Few authors in the second half of the nineteenth century wrote in such a decisive way on the subject of women as Theodor Fontane, who produced literary studies on women’s lives, determined both by others and by the women themselves. Of Fontane’s seventeen novels, thirteen focus on female characters. In his texts, Fontane questions the concept of a hierarchy of genders and the ambivalence between the intended femininity of women and the “imaginierte Weiblichkeit” (imagined femininity) of men (Silvia Bovenschen). In doing so, he contributes significantly to the gender discourse of the late nineteenth century, creating new images of women that often differed from common literary images, including the femme fatale, femme fragile or the water-nymph. This divergence is especially evident in Fontane’s construction of his female protagonists Melanie Van der Straaten and Mathilde Möhring. This thesis examines the similarities between Fontane’s conceptions of the self-determined life of women in his lesser-known novels L’Adultera (1882) and Mathilde Möhring (1906). It poses the question: How can the protagonist Melanie in the first work of the Berlin Women Novels be seen as a precursor to the protagonist Mathilde in the last book of the series? The works of Silvia Bovenschen, Inge Stephan, Sigrid Weigel and Ute Frevert point to the discrepancies between the realities of life of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women and the ways in which they were portrayed by contemporary male authors. I apply their insights on identity, literary and historio-cultural representations of femininity in my analysis of the images of women contained in the two texts. After giving an overview of the status of research concerning Fontane and femininity (Chapter 2) and the approach of Bovenschen, Stephan, Weigel and Frevert (Chapter 3), I discuss the narrative presentation of femaleness and examine how Fontane’s conception of the women in both works is represented (Chapter 4 and 5). Here, I analyze the characters in light of two identity-attributions: other-directedness and self-determination. In Chapter 4, I examine the depiction of other-directedness in both novels. The emphasis of my analysis here lies on the male characters and their perceptions of the two female protagonists. Chapter 5 examines the notion of self-determination in both novels. It is concerned primarily with the female protagonists and their images of themselves. This chapter also delves into the narrators’ views of this self-perception. I conclude that despite the obvious differences between these two female characters, there are similarities between them, and that Mathilde can be seen as a modern successor of Melanie.

In this thesis I argue that Thomas Glavinic’s novel Die Arbeit der Nacht (Night Work) investigates existential themes of the human condition in a post-modern world. My analysis demonstrates that the novel can be understood – at least in part – as a radical implementation of Jean Baudrillard’s ideas of simulation and hyperreality. My analysis reveals the message of the novel regarding our relationship to media and technology in contemporary society. Glavinic’s novel demonstrates that digital media and new technologies are indeed integral to post-modern human beings, but it also maintains that they cannot substitute for interpersonal contact. Textual references to contemporary Western society are numerous and intended to give the readers the opportunity not only to identify with, but also to reflect on their own situations. The central character Jonas is representative of an average Western individual who maintains a need to be part of a social network. I argue that he can be read as a post-modern protagonist. Considering these findings, I conclude that the novel warns of the dangers of a world saturated by media where we underestimate the importance of close personal human contact and, as a consequence, are in danger of losing our sense of humanity. In my first chapter, I introduce the novel and Baudrillard’s key ideas of hyperreality: the disappearance of human existence as we know it, the prevalence of video culture, and a reliance on technology that ultimately function as prostheses. In the second chapter, I analyze the relationship of media to individuals based on Baudrillard’s thesis that in hyperreality, digital technology becomes part of the human body. I argue that Glavinic’s protagonist can no longer be considered a self-determined, essential human being, but rather is defined by media and technology. The continued encroachment of hyperreality on Jonas’s life results in his cars, cell-phone, and self-created antagonist, the so-called “sleeper,” functioning, in Baudrillard’s terminology, as “prostheses.” The third chapter is concerned with the media’s construction of reality based on four examples: Video cameras, digital and Polaroid cameras, television screens and mirrors. The first three examples impart a sense of hyperreality into our lives. In Baudrillard’s theories the mirror is designated as obsolete; however, in this analysis I show that even in a post-modern world it remains an important motif. In my fourth chapter, I examine Jonas’s attempts to construct a linear time structure despite the intermittent appearances of non-linear ones. Following Baudrillard’s classification of the three different orders of the simulacrum as being imitation, serial production and simulation, I conclude that Jonas is situated in the simulacrum of simulation, which constitutes hyperreality. Despite the obvious applicability of Baudrillard’s ideas to Glavinic’s novel, I ultimately conclude, that it does not follow all of Baudrillard’s arguments. I propose instead that the novel allows for a much more optimistic view of a high-tech world than is immediately apparent.

Few authors in the second half of the nineteenth century wrote in such a decisive way on the subject of women as Theodor Fontane, who produced literary studies on women’s lives, determined both by others and by the women themselves. Of Fontane’s seventeen novels, thirteen focus on female characters. In his texts, Fontane questions the concept of a hierarchy of genders and the ambivalence between the intended femininity of women and the “imaginierte Weiblichkeit” (imagined femininity) of men (Silvia Bovenschen). In doing so, he contributes significantly to the gender discourse of the late nineteenth century, creating new images of women that often differed from common literary images, including the femme fatale, femme fragile or the water-nymph. This divergence is especially evident in Fontane’s construction of his female protagonists Melanie Van der Straaten and Mathilde Möhring. This thesis examines the similarities between Fontane’s conceptions of the self-determined life of women in his lesser-known novels L’Adultera (1882) and Mathilde Möhring (1906). It poses the question: How can the protagonist Melanie in the first work of the Berlin Women Novels be seen as a precursor to the protagonist Mathilde in the last book of the series? The works of Silvia Bovenschen, Inge Stephan, Sigrid Weigel and Ute Frevert point to the discrepancies between the realities of life of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women and the ways in which they were portrayed by contemporary male authors. I apply their insights on identity, literary and historio-cultural representations of femininity in my analysis of the images of women contained in the two texts. After giving an overview of the status of research concerning Fontane and femininity (Chapter 2) and the approach of Bovenschen, Stephan, Weigel and Frevert (Chapter 3), I discuss the narrative presentation of femaleness and examine how Fontane’s conception of the women in both works is represented (Chapter 4 and 5). Here, I analyze the characters in light of two identity-attributions: other-directedness and self-determination. In Chapter 4, I examine the depiction of other-directedness in both novels. The emphasis of my analysis here lies on the male characters and their perceptions of the two female protagonists. Chapter 5 examines the notion of self-determination in both novels. It is concerned primarily with the female protagonists and their images of themselves. This chapter also delves into the narrators’ views of this self-perception. I conclude that despite the obvious differences between these two female characters, there are similarities between them, and that Mathilde can be seen as a modern successor of Melanie.

In this thesis I argue that Thomas Glavinic’s novel Die Arbeit der Nacht (Night Work) investigates existential themes of the human condition in a post-modern world. My analysis demonstrates that the novel can be understood – at least in part – as a radical implementation of Jean Baudrillard’s ideas of simulation and hyperreality. My analysis reveals the message of the novel regarding our relationship to media and technology in contemporary society. Glavinic’s novel demonstrates that digital media and new technologies are indeed integral to post-modern human beings, but it also maintains that they cannot substitute for interpersonal contact. Textual references to contemporary Western society are numerous and intended to give the readers the opportunity not only to identify with, but also to reflect on their own situations. The central character Jonas is representative of an average Western individual who maintains a need to be part of a social network. I argue that he can be read as a post-modern protagonist. Considering these findings, I conclude that the novel warns of the dangers of a world saturated by media where we underestimate the importance of close personal human contact and, as a consequence, are in danger of losing our sense of humanity. In my first chapter, I introduce the novel and Baudrillard’s key ideas of hyperreality: the disappearance of human existence as we know it, the prevalence of video culture, and a reliance on technology that ultimately function as prostheses. In the second chapter, I analyze the relationship of media to individuals based on Baudrillard’s thesis that in hyperreality, digital technology becomes part of the human body. I argue that Glavinic’s protagonist can no longer be considered a self-determined, essential human being, but rather is defined by media and technology. The continued encroachment of hyperreality on Jonas’s life results in his cars, cell-phone, and self-created antagonist, the so-called “sleeper,” functioning, in Baudrillard’s terminology, as “prostheses.” The third chapter is concerned with the media’s construction of reality based on four examples: Video cameras, digital and Polaroid cameras, television screens and mirrors. The first three examples impart a sense of hyperreality into our lives. In Baudrillard’s theories the mirror is designated as obsolete; however, in this analysis I show that even in a post-modern world it remains an important motif. In my fourth chapter, I examine Jonas’s attempts to construct a linear time structure despite the intermittent appearances of non-linear ones. Following Baudrillard’s classification of the three different orders of the simulacrum as being imitation, serial production and simulation, I conclude that Jonas is situated in the simulacrum of simulation, which constitutes hyperreality. Despite the obvious applicability of Baudrillard’s ideas to Glavinic’s novel, I ultimately conclude, that it does not follow all of Baudrillard’s arguments. I propose instead that the novel allows for a much more optimistic view of a high-tech world than is immediately apparent.

This thesis investigates the medieval genre of the Tagelied or dawn-song to examine its diachronic development from the Middle Ages to today. The genre in its origin is best represented by the Middle High German songs, Slâfest du, vriedel ziere by Dietmar von Aist, Owê, sol aber mir iemer mê by Heinrich von Morungen, Wolfram von Eschenbach‘s Den morgenblic bî wahtaers sange, Otto von Botenlauben‘s Wie sol ich den ritter nû gescheiden, as well as Ich wache umbe eines ritters lîp by Marktgraf von Hohenburg. All these songs exemplify the original motifs of the Middle-High-German “Tagelied.” The distinctiveness of this thesis is that it takes the medieval motifs – such as the separation of two lovers at dawn and the role of the watchman who announces the approach of day – as well as the thematics of sexual, gender, and class relations between the lovers to examine their reappearance in eleven New High German poems and songs, including works by Brentano, Goethe, Borchardt, Rilke and Rühmkorf. A number of folksongs from the Romantic era to today are also taken into consideration, including popular songs by such contemporary “medieval” German bands as Faun and Schandmaul. Each poem is analysed separately, whereby their intertextual connections are simultaneously drawn out. This approach not only shows that the motifs resurface up to the present but also, and even more importantly, how they have changed over the centuries. By looking at the poems and comparing them we are able to recognize important changes in society which strongly influence the poems’ contents. Of course, love, sexuality, gender, and class relations are still expressed in each poem, but they have undergone modifications over time. This thesis brings these changes into focus by analysing the development of the motifs step by step.

Inaug.-diss.--Freiburg im Breisgau. / Lebenslauf. "Erscheint zugleich in der 'Sammlung Heitz' (Akademische abhandlungen zur kulturgeschichte, X. reihe, bd. 1) im verlag von Heitz & co., Strassburg." "Literaturverzeichnis": p. 113-[121].

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1935. / Microfilm copy of typescript, Positive. "Private edition, distributed by the University of Chicago libraries." Bibliography: p. 49-76.

Thesis--Marburg/Lahn. / Date on cover: 1971. "Lebenslauf": v. [1] p. [313]. "Literatur": v. [1] p. 304-312.

Inaug.-Diss.--Würzburg. / Lebenslauf. "Verzeichnis der Benutztenwerke": 2d prelim. leaf.

Thesis--Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-215).