In view of the fact that David Lodge’s campus novels are renowned for their ability to make light of traditional gender stereotypes as well as for their purportedly liberal, pro-feminist, intertexual, dialogical and metatextual dimensions, this article seeks to explore more precisely the strategic and unavowedly political functions humour and the comic fulfil in Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work. What will be demonstrated is that Lodge’s light-hearted, tolerant and at times even progressive liberalism is little more than an effect produced by the textual surface structure. In the case of Nice Work, this discrepancy between the surface and the deep structure leads to the paradox that while voyeuristic structures and male bonding are overtly ridiculed, on a deep structural level they are effectively reaffirmed. Though Lodge’s novels are at the level of their surface structure sustained by a logic which uses the “comic mode” as a more or less subtle form to critique traditional gender stereotypes, literary conventions, the British university system and British industry, ultimately his ‘Rummidge trilogy’ reinforces an aesthetically, morally and politically conservative subtext.

On the surface level, Fowles’s novel sets the trust in the timelessness of art and the possibility of a recourse to some kind of ‘true self’ against American hyperreality. Though the novel’s verdict on the American scopic regime of simulacra is devastating, England’s morbid theatricality does not represent an alternative. However, a novel which criticizes visuality only to accord Rembrandt’s “Self- Portrait” a place of utmost importance necessarily runs into problems of self-contradiction: Rembrandt’s self-portrait refuses any one-dimensional functionalization and contains self-reflexive/revocative elements pertaining to its capitalist dimension and to the dangers of commodification/narcissism/serialization. Moreover, Rembrandt’s portrait is located at the centre of a whole series of mises en abyme and contains significant autotelic elements which link it with the criticized American scopic regime, question its representational dimension by stressing the pure materiality of the work of paint and revoke Fowles’s novel and its didactic media-theoretical underpinnings.

Die vorliegende Studie beschäftigt sich mit dem Phänomen der zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten. Ausgangspunkt ist die außergewöhnlich hohe Anzahl an veröffentlichten Geistergeschichten, die es um bzw. seit Anfang der Jahrtausendwende gab. Die Besonderheit liegt darin, das Kanada gemäß seines Selbstverständnisses ein „matter-of-fact-country“ ist, das im Gegensatz zu seinem südlichen Nachbarn, den USA, weder Gründungsmythen noch eine reichhaltige Tradition an Schauerliteratur vorweisen kann. Dieses Phänomen wird unter einer ästhetisch-ontologischen Perspektive untersucht. Mithilfe romantischer Philosophie (v.a. Friedrich J. W. Schelling), aber auch zeitgenössischen philosophischen Ansätzen sowie traditionellen Mythen kann erklärt werden, dass die Aufklärung und der damit einhergehenden rationalen rationalen Weltsicht, die nicht zuletzt die Kolonialgeschichte bestimmte, in sich begrenzt ist – schließlich kreiert die Aufklärung selbst einen neuen Mythos: nämlich den von ihrer Allmacht. In dieser Arbeit wird dargelegt, dass es ein menschliches Bestreben ist die Welt eben nicht nur rational und logisch zu betrachten. In diesem Sinne verstehen sich, so die These, die Geistergeschichten als ein längst überfälliges Gegenspiel zum rationalistischen Selbstverständnis der kanadischen Kultur. In diesem Zusammenhang setzt sich die Arbeit mit theoretischen Ansätzen wie der Schauerliteratur und des Magischen Realismus kritisch auseinander und schlägt vor eine pantheistische Lesart zu entwickeln (pantheistisch, da in den Geschichten alle übersinnlichen Kräfte der Welt immanent sind). Diese Studie zeigt, dass die Geister andere Semantiken aufweisen als bei der konventionellen Schauerliteratur: Wo in klassischer Schauerliteratur die Geister eine Bedrohung darstellen, werden sie in den zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten als der Erde zugehörig aufgefasst. Es handelt sich also um eine lebensbejahende Form der Einschreibung von Magie in die (Lebens-)Welt, die zugleich dem menschlichen Bedürfnis nachkommt die Welt über Mythen – und keine rationale Sicht – zu erklären. Unter Betrachtung dieser Prämissen werden folgende Geistergeschichten untersucht: Tomson Highways „Kiss of the Fur Queen“ (1998), Eden Robinsons „Monkey Beach“ (2000), Kenneth J. Harveys „The Town that Forgot How to Breathe“ (2004), Joseph Boydens „Three Day Road“ (2005) und David Chariandys „Soucouyant“ (2007).

Psychiater: 'Amerikas Jungen in der Krise', titelt Die Welt am 2. Juni 1998 und ruft unter Bezug auf den Psychiater William Pollock von der Harvard University 'eine nationale Krise des Knabenalters' aus. Nachdem '[j]ahrelang (...) in den USA die Förderung von Mädchen Priorität' hatte, offenbaren die Statistiken nun eine erschütternde Bilanz: 'Im Pubertätsalter begehen in den USA fünfmal so viele Jungen wie Mädchen Selbstmord. Jungen machen 90 Prozent der Disziplinarfälle aus und brechen viermal häufiger die Schule ab.' Während es unter männlichen Jugendlichen zu immer mehr Gewalttaten, wie beispielsweise der weltweit durch die Medien gegangenen Serie von Bluttaten an amerikanischen Schulen kommt, die 2002 in einem Film wie Bowling for Columbine sogar noch einen künstlerisch-kritischen Ausdruck findet, und sich Deutschland noch von den Schockwellen des Erfurter Massakers erholt, leiden nach einer in L'Actualité médicale publizierten kanadischen Studie im Kindes- und Jugendalter deutlich mehr Männer als Frauen an Beeinträchtigungen beziehungsweise Erkrankungen.

Jewish literary studies holds a peculiar field position. Although the study of Jewish American literature has been a part of American literary studies at least since the famed ‘breakthrough’ of Jewish literature in the postwar years, it often continues to be treated as a self-enclosed world of its own, apart from both ethnic literary studies and the larger American literary field.

Wie kein anderer Text des englischen Romanciers und Essayisten John Fowles ist 'The Ebony Tower' von Gemälden geprägt. Die Novelle verweist auf ihren 104 Seiten auf über vierzig Maler sowie auf die verschiedensten Maltechniken und Kunstrichtungen. Von zentraler Bedeutung ist hierbei die Stilrichtung der Internationalen Gotik, die durch Gemälde von Antonio Pisano (1395-1455), genannt Pisanello, sowie von Paolo di Dono (1397-1475), genannt Uccello, vertreten ist. Henry Breasley, weltberühmter Maler, magus in bezug auf den Leser sowie den Novizen und 'malenden Theoretiker' David Williams und in gewisser Weise auch Sprachrohr von Fowles, bezieht sich diskursiv sowie piktural, beispielsweise in seiner sehr erfolgreichen 'last-period series', gleich mehrfach implizit und explizit auf die beiden Italiener. Diesen kommt somit eine Schlüsselstellung nicht nur für die Interpretation von Breasleys Bildern, sondern auch für die von Fowles in 'The Ebony Tower' propagierte Kunst- und Lebensauffassung zu.

Topicalization refers to the sentence-initial placement of constituents other than the subject and is often listed as a non-canonical construction [cf. Ward, Gregory, Betty J. Birner and Rodney Huddleston (2002). “Information Packaging.” Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, eds. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1363–1447.]. In this paper, tokens of topicalization in the direct conversations in the International Corpus of English for Hong Kong and India and, for comparison, Great Britain are analysed. In order to find out if topicalization is a contact-induced feature, typological profiles with regard to topic-prominence [Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson (1976). “Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.” Charles N. Li, ed. Subject and Topic. New York: Academic Press, 457–489.] are created for three Indo-Aryan, three Dravidian and two Sinitic languages. I suggest that the low frequencies of topicalization in Hong Kong English and the high frequencies of topicalization in Indian English are primarily due to differences in intensity of contact [Thomason, Sarah G. (2001). Language Contact. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.] and variety development [Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English. Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]. Typological interference at the level of information structure is assumed to only come to the fore in further developed varieties and after prolonged contact.

TURNING PAGES is an annual journal of bright voices from all over the world in creative and original writing in English in short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama, as well as in drawings, art projects and many other related genres by students, academics, and writers. It is a production of the Chair of English Literatures at the English Department at Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, and the first journal of its kind at the university. TURNING PAGES can be read in both ways, literally and metaphorically, implying that we need to turn the pages, that we need to demonstrate that literature has something to say and that it can also be interventionist as it shows how we can use our own imagination for the better. Therefore, TURNING PAGES will make readers not only literally browse through a variety of texts and turn pages, but it also seeks to reflect situations, events, experiences, or emotions that turn the page for individuals, or groups of people. The first issue of TURNING PAGES features a range of texts and artworks, including first-time writers as well as professional writers, such as Michael Augustin, Sujata Bhatt, Stephen Collis, Ian Watson and the renowned Belfast theatre company Play It By Ear.

TURNING PAGES is an annual journal of bright voices from all over the world in creative and original writing in English in short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama, as well as in drawings, art projects and many other related genres by students, academics, and writers. It is a production of the Chair of English Literatures at the English Department at Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, and the first journal of its kind at the university. TURNING PAGES can be read in both ways, literally and metaphorically, implying that we need to turn the pages, that we need to demonstrate that literature has something to say and that it can also be interventionist as it shows how we can use our own imagination for the better. Therefore, TURNING PAGES will make readers not only literally browse through a variety of texts and turn pages, but it also seeks to reflect situations, events, experiences, or emotions that turn the page for individuals, or groups of people. The second issue of TURNING PAGES includes a variety of foci, ranging from meta-poetic texts and stories, to graphic artworks and illustrations via themes of belonging in an ever-changing world, tracing one’s origins, conquering personal struggles, or dealing with current incidents like COVID-19 and self-isolation. This issue combines students from diverse fields and backgrounds with professional writers from all over the world, such as Srishti Chaudhary, Andreas Gloge, Ogaga Ifowodo, Harald Linke, and Ian Watson.

TURNING PAGES is an annual journal of bright voices from all over the world in creative and original writing in English in short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama, as well as in drawings, art projects and many other related genres by students, academics, and writers. It is a production of the Chair of English Literatures at the English Department at Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, and the first journal of its kind at the university. TURNING PAGES can be read in both ways, literally and metaphorically, implying that we need to turn the pages, that we need to demonstrate that literature has something to say and that it can also be interventionist as it shows how we can use our own imagination for the better. Therefore, TURNING PAGES will make readers not only literally browse through a variety of texts and turn pages, but it also seeks to reflect situations, events, experiences, or emotions that turn the page for individuals, or groups of people. The third issue of TURNING PAGES is about facing and overcoming personal struggles as well as the challenges of the present time by venturing out into public life again, after months of isolation and standstill. A range of contributions by professional and published authors such as Shanta Acharya, Ranu Uniyal, Andreas Gloge and Tobias Schlosser, but also a selection of pictures by photographers such as Natalie Bleyl and Martina Gloge enhances and complements the multifaceted textual and graphic pieces by students and first-time writers.