This dissertation evaluates the career and work of the underappreciated Austrian-Jewish-American novelist, dramatist, essayist and screen writer Gina Kaus (1894 - 1985). The dissertation's approach is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from the fields of German, American, exile, literary, feminist, performance, global, cultural as well as film studies. The unusually diverse corpus of Kaus's work in both the literary and filmic medium makes such an interdisciplinary approach indispensable. The dissertation argues that Kaus's specific female and little visible exile experience was shaped and accompanied by a significant, social, cultural, political, linguistic and geographical change. It reconstructs and consciously reinserts Kaus' transatlantic accomplishments into the larger exile history. My dissertation offers close reading of Gina Kaus's second play Toni (1928) and positions her piece within the larger landscape of the Weimar Republic and Vienna during the 1920s. The analysis incorporates a feminist reading, which focuses on the performances of gender and the representation of femininity and illustrates the destabilization of gender and sexual identities during the Weimar period. The analysis of Die Überfahrt (1932), Kaus's second bestseller novel, discusses her novel as a Zeitroman (novel of the times). It contextualizes her book in terms of its readership and the literary market while examining it as a comment on the political, financial and social circumstances of 1920s Weimar culture. A thorough investigation of two films for which Kaus invented the story and collaborated on the screenplay, namely The Wife Takes a Flyer (directed by Richard Wallace, USA, 1942), an Anti-Nazi comedy, and Three Secrets (directed by Robert Wise, USA, 1950), a melodrama, challenges the persistent idea that Kaus's work for Hollywood was incapable to live up to her earlier literary and theatrical successes as an author of the Weimar period. My particular focus on the representation of femininity and female agency sheds light on how the émigrée Kaus, who had been known as an ardent feminist in Europe, successfully managed to subvert ideas of heteronormative gender and power discourses even within the restrictive limits of the Hollywood apparatus. The dissertation further investigates the understudied text form screenplay and the practice of screenwriting. It examines for the first time various unpublished film script versions of the The Wife Takes a Flyer and Three Secrets and thus promotes the film script as a textual form worthy of investigation and integration in both literary and film studies. The script analysis pays attention to the collaborative nature, considers the various versions and revisions the script underwent, offers a comparison to the movies and evaluates the script in its multi-functionality, style, and aesthetics. The scripts also give insight into the ways in which Kaus's exilic consciousness permeates her scriptwriting. My close analysis of Kaus's autobiography, which was published in 1979 and targeted at a German-speaking readership, uncovers the ways in which exile is reflected in the practice of autobiographical writing. The dissertation focuses foremost on the narrative strategies as well as omissions in Kaus's attempt to re-inscribe herself into the literary and artistic scene of Vienna and Berlin; and her effort to position herself among the prominent and predominantly male German-Jewish diaspora in Hollywood. I also shed light on her ability to adapt to the United States and her decision to remain and become a citizen. Her perception of exile as an opportunity, rather than as a limitation is an important new aspect in the existing exile research. Among the Jewish-German exile community in Hollywood, Gina Kaus had a truly transnational career and deserves more credit for her filmic works.

Im August dieses Jahres wurde am Handschriftenzentrum der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig ein langjähriges Tiefenerschließungsprojekt zu den mittelalterlichen lateinischen Quarthandschriften der Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Weimar abgeschlossen. Das von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft geförderte Projekt war zunächst von Frau Dr. Betty Bushey an der Universitätsbibliothek Kassel betreut worden, bevor es 2005 an die UB Leipzig wechselte, wo es von Matthias Eifler fortgesetzt und nun fristgemäß abgeschlossen werden konnte.

Im August dieses Jahres wurde am Handschriftenzentrum der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig ein langjähriges Tiefenerschließungsprojekt zu den mittelalterlichen lateinischen Quarthandschriften der Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Weimar abgeschlossen. Das von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft geförderte Projekt war zunächst von Frau Dr. Betty Bushey an der Universitätsbibliothek Kassel betreut worden, bevor es 2005 an die UB Leipzig wechselte, wo es von Matthias Eifler fortgesetzt und nun fristgemäß abgeschlossen werden konnte.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

A partir de dezenove textos publicados por Otto Kirchheimer no período final da República de Weimar, o presente trabalho investiga as possibilidades oferecidas por uma forma específica de organização política o Estado Constitucional Parlamentar para a realização da democracia e, ao mesmo tempo, para a promoção de transformações sociais. Amálgama inconstante entre a crítica de Carl Schmitt às instituições liberais e a crítica marxista da sociedade, a obra weimariana de Kirchheimer apresenta uma análise instigante do ordenamento jurídico e da realidade histórica na qual ele está inserido. Constituição, Estado Parlamentar, separação de poderes e a legitimidade de diferentes meios de ação política são alguns dos temas abordados. O trabalho discute, assim, uma importante ruptura teórica na obra de Kirchheimer nesse período: o progressivo reconhecimento de que o direito pode e deve servir como limitador do poder político, garantindo certo conteúdo mínimo de liberdade. Das falhas no funcionamento do Parlamento e das instituições da democracia formal passa a decorrer, para ele, a necessidade de aperfeiçoá-los e não mais de rejeitá-los. / Based on nineteen texts written by Otto Kirchheimer during the final period of the Weimar Republic, the present work wishes to investigate the possibilities opened by a specific form of political organization the Parliamentary Constitutional State for the implementation of democracy and, at the same time, for the promotion of social change. Shifting combination of Carl Schmitt criticism of liberal institutions and Marxist criticism of society, the weimarian work of Kirchheimer offers a compelling analysis of the legal system and the historical reality in which it inheres. Constitution, Parliamentary State, separation of powers, and the legitimacy of different ways of political actions are some of his main themes. We detect, then, an important cleavage appearing in the writings of Kirchheimer during this period: his progressive conscience that the legal system can and should serve as a counterweight to political power, in order to guarantee a minimum of liberties. From the deficiencies detected in the working of Parliament and, more generally, of democratic institutions, he now arrives at the necessity of enhancing them not anymore of rejecting them.

A partir de dezenove textos publicados por Otto Kirchheimer no período final da República de Weimar, o presente trabalho investiga as possibilidades oferecidas por uma forma específica de organização política o Estado Constitucional Parlamentar para a realização da democracia e, ao mesmo tempo, para a promoção de transformações sociais. Amálgama inconstante entre a crítica de Carl Schmitt às instituições liberais e a crítica marxista da sociedade, a obra weimariana de Kirchheimer apresenta uma análise instigante do ordenamento jurídico e da realidade histórica na qual ele está inserido. Constituição, Estado Parlamentar, separação de poderes e a legitimidade de diferentes meios de ação política são alguns dos temas abordados. O trabalho discute, assim, uma importante ruptura teórica na obra de Kirchheimer nesse período: o progressivo reconhecimento de que o direito pode e deve servir como limitador do poder político, garantindo certo conteúdo mínimo de liberdade. Das falhas no funcionamento do Parlamento e das instituições da democracia formal passa a decorrer, para ele, a necessidade de aperfeiçoá-los e não mais de rejeitá-los. / Based on nineteen texts written by Otto Kirchheimer during the final period of the Weimar Republic, the present work wishes to investigate the possibilities opened by a specific form of political organization the Parliamentary Constitutional State for the implementation of democracy and, at the same time, for the promotion of social change. Shifting combination of Carl Schmitt criticism of liberal institutions and Marxist criticism of society, the weimarian work of Kirchheimer offers a compelling analysis of the legal system and the historical reality in which it inheres. Constitution, Parliamentary State, separation of powers, and the legitimacy of different ways of political actions are some of his main themes. We detect, then, an important cleavage appearing in the writings of Kirchheimer during this period: his progressive conscience that the legal system can and should serve as a counterweight to political power, in order to guarantee a minimum of liberties. From the deficiencies detected in the working of Parliament and, more generally, of democratic institutions, he now arrives at the necessity of enhancing them not anymore of rejecting them.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

[pt] O presente estudo tem como objetivo realizar uma análise simultaneamente histórica e conceitual sobre as percepções de Walter Benjamin sobre o direito e a política situando-as no contexto histórico da República de Weimar (1918/9-1933). Através dessa análise articulada, trata-se de expor os traços principais do debate proposto por Benjamin, analisando seus escritos que enfrentam a discussão sobre o direito e a política, seus embates em torno da noção de estado de exceção, e sua relação com a filosofia da história do autor. Será importante também desdobrar tais reflexões, indicando os questionamentos colocados, as inflexões sofridas em relação ao seu pensamento anterior e a incorporação de novas questões. Benjamin será, portanto, analisado tendo como referência o seu próprio tempo, indicando-se também suas especificidades como autor e as respostas dadas a esse tempo que o particularizam. A hipótese central do presente trabalho é que para uma melhor compreensão dos escritos políticojurídicos de Benjamin é fundamental a análise conjunta do contexto de onde emergiram, reconhecendo que os problemas levantados pelo autor vão além dele, e que a partir daquele contexto determinado levantou questões que dizem respeito à tendências da própria modernidade, e que ainda são, portanto, questões do nosso tempo. / [en] This study aims to conduct both a historical and a conceptual analysis of Walter Benjamin s perceptions on law and politics, locating them in the historical context of the Weimar Republic (1918/9 - 1933 ). Through this articulated analysis, the purpose is to expose the main features of Benjamin s debates, analyzing his writings that face the discussions on law and politics, the struggles around the concept of state of exception, and its relation with author s philosophy of history.It will also be important to unfold such reflections, indicating the questions posed, the inflections incurred in relation to his previous thought and the incorporation of new issues. Benjamin will therefore be analyzed with reference to his own time, indicating as well his specificities as author and the answers given to this time that particularizes him.The central hypothesis of this study is that for a better understanding of Benjamin s political and legal writings is fundamental to analyse them together with the context from which they emerged, recognizing that the problems raised by the author go beyond him and, from that particular context, he lifted questions concerning particular tendencies of modernity which still are issues of our time.

Ce mémoire porte sur les représentations de la masculinité traumatisée dans le cinéma expressionniste allemand. Le traumatisme de la Première Guerre mondiale occasionne, en Allemagne, l’ébranlement des identités genrées individuelles et de l’identité masculine nationale. Par le biais de l’analyse de cinq films expressionnistes (Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920 ; Nosferatu, Wilhelm Murnau, 1922; Die Nibelungen, Fritz Lang, 1924 ; Orlacs Hände, Robert Wiene, 1924 ; Metropolis, Fritz Lang, 1927), le présent mémoire étudie à la fois l’expression du genre, du traumatisme et de l’Histoire nationale. Nous y envisagerons l’image filmique comme un lieu de conflits et de compromis. C’est particulièrement par le biais des enjeux de contrôle, des corps et de leur économie et des dynamiques d’agentivité dans les rapports hommes-femmes que se manifeste l’ébranlement de la masculinité allemande d’après-guerre. Si certaines œuvres confrontent les anxiétés masculines de l’époque en traitant frontalement des traumatismes liés à la guerre et au bouleversement de la place de l’homme dans la société d’après-guerre, d’autres s’appliquent plutôt à rétablir une masculinité d’avant-guerre par l’expression de fantasmes nationaux et individuels de pouvoir et de virilité. En privilégiant une approche psychanalytique du cinéma, ce mémoire s’intéresse notamment aux mécanismes de défense qui transparaissent dans les œuvres. Il s’agit, tout compte fait, de comprendre comment le cinéma négocie avec le genre suite au traumatisme, et comment la temporalité peut influencer cette négociation. / This thesis focuses on representations of traumatized masculinity in German Expressionism. In Germany, trauma caused by the First World War unsettled individual gender identities and upset national conceptions of male identity. The thesis examines issues of gender, trauma and national history in five Expressionist films (Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920; Nosferatu, Wilhelm Murnau, 1922; Die Nibelungen, Fritz Lang, 1924; Orlacs Hände, Robert Wiene, 1924; Metropolis, Fritz Lang, 1927). These films comprise notable embodiments of conflict and compromise. It is argued that the disruption of German masculinity after the war registers in them by way of issues related to control, corporeality and gender relations. Contemporary anxieties about masculinity are tackled differently in the films, with some directly addressing themes of war trauma, emasculation and the postwar disruption to men’s traditional social roles and others seek to re-establish pre-war notions of manhood through expressing national and individual fantasies of power and virility. Drawing on a psychoanalytic approach to cinema, this thesis examines how defence mechanisms operate in the films. Key aims are to understand how Expressionist cinema addresses the impact of trauma on masculine identity and also how its approach to articulating trauma shifts through time.

Cette thèse de doctorat se penche sur la contribution de la pensée sociologique de Karl Mannheim (1893-1947) à la question des intellectuels sous la République de Weimar. L’objectif de notre recherche est de montrer que la sensibilité de Mannheim à l’égard de la détresse spirituelle et de la précarité matérielle des intellectuels allemands constitue le fil conducteur de sa pensée sociologique de 1921 à 1933. À cet effet, le concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches occupe une place centrale dans notre analyse, car il permet à Mannheim d’expliquer cette détresse sur le plan sociologique et de repenser les fondements de l’autonomie politique des intellectuels. Notre démarche méthodologique privilégie une histoire intellectuelle qui fait ressortir dans notre analyse une tension heuristique entre d’une part, la signification du concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches dans le cadre de l’histoire de la crise d’autonomie des intellectuels allemands dans le premier tiers du XXe siècle et d’autre part, les implications théoriques de ce concept dans le développement de la pensée sociologique de Mannheim. La tension entre l’étude du contexte historique et celle de l’évolution de l’oeuvre de Mannheim se reflète dans la structure de la thèse qui se divise en deux grandes parties : 1- Les deux premiers chapitres délimitent le contexte historique qui a présidé l’émergence du concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches. Dans le premier chapitre, nous situons le concept en question dans le contexte du déclin de l’hégémonie culturelle de la bourgeoisie éduquée allemande ("Bildungsbürgertum") et de l’émergence d’une nouvelle génération d’intellectuels gravement affectée par la crise économique des années 1920. Le deuxième chapitre fait état des premiers débats théoriques et des controverses politiques qui sont à l’origine de la sociologie des intellectuels au début du XXe siècle. Une attention particulière est portée à deux sociologues importants, Max et Alfred Weber, parce qu’ils contribuent à problématiser la question du statut politique des intellectuels weimariens et inspirent à Mannheim le concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches. 2- Les trois autres chapitres font état de l’évolution du concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches dans les écrits sociologiques de Mannheim. Le troisième chapitre met en lumière la première ébauche de la théorie sociologique des intellectuels dans sa thèse d’habilitation (1925). En imputant les origines historiques des intellectuels sans attaches aux penseurs conservateurs du début du XIXe siècle, Mannheim s’intéresse à la première crise existentielle qui déchira l’intelligentsia allemande, partagée entre la nécessité de s’engager en politique ou de s’enfermer dans un idéal culturel apolitique. Dans le quatrième chapitre, nous voyons que le concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches devient le nerf du programme politique que Mannheim élabore dans son célèbre ouvrage "Ideologie und Utopie" (1929) dans le but de consolider l’autonomie de l’intelligentsia allemande. Dans le cinquième chapitre, nous analysons comment un tel projet est aux prises avec des contradictions que le sociologue est incapable de résoudre dans les dernières années de la République de Weimar. Ces contradictions concrétisent l’échec du concept d’intelligentsia sans attaches dans sa tentative de devenir un modèle d’autonomie pour les intellectuels allemands.