Bithell Series of Dissertations
March 1, 2022
Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931), one of the major figures of European modernist
literature, enjoyed domestic and international success during his lifetime and
posthumously, yet the arrival of his dramatic works in Great Britain was plagued by false starts, short runs
and inconsistencies. It was only with Tom Stoppard’s adaptations of Das
weite Land and Liebelei, that Schnitzler’s plays were produced at
the National Theatre ─ Undiscovered Country (1979) and Dalliance (1986).
Nicole Robertson’s enquiry into the whys and wherefores of
that dilatory dissemination unearths and examines evidence of power in
transcultural and translingual migrations. Translations, critical reviews,
correspondence and unpublished drafts from the...
June 30, 2020
This study
examines how the literary works of Elisabeth Reichart, Charlotte Roche and
Elfriede Jelinek challenge normativity both in their engagement with gender and
sexuality and with aesthetic choices. The comparative analysis of texts
published over a twenty-year period provides insights into the socio-political
and cultural dynamics at the time of publication. It reveals the continuing
relevance of feminist authorial voices to the present day, challenging the stable,
normative understanding of feminism and feminist writing itself, and showing
how literature can function as a form of intervention that provides a
reflective space for readers to question norms in their own lives and to take
the initiative to change these norms. Cornelia...
August 9, 2019
How
has classical literature shaped culture, knowledge, the thinkable? What happens
when a canonical text is translated from his
gaze into her, and their, gaze(s)? These are some of
the questions Barbara Köhler pursues in her modern epic poem, Niemands Frau (2007), her response to The Odyssey.
Translated and re-imagined over the centuries, Homer’s tale found critical
resonance in intellectual traditions from Christianity through to Post-Colonialism.
Odysseus has been viewed as an ideal, reputedly using reason rather than force
to dominate, but in Niemands Frau Köhler
takes inspiration from Penelope to weave a text that challenges the rationalist
and patriarchal epistemological traditions to which the Odyssey contributes. Readers are...
July 16, 2017
German hip-hop culture is best known
for its rap music and rappers’ portrayal of their life in Germany’s urban
centres. Not many studies have looked at German hip-hop’s other main art forms,
such as graffiti art, dance and music, in conjunction with rap, or considered
their joint contribution to the creation and development of German popular
culture and contemporary identity. This book breaks new ground by offering a
comparative analysis of rappers, DJs, dancers, graffiti artists and their
practices in the German cities of Hamburg and Oldenburg. In so doing, it
reveals a variety of individual narratives on what it means to be German and to
understand how German identities are managed and expressed through hip-hop’s different tools and...
November 25, 2016
How can you fathom a bottomless abyss? How can you capture ineffable beauty in words? How do you narrate the master of all stories? These are the challenges that seasoned poet Konrad von Würzburg set himself when at the end of the 13th century he composed his account of the Trojan War from a multitude of sources. Konrad has long been recognized as an exceptionally self-conscious author who frequently reflects on the nature, status and function of poetry, and who at times appears more concerned with the sparkling surface of his discourse than with the events he narrates. Taking these observations as a starting point, this study presents the first comprehensive treatment of metapoetics in the Trojanerkrieg. Focusing on traditional...
July 1, 2016
Society and its Outsiders in the Novels of Jakob Wassermann takes a fresh look at Wassermann’s depiction of society and its mechanisms of exclusion, specifically those affecting the Jew, the woman, the child and the homosexual man. Wassermann’s extensive oeuvre has not, until
now, been considered as an attempt to portray German society at different historical stages, from the Biedermeier to the end of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, this analysis shows how Wassermann’s interest in outsider figures is intertwined with an interest in narrative technique and discusses how his perception of the world affects his depiction of character.
February 19, 2016
One of the few major enquiries into women’s narratives of political incarceration, this volume examines first-person accounts written against a backdrop of momentous historical events in twentieth-century Germany. Rosa Luxemburg’s prison letters are the starting point for the study, which explores the ways in which writing is used as a response to incarceration: how does the writer ‘perform’ femininity within the de-feminizing context of prison? How does she negotiate a self-representation as a ‘good’ woman? Central to this investigation is an awareness of the role of language as a means of empowerment within the disempowering environment of prison. As a key female political figure in twentieth-century Germany, Luxemburg wrote letters from...
April 17, 2015
This
book investigates a specific aspect of travel literature – the fictional travel
novel – and one practitioner of that sub-genre – the contemporary German author
Michael Roes (b. 1960). The analysis focuses on two main areas of research. The
first concerns Roes’s representation of intercultural encounters:
how does Roes conceive and present an encounter between representatives of
different cultures? And what constitutes a successful encounter, if such a
thing exists? The second area of interest in this study concerns Roes’s
intertextual methodology. This study identifies those intertextual references
that are of greatest significance and examines how and why Roes refers to other
writers and their texts as he composes his own. Finally,...
September 18, 2013
Ghosts have
made an unexpected reappearance in post-unification German literature.
Catherine Smale reads this as symptomatic of writers’ attempts to renegotiate their
personal and collective identity following the loss of the former East German
state. Focusing on the recent work of Christa Wolf and Irina Liebmann, Smale
outlines the ways in which these writers adopt notions of haunting in their
engagement with the double legacy of National Socialism and the GDR. 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...
June 6, 2012
Nineteenth-century
Germany witnessed many debates on the nature of the nation, both before and
after unification in 1871. Bourgeois authors engaged closely with questions of
class and national identity, and resourcefully sought to influence the
collective destiny of the German people through works of popular fiction and
cultural history. Typical of this trend was the realist writer Gustav Freytag
(1816-1895), the most widely read novelist of his era. Innovatively exploring
all of Freytag’s works (poetry, drama, novels, history, journalism, biography
and literary theory), Schofield examines how his popular writing systematically
re-imagined the social structures of German society, embedding political
agendas within contemporary stories of...