Germany as shipwreck: The “Robinson” trope in German diaries, 1943–1946

Drawing on unpublished diaries from the period 1943–46, this article shows how the “Robinson” trope of shipwreck and survival provided German civilians with a language to describe the transition from National Socialism to a radically open and anxiety-producing future. The identification with Robinson and his story makes the writers into agentic protagonists, at the same time that the metaphor of the “island” reflects an ambiguous position of isolation. Excerpts from diaries show how the “Robinson” trope combines dichotomies crucial to this period of turmoil: civilization and the primitive, individual and society, victimhood and agency, and how diarists rework this language to explore their place in a changing world.Drawing on unpublished diaries from the period 1943–46, this article shows how the “Robinson” trope of shipwreck and survival provided German civilians with a language to describe the transition from National Socialism to a radically open and anxiety-producing future. The identification with Robinson and his story makes the writers into agentic protagonists, at the same time that the metaphor of the “island” reflects an ambiguous position of isolation. Excerpts from diaries show how the “Robinson” trope combines dichotomies crucial to this period of turmoil: civilization and the primitive, individual and society, victimhood and agency, and how diarists rework this language to explore their place in a changing world

Germany's Rubble Texts: Writing History in the Present, 1943-1951.

With the decline and defeat of National Socialism, German society experienced a period of radical semantic openness in which historical narratives broke down, creating a heightened uncertainty as to what it meant to live in the present. This dissertation examines the literary and visual culture as well as political theory of the period that engaged with the notion of “rubble” at metaphoric, tropological, and structural levels. Looking beyond the canon of Trümmerliteratur (rubble literature), the concept of “rubble texts” allows for an analysis of cultural forms that bear witness to wartime and postwar Germany as a landscape of both ruin—which points to legible layers of the past—and rubble—a disorientating state of destruction. Close readings of texts address the telling conflation of rubble and ruin in contemporary discourse, which reflects both the desire to create something new and the persistent presence of the old. Additionally, this project expands the traditional focus on 1945 as the Stunde Null (Zero Hour) to the period 1943-1951, looking both backward and forward to Germany’s periods of rubble and rebuilding (Trümmer- and Aufbaujahre). This dissertation highlights the diary as a crucial yet often overlooked form that offers evidence of the historiographic and temporal crisis in texts of this moment in German history. Formally, the diary contains several forms paradigmatic of “rubble texts”: presentist temporality, stuttering forward movement, lack of narrative arc, and reflections on the act of writing. Rubble film, photography, and modernist literature of this period provide other examples of an aesthetics of fragmentation, self-consciously engaging with the concept of “rubble” and attempting to stake out new space for postwar German culture. Primary materials include unpublished diaries of German civilians, the wartime diaries of Victor Klemperer, literary works by Wolfgang Koeppen and Arno Schmidt, the rubble film Berliner Ballade (Robert Stemmle), and essays by Karl Jaspers and Hannah Arendt. Incorporating archival research, this dissertation considers questions of temporality and the writing of history, and the pragmatics of writing in times of crisis and explores the politics of rubble texts in the context of postwar projects of Umerziehung (reeducation) and Entnazifizierung (denazification).PhDGermanic Languages & LiteraturesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109071/1/ksederbe_1.pd

Bringing the Museum into the Classroom, and the Class into the Museum: An Approach for Content‐Based Instruction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101769/1/tger10144.pd

Journaling Displacement. Jewish Refugee Accounts 1933-1945

As Nazi persecution of Jews intensified in the 1930s and 40s, many Jewish Germans sought to save their lives through emigration from continental Europe. Their journeys are meticulously documented in hundreds of diaries written by a broad spectrum of society. This article argues that the practice of diary writing had an important function in survival, as the diary helped refugees gain a sense of agency as survivornarrators of their stories of escape. Reading these sources enables us to see how Jews reacted to the brutal violence of antisemitism, and how they sought to make sense of the incredible loss that came with emigration. By surveying diaries of refugees who came to the United States, this essay explores how diarists shape their writing “ I” as they bear witness to stories of displacement. Furthermore, I argue that the material diary represents a site of writing home, as diarists cope with the loss of family, friends, and a sense of belonging.Lorsque les Nazis intensifièrent leur persécution contre les juifs allemands dans les années 1930-1940, nombreux furent ceux qui tentèrent de sauver leur vie en fuyant l’Europe continentale. Ces voyages ont été soigneusement retranscrits dans des centaines de journaux intimes dont la diversité des auteurs représente une large part de la société. Cet article soutient l’idée que l’activité d’écriture d’un journal a joué un rôle important quant à la survie de son auteur, et que le journal lui-même a aidé les réfugiés à se forger un sentiment de pouvoir et contrôle en tant que survivantsnarrateurs de leur propre récit de fuite. La lecture de ces documents nous permet de voir comment les Juifs ont réagi à l’extrême violence de l’antisémitisme, et comment ils ont cherché à donner un sens à la perte immense qui accompagnait l’émigration. En examinant les journaux des réfugiés qui sont parvenus aux Etats-Unis, cet essai s’attache à explorer la manière avec laquelle les auteurs de journal intime construisent leur «je » narratif pour témoigner de ces récits de déplacement. D’autre part, je soutiens que le journal en tant qu’objet représente un lieu de Heimat (pays natal), alors que les auteurs font face à la perte de la famille, des amis, et du sentiment d’appartenance.Toen de jodenvervolging door de nationaal-socialisten intenser werd in de jaren 1930 en 1940 probeerden veel Duitse joden hun leven te redden door te vluchten uit continentaal Europa. Hun reizen werden heel nauwkeurig gedocumenteerd in honderden dagboeken uit brede lagen van de maatschappij. Dit artikel toont aan dat de praktijk van het dagboekschrijven een belangrijke functie had voor het overleven van de slachtoffers doordat het dagboek hen hielp om een gevoel van macht en controle te creëren als overlevenden en vertellers van de verhalen over hun vlucht. Door deze bronnen te lezen kunnen we zien hoe joden reageerden op het brutale geweld van het antisemitisme en hoe zij een betekenis probeerden te geven aan het ongelofelijke verlies dat het gevolg was van de emigratie. Door te kijken naar dagboeken van vluchtelingen naar de Verenigde Staten probeert deze bijdrage te verkennen hoe dagboekschrijvers hun schrijvend ‘ Ik’ vorm gaven door getuigenis af te leggen van hun ontheemding. Bovendien argumenteer ik dat het dagboek een plaats betekent waar zij zich thuis kunnen voelen, aangezien dagboekschrijvers moeten weten om te gaan met het verlies van familie en vrienden. Het dagboek geeft hen het gevoel ergens toe te behoren.Sederberg Kathryn. Journaling Displacement. Jewish Refugee Accounts 1933-1945. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 98, fasc. 3, 2020. Langues et littératures modernes - Moderne Taal- en Letterkunde. pp. 593-614

Evidence for verbal memory enhancement with electrical brain stimulation in the lateral temporal cortex

Direct electrical stimulation of the human brain can elicit sensory and motor perceptions as well as recall of memories. Stimulating higher order association areas of the lateral temporal cortex in particular was reported to activate visual and auditory memory representations of past experiences (Penfield and Perot, 1963). We hypothesized that this effect could be used to modulate memory processing. Recent attempts at memory enhancement in the human brain have been focused on the hippocampus and other mesial temporal lobe structures, with a few reports of memory improvement in small studies of individual brain regions. Here, we investigated the effect of stimulation in four brain regions known to support declarative memory: hippocampus, parahippocampal neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal cortex. Intracranial electrode recordings with stimulation were used to assess verbal memory performance in a group of 22 patients (nine males). We show enhanced performance with electrical stimulation in the lateral temporal cortex (paired t-test, P = 0.0067), but not in the other brain regions tested. This selective enhancement was observed both on the group level, and for two of the four individual subjects stimulated in the temporal cortex. This study shows that electrical stimulation in specific brain areas can enhance verbal memory performance in humans.awx373media15704855796001