Women and National Socialism in Postwar German Literature

Women and National Socialism in Postwar German Literature

Author: Katherine Stone

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 157113994X

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In recent years, historians have revealed the many ways in which German women supported National Socialism-as teachers, frontline auxiliaries, and nurses, as well as in political organizations. In mainstream culture, however, the women of the period are still predominantly depicted as the victims of a violent twentieth century whose atrocities were committed by men. They are frequently imagined as post hoc redeemers of the nation, as the "rubble women" who spiritually and literally rebuilt Germany. This book investigates why the question of women's complicity in the Third Reich has struggled to capture the historical imagination in the same way. It explores how female authors from across the political and generational spectrum (Ingeborg Bachmann, Christa Wolf, Elisabeth Plessen, Gisela Elsner, Tanja D ckers, Jenny Erpenbeck) conceptualize the role of women in the Third Reich. As well as offering innovative re-readings of celebrated works, this book provides instructive interpretations of lesser-known texts that nonetheless enrich our understanding of German memory culture. Katherine Stone is Assistant Professor in German Studies at the University of Warwick.


Nomadic Ethics in Contemporary Women's Writing in German

Nomadic Ethics in Contemporary Women's Writing in German

Author: Emily Jeremiah

Publisher: Camden House

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1571135367

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Explores nationality, gender, and postmodern subjectivity in the work of five German-speaking women writers who embody a "nomadic ethics." How can postmodern subjectivity be ethically conceived? What can literature contribute to this project? What role do "gender" and "nation" play in the construction of contemporary identities? Nomadic Ethics broaches these questions, exploring the work of five women writers who live outside of the German-speaking countries or thematize a move away from them: Birgit Vanderbeke, Dorothea Grünzweig, Antje Rávic Strubel, Anna Mitgutsch, and Barbara Honigmann. It draws on work by Rosi Braidotti, Sara Ahmed, and Judith Butler to develop a nomadic ethics, and examines how the writers under discussion conceptualize contemporary German and Austrian identities -- especially but not only gender identities -- in instructive ways. The book engages with a number of critical issues in contemporary German studies: globalization; green thought; questions of gender and sexuality; East (and West) German identities; Austrianness; the postmemory of the Holocaust; and Jewishness. In this way, Nomadic Ethics offers a valuable contribution to debates about the nature of German studies itself, as well as insightful readings of the individual authors and texts concerned. Emily Jeremiah is Lecturer in German, Royal Holloway, University of London.


Phantom Images

Phantom Images

Author: Catherine Smale

Publisher: MHRA

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1781880263

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Ghosts have made an unexpected reappearance in German literature since 1989. Catherine Smale reads this as symptomatic of writers' attempts to renegotiate their personal and collective identity in the wake of German reunification. Focusing on two major authors from the former GDR, Christa Wolf and Irina Liebmann, Smale examines the ways in which their work adopts notions of haunting in its creative engagement with the double legacy of Socialism and National Socialism. The ghost has long been regarded as a vehicle for making manifest taboo or unauthorized memories. However, Smale goes further, demonstrating how the human subject is destabilized by the return of the phantom and is itself rendered insecure and spectral. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical reference, from the psychoanalytic concept of intergenerational phantoms to Derridean hauntology, Smale's study highlights the particular challenge which Wolf and Liebmann pose to the familiar understanding of how German writers have confronted their country's troublesome past.Catherine Smale is Lecturer in German at King's College London.


Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture

Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture

Author: Jill E. Twark

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1571135693

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Explores how contemporary German-language literary, dramatic, filmic, musical, and street artists are grappling in their works with social-justice issues that affect Germany and the wider world.


In Search of Jonathan

In Search of Jonathan

Author: Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0197637779

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"This book analyses the character of Jonathan in 1 Sam 13-2 Sam 1 and in contemporary fiction. The first part of each chapter is devoted to the literary portrayal of Jonathan in the final form of the biblical text. It seeks to establish an interpretation that allows Jonathan to be read as a psychologically cohesive character. This part raises a series of questions. What kind of man is Jonathan who shows initiative, daring, and clear leadership ability (1 Sam 13-14), yet also is willing to lay down his crown before the usurper David's feet in humble submission (1 Sam 18-23)? What kind of son is Jonathan who rebels against Saul and takes David's part in the conflict between the two men, yet remains loyal to his father until the bitter end on Mount Gilboa? The second part of each chapter investigates the depictions of Jonathan in contemporary fiction, with focus on novels, short stories, and poetry. It explores how a wide range of modern retellings of the David saga highlight, transform, and subvert the biblical portrayal of Jonathan. This part responds to the series of questions raised in the first part. Together, the two parts demonstrate how fictional retellings both deepen and challenge the ways that scholars interpret the biblical text"--


Homer's Daughters

Homer's Daughters

Author: Fiona Cox

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 0198802587

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Charting the reception of Homeric epic in the work of women writers around the globe since 1914, and covering a range of genres and literary and political movements, this volume sheds new light on an understudied facet of Homer's afterlife and on how contemporary women continue to shape the field of classical reception in new and distinctive ways.