And the Roads Lead to Nowhere : die Jungfrauenquelle und Last House on the Left als Transformationen

Wes Cravens Last House on the Left (1972) ist ein Vorläufer des Rape-Revenge- enres, in dem auf eine Vergewaltigung gewaltsame Rache folgt. Er gehört zu denjenigen Filmen, die sich durch die Visualisierung exzessiver am Körper, am Fleisch verübter Gewalt auszeichnen und daher als Splatter bezeichnet werden. Die Entstehung des Splatterfilms wird mit der kulturellen Situation in den USA der Vietnam-Ära in Zusammenhang gebracht. Als filmische Vorläufer gelten Hitchcocks Psycho (1960) sowie frühe amerikanische Exploitation-Filme der 1960er Jahre, wie Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Blood Feast (1963) oder George A. Romeros Night of the Living Dead (1968). Neben den Verbindungen von Splatterfilmen der 1970er Jahre zum amerikanischen (Low-Budget-)Kino der vorausgehenden Dekade lassen sich aber auch Einflüsse des europäischen Autorenkinos auf das Genre ausmachen. Regisseure wie Carpenter, DePalma, Hooper und Romero werden in Anlehnung an den Auteur- egriff dem sich in den späten 1960ern entwickelnden »American Auteurism« zugerechnet (Carroll). Am Beispiel von Last House wird diese Verbindung offenkundig, denn bei Cravens Film handelt es sich um ein Remake von Jungfrukällan des schwedischen Regisseurs Ingmar Bergman von 1960. Der Film lief in den USA und Deutschland im selben Jahr unter dem Titel Virgin Spring respektive Die Jungfrauenquelle an

Utopische Elemente der mittelalterlichen Reiseliteratur

This article investigates utopian elements in accounts of journeys to the East that circulated in the German-speaking areas in the fourteenth century. The travelogues studied are German translations of the reports of Odoric of Pordenone, Marco Polo and John Mandeville. The paper begins by elaborating on a notion of utopia that can serve as a genre-specific analytical tool for tracing characteristics of early modern utopias in medieval travel literature. At the centre of this notion lies a social structure which significantly differs from the social structure known to the western traveller. Further characteristics complement this concept, particularly those concerning the literary form employed in these descriptions of utopian societies. The second part of this article will specifically examine the social conditions in the utopian societies presented in the travelogues studied. In addition it will deal with the aesthetic strategies employed by the texts to create specific places, in which kingdoms and other communities with utopian traits are situated in medieval travel literature

Darstellung und kritische Würdigung der Formen der Beteiligungsfinanzierung innovativer Start-ups mit Fokus auf die Wagniskapitalfinanzierung – am Beispiel einer Analyse des deutschen Wagniskapitalmarkts

Funding is the key to success for a start-up. Since start-ups are often operating in innovative industries, they rarely receive loans from traditional debt lenders such as banks. However, start-ups do have the option of acquiring money for company growth through equity financing. One possibility for this is venture capital. In this scope, Germany is significantly behind the United States of America due to various aspects. This problem shows the relevance of the topic and justifies the critical examination of this subject. This work aims to analyze the German venture capital market, its development over the last 20 years, its advantages on the one hand and its disadvantages on the other hand as well as its future perspectives. Beyond that, the differences between the German and the American venture capital market and its success factors are presented. To answer all research questions, a broad literature review in combi-nation with several conducted expert interviews, which are evaluated on the principle of the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, is applied. The results of the analysis indicate that there are mainly three fields that are crucial for a successful venture capital market: Political actions, attitudes of the society, and the economic situation. Within these fields, some aspects of Germany are considered worse than in the U.S. In the United States of America politics often intervenes to create better conditions for investments via venture capital. Besides, the risk affinity of society in the U.S. is a major advantage compared to the risk-averse society in Germany. This is complemented by a pronounced start-up mentality in the U.S. and the positive attitude of society towards the failure of a new start-up. In Germany, the opposite can be found in both aspects. Nevertheless, the German venture capital market has developed positively in recent years and has some advantages, such as a wide range of government grants for start-ups and the opportunity for investors to earn high returns on the initial investment. All experts that were interviewed are very confident that venture capital in Germany will continue to develop positively. They identified the reasons for this evolution in an increasing number of start-ups and better skills among the founders, which increases a start-ups' chances of success. For this reason, the experts forecast rising yield expectations, as well as an increasing number of venture capital providers, and venture capital takers. This research also indicates that the volumes of venture capital funds will rise, and the COVID-19-pandemic will accelerate the development of venture capital in Germany. The results of the research clearly show that despite some weaknesses, the German venture capital market has been on a good path for several years, and that there is a high probability that the growth will continue in the future

Äpfel und Birnen. Illegitimes Vergleichen in den Kulturwissenschaften

Lutz H, Missfelder J-F, Renz T, eds. Äpfel und Birnen. Illegitimes Vergleichen in den Kulturwissenschaften. Kultur- und Medientheorie. 1st ed. Bielefeld: Transcript; 2006