Review of Barbara Lorenzkowski. 2010. Sounds of Ethnicity. Listening to German North America 1850–1914. Winnipeg:University of Manitoba Press

In her seminal work on the sound of German ethnicity in the Great Lakes region in the six decades prior to World War I, Lorenzkowski adds an important aural dimension to the historiography of German culture in North America. By studying past sounds of rural Waterloo County, Ontario and industrialized urban Buffalo, New York, she allows her readers to tune in to the public and private worlds of German migrants and their self–declared leaders as they practiced and performed their ethnic consciousness in the transnational borderland of the Great Lakes region. How can our understanding of the past be deepened by the study of its sounds? Hearing is a process of perceiving the world and contributes to our daily acquisition of knowledge. “[K]nowing the world through sound,” as Bruce Smith suggests, “is fundamentally different from knowing the world through vision” (2003:4). This notion can—and should—be applied to academic research; indeed, several disciplines, history included, have been experiencing a “sonic turn.” In Hearing History, sensory historian Mark M. Smith writes about the increasing focus on the aural in historical research:“This intensification holds out to the prospect of helping to redirect in some profoundly important ways what is often the visually oriented discipline of history, a discipline replete with emphases on the search for ‘perspective’ and ‘focus’ through the ‘lens’ of evidence, one heavily, if often unthinkingly, indebted to the visualism of ‘Enlightenment’ thinking and ways of understanding the word”

Eternal Interns: Kathrin Röggla’s Literary Treatment of Gendered Capitalism

In today’s Germany, university graduates and first-time job seekers find themselves in a different position than did those of previous generations—for many, obtaining a secure, full-time job has become a dream of the past. To boost their résumés, many enter a loop of internships and other similarly precarious states of employment. This article examines the way in which author Kathrin Röggla treats these insecure economic times in her 2004 novel Wir schlafen nicht , with a focus on sex and gender in the New Economy. Are jobs gendered, and what are the resulting effects for both men and women? I discuss the continuum of business masculinity and femininity and argue that business masculinity (as performed by men or women) creates, and ultimately depends on, a feminization of the workforce. By personifying the New Economy and presenting her female characters as the losers of capitalism, Röggla unmasks grievances in contemporary Germany, revealing the entire economy’s process of feminization and its effects, which are borne more heavily by women than by men

Eternal Interns: Kathrin Röggla’s Literary Treatment of Gendered Capitalism

In today’s Germany, university graduates and first-time job seekers find themselves in a different position than did those of previous generations—for many, obtaining a secure, full-time job has become a dream of the past. To boost their résumés, many enter a loop of internships and other similarly precarious states of employment. This article examines the way in which author Kathrin Röggla treats these insecure economic times in her 2004 novel Wir schlafen nicht, with a focus on sex and gender in the New Economy. Are jobs gendered, and what are the resulting effects for both men and women? I discuss the continuum of business masculinity and femininity and argue that business masculinity (as performed by men or women) creates, and ultimately depends on, a feminization of the workforce. By personifying the New Economy and presenting her female characters as the losers of capitalism, Röggla unmasks grievances in contemporary Germany, revealing the entire economy’s process of feminization and its effects, which are borne more heavily by women than by men

Der text als soundtrack -der autor als DJ: Thomas Meineckes romane im fadenkreuz von postmoderne und postkolonialismus

The works of author, musician, and disc jockey Thomas Meinecke (*1955), both in content and in form, dismantle previously maintained conceptions of authorship, readership, and the literary text. My dissertation has two goals: firstly, the introduction of Meinecke and his literary works at the intersection of postmodernist and postcolonial debates, music and literature, fiction and academic theory; secondly, a cultural studies analysis of his novels The Church of John F. Kennedy (1996), Tomboy (1998), Hellblau (2001) and Musik (2004), with special consideration paid to identity formation within postmodern and postcolonial frameworks. By using a cultural studies approach, I deconstruct Meinecke\u27s literary sampling, mixing, and remixing of national, sexual, and gender identities; ethnicity, and race. To position his works within German contemporary pop literature, I compare Meinecke\u27s works to those of his colleagues at Suhrkamp and in the DJ scene, namely Andreas Neumeister (Angela Davis löscht ihre Webseite, 2002) and Rainald Goetz (Rave, 1998). By reading his methods of text production as literary DJ-techniques (reminiscent of sampling, scratching, and remixing in the DJ culture), I define his works as sound literature, critically examining the analogies text/soundtrack, quotation/sample, and author/DJ. As opposed to Montage and Cut-up, the concept of literary sampling of pre-existing materials opens up the postmodern discourse on intellectual property and plagiarism in literature and necessitates a close analysis of the political function of Meinecke\u27s literary sampling. I also observe emerging literary rhythms and analyze the way in which they facilitate interaction among author, reader, and texts. In my analysis of this reconfiguration of authorship and readership, the reader has more power than initially assumed: by using reception theory, I argue that the death of the author does not result in the rebirth of the reader but leads to the notion of the reader as a DJ

Searching for Sebald : Photography After W.G. Sebald

"Searching for Sebald: Photography After W. G. Sebald is a collection of original essays and visual projects inspired by the work of W. G. Sebald. The interest in Sebald has crossed disciplines, igniting passionate dialogue among and between scholars and practitioners. This unique project, with its intricate weave of image and text, captures this spirited conversation in both theory and praxis. Searching for Sebald is edited by Lise Patt with Christel Dillbohner." -- Publisher's website