The "demise" of Native American cultures and the possibility of their "renascence" is the subject of the literary work analyzed in this thesis. The German popular novelist Karl May (1842-1912) aspired to write the epic drama of the American Indians. Using randomly selected anthropological and linguistic information, he described particularly Apache and Comanche Indian cultures with regard to leadership, warfare, women, and intermarriage. May viewed the Indians' assimilation as necessary and arrogantly recommended the "benign" influence brought by Germans to the New World. The Indians would be able to withstand the lure of "Yankee" materialism and pursue the path of righteousness. As this thesis points out, there is a correlation between Karl May's biography and his compassion for a wronged people such as the Native Americans. This study analyzes Karl May's thoughts on the "Indian question" and his emphasis on the role of change.

Karl May is considered Germany's most published author of popular literature. His influence on generations of German youth cannot be overlooked. Winnetou is one of his major works and depicts the adventures of Old Shatterhand, the German immigrant, and his Blood Brother, the Apache Winnetou. Generations of children grew up reading their adventures and escaping in their imaginations to battle unsavoury Yankees as well as hostile tribes. / May's descriptions of the First Nations of North America have aided in skewing the perception of the North American First Nations in Germany. This thesis aims to work with some of these misperceptions and explain how they came to be. Through the use of Edward Said's theory, Orientalism, which will be applied to Winnetou I-III, this thesis attempts to interpret the role of the European and the non-European, or the Other, within the context of the story. The power structure between the European and the non-European will be one of the main focuses. May's use of the Bible as the perceived 'right' way of dealing with situations and people in comparison to the Apache or Yankee way is an obvious exertion of European thought and control over the non-European way of life. / Winnetou is situated in a unique role in the power struggle between the European and the non-European. He is often seen as having mentalities and beliefs that come across as more European than non-European, and therefore places him in a unique situation, that of a Noble Savage, not a 'red devil'. It is exactly this perception of North American First Nations, that has survived many generations and still lends credit to Winnetou being called an 'apple Indian', red on the outside, white on the inside.

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This thesis focuses on the anachronistic poacher-hero figure in late nineteenth-century German literature. Historian Hobsbawm has suggested that the symbolic endurance of "noble robber" figures (of which we can view poacher-heroes as a subset) takes place in an ideal imaginary "stripped" of the "local and social framework" (2000, 143). My thesis shows, in multiple examples across multiple genres, that in fact the poacher-hero is uniquely available for re-contextualization and renewal of social relevance, even under changed social and economic circumstances. The poacher-hero is not only a device for making statements about the past, but also for expressing claims on the future. It is perhaps this dynamism that makes the poacher-hero excellent carrier for different kinds of social critique as well. In my first chapter, I give a brief historical overview of the period and the motif. In the second chapter, I show how the poacher and his rural context are brought into contact with urban, imperial themes. In the chapter I read two novels, Der verlorene Sohn (The prodigal son, 1884-1886) and Quitt (Even, 1890), and the play Waldleute (Forest people, 1896) thematically to show how upward social mobility is associated with and adapted to the poacher figure. In the third chapter of the thesis, I examine narrative strategies and their employment in the construction of a socially critical viewpoint in Der verlorene Sohn and Quitt. I show how both high and low literary works, intended and written for different audiences, achieve similar results in their positioning of the poacher-protagonist through different narrative structures. This convergence shows the malleability of the societal frame for the poacher-hero. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I show regional adaptations of the motif, by examining different versions of a folk ballad "Das Jennerweinlied" ("The Jennerwein song"). This thesis furthermore shows how study of a motif can be used to bring together a diverse group of roughly contemporary texts. Viewing these texts in relationship with one another brings into question the scholarly focus on certain texts at the expense of others. / text