New Perspectives on Imagology

With this volume, the editors Katharina Edtstadler, Sandra Folie, and Gianna Zocco propose an extension of the traditional conception of imagology as a theory and method for studying the cultural construction and literary representation of national, usually European characters. Consisting of an instructive introduction and 21 articles, the book relates this sub-field of comparative literature to contemporary political developments and enriches it with new interdisciplinary, transnational, intersectional, and intermedial perspectives. The contributions offer [1] a reconsideration and update of the field’s methods, genres, and theoretical frames; [2] trans-/post-national, migratory, and marginalized perspectives beyond the European nation-state; [3] insights into geopolitical dichotomies such as Orient/Occident; [4] intersectional approaches considering the entanglements of national images with notions of age, class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity/race; [5] investigations of the role of national images in visual narratives and music

"Sag an mein Freund, die Ordnung der Unterwelt"

In der Forschungsliteratur hat sich, trotz zahlreicher Erwähnungen, noch niemand damit auseinandergesetzt, wie genau sich der Bezug auf das Gilgamesch-Epos in Hans Henny Jahnns Romantrilogie "Fluß ohne Ufer" manifestiert. Ausgehend von einer Vorstellung des Epos und einem Vergleich der heutigen Fassungen mit der von Jahnn gelesenen, analysiert die vorliegende Arbeit die intertextuellen Bezüge zwischen Gilgamesch-Epos und „Fluß ohne Ufer“ nach den von Ulrich Broich und Manfred Pfister vorgeschlagenen Kriterien zur Feststellung der Intensität von Intertextualität. Die direkten Zitate großteils aus der 12. Tontafel des Epos und die zahlreichen strukturellen Parallelen, die vorwiegend zwischen dem zweiten Teil von „Fluß ohne Ufer“ und dem Gilgamesch-Epos bestehen, verweisen auf die beiden Texten gemeinsame Struktur der Klage um den verstorbenen Freund und die Unausweichlichkeit des eigenen Todes. Motiviert scheint die Bezugnahme auf das Epos von der Hoffnung des Erzählers Gustav Anias Horn, durch das Erkennen von Parallelen zum Gilgamesch-Epos den als zufällig empfundenen Verlauf des eigenen Lebens in ein persönliches Schicksal umdeuten zu können.Despite a lot of references there has been no systematic analysis of the intertextual relationship between the Gilgamesh Epic and Hans Henny Jahnn's trilogy „Fluß ohne Ufer“. Based on a presentation of the epic and a comparison between current versions and the version read by Jahnn, this diploma thesis analyzes the intertextual connections between the Gilgamesh Epic and „Fluß ohne Ufer.“ The criteria of measuring the intensity of intertextuality proposed by Ulrich Broich and Manfred Pfister form the theoretical basis of this thesis. Quotations mostly from the twelfth tablet of the epic as well as numerous structural parallels, predominantly between the second part of „Fluß ohne Ufer“ and the Gilgamesh Epic, point to the structure of lamentation about the dead friend and the inescapability of one's own death, which connects both texts. The reference to the Gilgamesh Epic seems to be motivated by the narrator's hope to transform the randomness of his own life into a personal fate by means of realizing the parallels to the Gilgamesh Epic

Singing the Dutch: An Extended Imagological Approach to Constructions of “Dutchness” in Late Eighteenth-Century Political Songs

Throughout history, songs have been considered effective instruments to strengthen the formation of collective identities. Eighteenth-century Dutch songwriters engaged with this idea in their striving for national unity. Political songs from that period employ several tropes, and the music often reinforces such images through musical imagery and intertextual references. Moreover, the imagined identities voiced in the songs might have become embodied identities through the performative act of singing. Therefore, for an investigation of the construction of collective identities in songs, the imagological approach can be expanded to musical imagery and take into account cognitive theories explaining the effects of singing

[Rezension zu:] Katharina Gerund. Transatlantic Cultural Exchange. African American Women's Art and Activism in West Germany. American Studies 5. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2014

In den letzten zwanzig Jahren haben sich die 'African American Studies' zu einem transdisziplinären, internationalen und damit auch komparatistisch relevanten Forschungsfeld entwickelt, in dem – inspiriert von wegweisenden Arbeiten wie Paul Gilroys 'The Black Atlantic' (1993) und Brent Edwards' 'The Practice of Diaspora' (2003) – die vielfältigen historischen und gegenwärtigen, kulturellen und sozialpolitischen Beziehungen zwischen (im weitesten Sinn) afroamerikanischer und europäischer Welt größere wissenschaftliche Aufmerksamkeit erfahren haben. Da viele der prominentesten heute noch erinnerten Ereignisse afroamerikanischer Präsenz in Europa ihr Zentrum in Paris hatten – man denke an den ersten Pan-Afrikanischen Kongress 1919, an Josephine Baker im Folies Bergère, an die Szene um Richard Wright und James Baldwin im Café Tournon der 1950er Jahre – ist es wenig verwunderlich, dass Frankreich in den international ausgerichteten Untersuchungen innerhalb der African American Studies am intensivsten untersucht wurde. Dennoch ist inzwischen ein zwar überschaubares, jedoch beachtenswertes Korpus an wissenschaftlichen Werken entstanden, die sich mit den Wechsel- und Austauschbeziehungen zwischen afroamerikanischen und deutschen (nur selten im weiteren Sinn deutschsprachigen) soziokulturellen Welten beschäftigen: mit den Erfahrungen afroamerikanischer Jazzmusiker/innen zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik und denen schwarzer GIs in den Weltkriegen und Besatzungsjahren; mit der 'Afroamerikanophilie' in deutschen Jugendkulturen der 1960er und 70er Jahre; mit den Studienjahren in Berlin und Frankfurt von afroamerikanischen Intellektuellen wie W. E. B. Du Bois, Alain Locke und Angela Davis. Nachdem der Großteil dieser Forschungen bisher in einigen Sammelbänden und verstreut publizierten Aufsätzen zu finden war, liegt nun mit Katharina Gerunds Untersuchung 'Transatlantic Cultural Exchange' eine breit angelegte Monographie vor, die verspricht, "the postwar reception, construction, and appropriation of African American women's culture, art and activism in (West) Germany" in den Blick zu nehmen und dabei diskursive Formationen herauszuarbeiten, die für den Zeitraum zwischen den späten 1960er und den frühen 1990er Jahren besonders relevant waren. Gerunds als Dissertation an der Universität Bremen entstandene Studie ist gleichermaßen um methodisch reflektiertes Vorgehen wie breite historische Kontextualisierung bemüht

The Art of Watching. The literary Motif of the Window and its Potential for Metafiction in contemporary Literature

Depuis le romantisme, les écrivains utilisent fréquemment le motif de la fenêtre pour discuter des questions métafictionnelles. Alors que certains textes, comme Des Vetters Eckfenster (1822) d’ E.T.A. Hoffmann, décrivent le regard masculin sur la femme afin de construire le modèle d’un auteur supérieur et confiant, des romans contemporains, comme Die Wiederholung (1986) de Peter Handke ou The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996) de Siri Hustvedt, sont influencés par la déconstruction de la figure traditionnelle de l’auteur dans le contexte des théories du subjectivisme, du post-structuralisme et des études de genre. Néanmoins, ces textes font tous un large usage du motif de la fenêtre afin de traiter de questions métafictionnelles. Envisageant le motif de la fenêtre comme une “mise en reflet” dont le potentiel métafictionnel est lié à la ressemblance entre « l’art de regarder » et l’art d’écrire et de lire, cet article propose deux couples de paramètres, objectivité/subjectivité et mimesis/poiesis, pour classifier les différents scénarios métafictionnels liés au motif de la fenêtre dans la littérature contemporaine.Since Romanticism, authors frequently use the literary motif of the window for discussing metafictional questions. While texts like E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Des Vetters Eckfenster (1822) describe the male gaze at the woman in order to construct models of superior, self-reliant authorship, contemporary novels like Peter Handke’s Die Wiederholung (1986) and Siri Hustvedt’s The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996) are influenced by the deconstruction of traditional authorship in the context of subjectivism, post-structuralism and gender studies. Yet, these texts make broad use of windows for addressing metafictional questions. Considering the window a “mise en reflet”, whose metafictional potential derives from the similarities between ‘the art of watching’ and the art of writing and reading, my analysis proposes two parameters, namely objectivity/subjectivity and mimesis/poiesis, for classifying the various metafictional window-scenarios in contemporary literature

From Arthouse to Grindhouse - and back? : Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Hoch- und Populärkultur

Bericht zur Tagung 'From Arthouse to Grindhouse - and back? Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Hoch- und Populärkultur', Abteilung für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft der Universität Wien, Societa - Forum für Ethik, Kunst und Recht, Filmarchiv Austria, 5. bis 7. Mai 2011 Die von Keyvan Sarkhosh (Wien) und Paul Ferstl (Wien) organisierte Tagung, die im Studiokino des Filmarchivs Austria stattfand, widmete sich in dreizehn Vorträgen diesen komplexen, sprach- und medienübergreifenden Wechselbeziehungen von 'Arthouse' und 'Grindhouse' und verband die inhaltliche Thematik mit dem methodischen Ziel einer verstärkten Theoretisierung bei der Betrachtung populärkultureller Phänomene

[Rezension zu:] Andrew J. Webber (Hg.): The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Berlin

Rezension zu The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Berlin. Hg. Andrew J. Webber. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 302 S

Disturbing the Peace of “Two Not So Very Different” Countries: James Baldwin and Fritz Raddatz

When James Baldwin in No Name in the Street discusses the case of Tony Maynard, who had been imprisoned in Hamburg in 1967, he emphasizes that his efforts to aid his unjustly imprisoned friend were greatly supported by his German publishing house Rowohlt and, in particular, by his then-editor Fritz Raddatz (1931–2015). While the passages on Maynard remain the only instance in Baldwin’s published writings in which Raddatz—praised as a courageous “anti-Nazi German” and a kindred ally who “knows what it means to be beaten in prison”—is mentioned directly, the relation between Baldwin and Raddatz has left traces that cover over fifty years. The African-American writer and Rowohlt’s chief editor got to know each other around 1963, when Baldwin was first published in Germany. They exchanged letters between 1965 and 1984, and many of Raddatz’s critical writings from different periods—the first piece from 1965, the last from 2014—focus of Baldwin’s books. They also collaborated on various projects—among them a long interview and Baldwin’s review of Roots—which were all published in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, where Raddatz served as head of the literary and arts sections from 1977 to 1985. Drawing on published and unpublished writings of both men, this article provides a discussion of the most significant facets of this under-explored relationship and its literary achievements. Thereby, it sheds new light on two central questions of recent Baldwin scholarship: first, the circumstances of production and formation crucial to Baldwin’s writings of the 1970s and 1980s, and secondly, Baldwin’s international activities, his transcultural reception and influence

Presentation of the dossier “Université Invitée”: Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna

This dossier is a collection of seven articles written by doctoral students and one young post-doc from the University of Vienna. To give you an impression of the surroundings in which the authors work and study, let me first provide you with some facts: With about 90,000 students, the University of Vienna is Austria’s largest university, and it is also the oldest university in the German-speaking countries (founded in 1365). As such, the University of Vienna is frequently at the center of po..

Disturbing the Peace of “Two Not So Very Different” Countries: James Baldwin and Fritz Raddatz

When James Baldwin in No Name in the Street discusses the case of Tony Maynard, who had been imprisoned in Hamburg in 1967, he emphasizes that his efforts to aid his unjustly imprisoned friend were greatly supported by his German publishing house Rowohlt and, in particular, by his then-editor Fritz Raddatz (1931–2015). While the passages on Maynard remain the only instance in Baldwin’s published writings in which Raddatz—praised as a courageous “anti-Nazi German” and a kindred ally who “knows what it means to be beaten in prison”—is mentioned directly, the relation between Baldwin and Raddatz has left traces that cover over fifty years. The African-American writer and Rowohlt’s chief editor got to know each other around 1963, when Baldwin was first published in Germany. They exchanged letters between 1965 and 1984, and many of Raddatz’s critical writings from different periods—the first piece from 1965, the last from 2014—focus of Baldwin’s books. They also collaborated on various projects—among them a long interview and Baldwin’s review of Roots—which were all published in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, where Raddatz served as head of the literary and arts sections from 1977 to 1985. Drawing on published and unpublished writings of both men, this article provides a discussion of the most significant facets of this under-explored relationship and its literary achievements. Thereby, it sheds new light on two central questions of recent Baldwin scholarship: first, the circumstances of production and formation crucial to Baldwin’s writings of the 1970s and 1980s, and secondly, Baldwin’s international activities, his transcultural reception and influence.© The Author