Carmen Sylva (1843-1916), a German princess and the first Queen of Romania, was a well-known royal figure and a prolific writer. Under this pseudonym, she published around fifty volumes in a wide variety of genres, including poetry, short stories and aphorisms. During her lifetime she was a regular feature in the British periodical press and visited Britain on numerous occasions. Widely reviewed – both celebrated and condemned for her ‘fatal fluency’ – Sylva’s work became marginalised after her death and has yet to be fully recovered. She has only recently received critical attention in her native Germany and has yet to be recuperated within British literary culture. This thesis will examine the reasons behind Sylva’s current obscurity as well as presenting the grounds for her reassessment. It will establish her connection to Britain, markers of which can still be found in its regional geography, as well as the scope of her literary presence in British periodicals. It will draw comparisons between Sylva and her contemporaries and will examine her contribution to fin-de-siècle British literary culture, analysing her short stories in order to detail her engagement with the ‘Woman Question’. This focus places Sylva at the centre of contemporary discussions and her often conflicting responses to such issues further our understanding of the complexity of nineteenth-century literary debates. In reassessing Sylva, this study will address broader notions surrounding the short story, popular fiction, and women’s writing, in order to question both current and contemporary attitudes to literature.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine in the fictional works of Theodor Fontane, the ironic realist, those elements which may be appropriately termed supernatural or irrational. While noting these elements, previous studies have usually singled out individual themes or motifs in selected works. This is an attempt to examine in detail the full range of such irrational material which, at first sight, would seem incongruous and alien in the context of novels celebrated for their representation of social reality. The central supernatural motifs under consideration are ghosts and fairy-tales; irrational concepts examined include fate and predestination, with the attendant themes of grace, prophecy, premonition and omen, together with the closely allied concepts of superstition and religion, and the motif of the character with elemental affinities. A more or less chronological approach has been adopted, in order to bring out the progression or development in the employment of the material; although the novels have, on occasion, been arranged in groups (Chapters IV-VII) in order to facilitate a comparative study, The section on the fictional works is preceded by an examination of the Wanderunven durch die Mark Brandenburg and autobiographical works, as possible sources of supernatural and irrational motifs and themes. The study reveals a complex range of functions performed by the elements under examination, and a degree of progression can be discerned. Broadly speaking, irrational and supernatural material is presented indirectly in the novels, through the perception or utterances of the characters, and the references become more oblique in the later novels. The irrational material can be seen, in many cases, to be fundamental to the structural development of the work in question, and whereas in earlier works the irrationally contrived structure is often obtrusive, in later novels, such as Effi Briest, the integration of these elements with more realistic aspects of motivation and structure is complete. Supernatural elements which appear in Vor dem Sturm (Chapter III) and the crime stories (Chapter IV) as directly experienced phenomena recur in the early social novels (Chapter V) solely in conversational contexts. Supernatural references scarcely figure in the later Berlin novels (Chapter VI), which explore social themes other than marital discord. They re-emerge, however, in Unwiederbringlich and Effi Briest (Chapter VII), where disharmony in marriage is again a central theme. Fairy tale imagery, at first invoked to symbolise ideal or alluring feminine qualities, later serves to deny the validity of the idyll in modern life. In Der Stechlin (Chapter VIII), where the majority of irrational and supernatural elements recur in a conciliatory and reflective context, their conventional functions have been largely superseded, but their continued presence confirms that they are essential features of Fontane's expressive diction, and it is in his final novel that the elemental figure finds her most developed and enigmatic form, in Melusine. The consideration of irrational and supernatural features in the works has resulted in an examination of any of the central themes and distinctive stylistic qualities of Fontane's fictional writing: a fact which clearly indicates the significance of such features as integral, indeed fundamental, aspects of his art.

Elfriede Jelinek is one of the few German-speaking contemporary authors who have attracted intense attention of both critics and scholars while being alive. After the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004 even more analyses on her works have been published. In spite of her apparent presence in the public realm, critics tend to read her works as "authorless" texts, in which the narrative voices merge and make it impossible to discern either personal or authorial voices. The author's concern with post-modern and poststructuralist theories such as Roland Barthes' have reinforced the tendency to marginalize the topic of authorship in Jelinek scholarship. This thesis aims to analyse authorial voices and motives in Jelinek's prose texts Lust, Gier and Neid and to contextualize them with the images of the author that were produced outside the texts, namely in the media and in literary criticism. I would thereby like to demonstrate that these figurations form an important connection between text and context and help provide an insight into central motifs of Jelinek's works. The abovementioned novels are suitable for such an analysis, as they help establish a line of development of the authorship motif throughout the three decades of Jelinek's literary production. Furthermore, this analysis closes an existing gap in research on Jelinek as there exists no study that compares the three novels. The novel Gier has so far mostly been ignored by research and there are very few studies on the online project Neid. Dealing with prose texts instead of plays has the advantage of being able to highlight the function of the narrative comment that has developed into an authorial voice over time. The purpose of this study is neither the revision of the existence of the criticism of the notions of the author or the subject within the texts nor shall it be to establish a biographical link between aesthetics and author. The idea is to show that Jelinek considers the relationship between life and literature, between author and public as essential mechanisms of power. These cannot just be annihilated through criticising them, or by declaring the author as irrelevant. Jelinek's reflections on authorship are based on a cultural critique that deals with the conceptualisation of bourgeois subjectivity and thereafter with the notion of the authorial discourse. Jelinek's authorial criticism draws on Foucault's theoretical writings on the social and historical genesis of the notion of authorship that he has coined in the term 'author-function'. Questioning the instance of the speaker, Jelinek simultaneously reflects on the conditions and strategies of authorization of who is speaking. Jelinek's literary self-reflections speak of an authorial self-understanding that could be seen as a derivative form of engaged writing stemming from a reading of Adorno's Negative Dialectics. Drawing on Adorno, Jelinek develops a negative aesthetics that influences her authorial concept. She does not aim to develop an aesthetics suggesting a positive form of seemingly free engaged writing, but a mise-en-scène of the paradoxical constitution of authorship in modern capitalism.

The present thesis operates within the framework of a macro-structural and descriptive approach to Translation Studies, examining aspects of a type of literature that has traditionally been marginalized within the polysystem, namely oral narrative. The thesis investigates translation as one element in a larger, interactive system; it does not regard 'translation' only in its traditional function as a linguistic act between two different national languages, but one that includes a conception of translation between two variants of one language. The case study in question is a nineteenth-century collection of Norwegian folktales Norske Folkeeventyr, collected and retold by P. Chr. Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, first published in 1841. This publication came to have a considerable linguistic and literary impact on the Norwegian polysystem. The thesis aims to show how macro-structural factors governed the creation of the corpus through 'translation' from oral to literary mode, and from diverse dialects to a standardized language, and how the resulting product had a significant impact on the standardization of the one of the emerging Norwegian language forms. The thesis seeks to describe in detail which historical, political, literary and linguistic factors, in the national as well as supra-national framework, have affected this process of translation and text-production as a whole. It further aims to demonstrate how this process took shape in the context of, and indeed how it was instrumental in the shaping of, an emerging Norwegian national identity after the country's independence from Denmark (1814) and Sweden (1905). The thesis thus illustrates, through detailed description, how a specific corpus of texts has been formed in a dialectic process with the readership and the target culture, both adapting to and influencing prevailing literary and linguistic norms.

This study developed from an initial interest in the literature of the German exiles in which canon Klaus Mann's work between 1933 and 1945 figured prominently. This in turn evoked a curiosity toward this still relatively unknown son of Thomas Mann, intensified not least by the pathos of a life characterised by early promise, fame and prominence that ended in obscurity, despair and suicide. Yet these aspects of Klaus Mann's life appeared to have been overlooked by British scholars and with them the early and later years of Mann's career. The years of Mann's exile have been well documented and researched and place Mann's fiction of this time within the canon of Exilliteratur. Those texts which went before, however, have received only scant attention. Yet it is precisely in the novels and essays from the Weimar Republic that Mann developed and refined the techniques and themes that would define his later works. To overlook them is to suggest that the decisive moment of exile represented a caesura in Mann's career, thus masking the underlying continuity within Mann's oeuvre. For this reason, this study concentrates primarily on the early years of Mann's career, on the period from 1924 to 1933, to illustrate the progression and development within his work that would culminate in the novels of his exile. While Mann's prose dictates the approach I have taken, this is not exclusively 'literary' to the exclusion of all other concerns and potential external influences on his work. It assesses the complementary characteristics of Mann's fiction and his essayistic prose, much of which has only become readily available in the last five years, against the context of their creation during the Weimar Republic. In consequence, this work embraces the cultural, political and social context of this age, embracing its contradictory nature where progression and experimentation battled against the endemic regression and reaction of the Republic's institutions. However, it does not intend to provide a detailed discussion of the complexities that underlie this period of German history. For this I refer the reader to the body of research which deals specifically with this topic.

This thesis focuses on the novels of Hermann Burger. It considers the experimental nature of Burger's writings as a form of opposition, or 'Verweigerung', to the restrictive discourses of Swiss nationhood expressed in the notion of 'Enge'. A central tenet of the argument advanced here is that Hermann Burger is both a very self-consciously Swiss author, and, at the same time, very self-consciously experimental; a constant tension between these two aspects of his writing is manifest in all his work. Burger was not a provincial Swiss writer. Rather, he was an eclectic writer, and this thesis will examine the manner in which his work is framed by a broad spectrum of literary and philosophical ideas current in the wider international context of literary debate which serve to challenge the narrowness of intellectual discussion and forms of representation in Switzerland. To extend the discursive possibilities of the individual within the cultural space of the nation, Burger's novels involve a radical play with form and language which blurs the boundaries between the real, the unreal and the surreal, in order to challenge notions of the 'real'. A conflict between normative modes of expression and the desire for self-expression develops which is thematically central in Burger's work. His novels present the reader with a complex set of inter-related issues: national identity; national culture; Art; nature; literature and representational strategies; art and life. The methodology adopted in this thesis reflects the belief that Burger's work is best appreciated as an eclectic mix of ideas. As Burger engages with the multifarious aspects of life and seeks to give them form, so his work is considered in relation to a broad range of theories which, taken together, provide insights into his work.

This thesis is concerned with Siegfried Kracauer’s response to the challenges of modernity as exemplified by the Weimar Republic and its culture. A consideration of the literary dimension of Kracauer’s work is a central aspect of my approach. Beginning with a brief examination of Kracauer s early, epistemological writings, which adopt an anti-modem tone, my thesis then examines his shift towards a materialist critique of modernity. Using his essay 'Das Ornament der Masse' as a key example, I argue that Kracauer assumes the stance of a flâneur vis-à-vis the culture he examines. While this is consistent with his role as a Feuilleton journalist, the flâneur's detachment compromises Kracauer's political position. Here, and throughout the thesis, Kracauer's narrative approach and its effects are drawn out through comparisons with contemporary literary texts. In the remaining three chapters of my thesis, I analyse the novels Ginster and Georg, as well as the sociological study Die Angestellten. Here, I suggest, Kracauer attempts to transcend the limitations imposed by the flâneur's detachment. In Ginster he critically reflects on his own personal and political development while Die Angestellten is an attempt at social intervention. In Georg, finally, Kracauer returns to exploring crucial factors of Weimar (political) culture and considers his own role, as a journalist, within them.

This thesis examines plays written in the period from 1923 to 1933, whose subject matter is the rise of right wing radical forces and ultimately the rise of Hitler. Twelve plays, including those of well known authors such as Ernst Toller, Georg Kaiser, and Oedön von Horväth, as well as plays of minor authors, were chosen solely on the grounds of their antifascist stance. An attempt was made to interpret and analyse their contribution to the theory of fascism. The economic, socio-political and psychological issues raised in each individual play are examined in close reference to the historical events of the Weimar Republic and related to current thoughts on fascism. Although individual plays attack different outward signs of a rising tide of right wing radicalism and judge from different political view points, some common factors could be established. The rise of Hitler is largely seen as the culmination of an active counter-revolutionary movement starting the day the Republic was created. The driving force behind counter-revolution and National Socialism is seen as the economic interests specifically of the former privileged social groups and industry. Those plays which acknowledge a mass following of National Socialism see it again as motivated by economic considerations. On the whole both Hitler as Führer and National Socialism as a mass movement were underestimated. The inability of the Weimar Republic to create a just economic climate and democratically orientated institutions, specifically in the judiciary and the army, are seen as factors contributing to the rise of Hitler.

Ernst Toller (1893-1939) wrote a substantial body of poetry which has received negligible critical attention. This thesis argues that the poetic styles he adopted enabled him not only to examine past experiences but also to evolve strategies for the challenges he faced. His early poetry (1908-1915) shows his attempts to come to terms with love and his enthusiasm to participate in the First World War. The poetry provided him with emotional models which were then revised in the light of experience. The early Expressionist poetry (1915-1919) documents his disillusionment with the war and furnishes insights into his growing political awareness. Toller then adopted the sonnet form (1919-1921), principally in order to express the vicissitudes of prison experience in a controlled manner, and this contributed to his adjustment to incarceration. Das Schwalbenbuch (1922-1924) combines this formal control with a growing sensitivity to the potential of Expressionist verse and delivers insights into his metaphysical thinking. Vormorgan (1924) summarises his experience of war, revolution and imprisonment, in verse of considerable richness and suggestivity, indicating the positive values he intended to apply to his life on release. After its publication, Toller practically ceased to write poetry except for a very few isolated examples, one of which ('Am Fluss, an unpublished poem) points to the possibility of a sixth and masterful poetic phase of which, apart from this one poem, there is no record. This study puts forward explanations for the apparent cessation of his poetry writing after 1924, arguing that his lyrical tendencies nonetheless found expression in his writing in other genres. The thesis provides an index of Toller's entire poetic production and a collection of the unpublished poems and those no longer easily accessible.

This thesis examines forms of autobiographical writing in the 21st century which are located at the intersection of autobiography and fiction. The literary sources selected question established genre boundaries, while also reflecting contemporary cultural discourses and creating particular images of their authors. My analysis investigates the new literary strategies emerging in Charlotte Roche’s Schoßgebete (2011), Stephan Wackwitz’s Ein unsichtbares Land (2003), Felicitas Hoppe’s Hoppe (2012) and David Wagner’s Leben (2012) in order to identify how texts such as these combine autobiography and fiction. Using a range of literary theories my textual analysis shows that autobiographical writing in the 21st century is more extensive than critical approaches such as ‘autofiction’ and ‘life writing’ suggest. The thesis demonstrates how genre hybridisations, intertextual combinations and inter-discursive conjunctions in the texts also move beyond Philippe Lejeune’s differentiation between autobiography and the novel. By combining characteristics of fictional narratives with features of factual texts such as the essay, the parody of academic biography or specifically context-related factual, in this case medical texts, these life stories reflect our understanding of identity in significantly new ways. Moreover, my investigation proves that the new forms of autobiographical writing engage with contemporary issues such as the role of the media and celebrity culture, national history and memory discourses, transculturalism and the significance of writing in the 21st century, medical developments and their consequences. The texts’ contribution to these discourses also constructs the authors’ self-presentation. Strategies and techniques identified range from provocative self-staging through positioning within a framework of national and family history, to outlining autobiographical poetics, or presenting different private and public facets of the author’s persona. My thesis addresses not only the effects of the increasing (public) interest in the private life of authors in contemporary autobiographical writing but also contributes to wider research on autobiography, genre and intertextuality.