A shortened version of the author's dissertation (doctoral)--University of South Africa, entitled: A heuristic study of the meaning of suffering among Holocaust survivors. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-311) and indexes.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, public discourse in German society has been repeatedly riven by debates prompted by three leading figures of the literary scene: Günter Grass, Martin Walser, and Christa Wolf. The tremendously emotional controversies regarding Wolf's purported cowardice as a GDR-writer, Walser's alleged anti-Semitism, and Grass's membership in the Waffen-SS served to confirm the significance of these writers, which, I argue, stems not only from their literary merits, but also from their status as former members of the Hitler Youth. Building upon Sigrid Weigel's claim that generations in post-war Germany act as symbols of the country's relationship to the Nazi past, my dissertation elucidates the process by which Grass, Walser, and Wolf were adopted--and adopted themselves--as proxies for a "better Germany." The biographies of these three writers, I argue, came to represent the overarching political goal of both post-war German states: the successful transition from an intimate association with the Nazi regime - in the authors' case, their associations with the Hitler Youth - to a full embrace of democratic values. The conflation of the writers' biographies with national identity explains their authority and popularity in both German societies. It also explains why the process of detachment from these writers as political figures began after 1990 as national identity changed after reunification. With the waning of the Hitler Youth generation's dominance in the public sphere, a re-evaluation of the writers' political and literary work, set against the backdrop of their generational identity, is long overdue. In four chapters, this dissertation examines key moments in the careers of Grass, Walser, and Wolf. I emphasize the striking similarities between the generational discourse of the two West-German writers and the East-German writer, while pointing out where their shared generational background led to distinct political agendas. I show that the literary output, self-understanding, and public reception of arguably the three most significant writers in the post-war Germanies cannot be understood without a consideration of this mutual historical-biographical legacy. My dissertation thus rewrites an important part of post-1945 and post-1989 cultural history.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Elie Wiesel's work has its roots in the concentrationary universe. Wiesel, the survivor, has committed himself to the role of witness. This thesis attempts to clarify the uncertain position of what could be called the "literature of testimony" considered midway between on the one hand, a formal literature, which tends to be out of touch with its "subject", and on the other hand, the writing of "reportage" and history. The study is divided into three chapters. In the first one we will examine the act of bearing witness and the act of writing. In the second chapter, we will analyse the components of bearing witness in Elie Wiesel's writings regarding to the enunciation and commitment, the pragmatic aspect and the difference between bearing witness and reporting. Finally, the narrative La Nuit will be at the centre of our analysis of Wiesel's work.

The following thesis is a work of cultural psychoanalysis in an era properly defined as "post-Holocaust". It begins with an extensive working through of Lacanian concepts, followed by an examination of fantastical appropriations of the trauma of the Holocaust---fantasies that serve as the very frame of our reality, or rather, hyperreality. After a further working through of the relations between the crypt and the unconscious (partially through a reading of Hamlet), the thesis then brings in Marshall McLuhan and Jean Baudrillard to help further elucidate some of the key arguments.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of History, Faculty of Arts, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Behavioural Science, 2002. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-228).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Also available via the World Wide Web. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-39).