Folio of Compositions with Critical Commentary: An exploration of musical influences and composing techniques. Critical commentary.

This Doctor of Philosophy submission consists of a folio of original compositions with an accompanying critical commentary. The compositions in the folio draw on the inspiration of a number of composers associated with the “Western Classical” tradition, as well as the influence of other musical styles and traditions such as Jazz. The commentary explores various aesthetic principles, musical influences and technical compositional approaches that stimulated the development towards an individual compositional output. A focus of the commentary is to draw attention to the unique synthesis of significant musical influences as evidenced in the folio, thereby elucidating a gradual development towards the attainment of a personal compositional style during candidature. The folio consists of an eclectic collection of works, including many vocal works, chamber works and orchestral pieces. A seminal chamber work in the folio, Le Tombeau de Monk, exhibits the synthesis of several influential composers and styles. Also included in the folio is an extended symphonic work for combined orchestral and choral forces, Symphony for a Busy World, which represents the culmination of many compositional features that were developed throughout candidature. To provide background and perspective to the folio of compositions, the commentary highlights a number of influential compositional techniques and idiosyncrasies with regard to thematic development and harmonic language, as well as specific features of rhythm, orchestration and vocal writing. Detail regarding these compositional processes is provided, discussing the influence of particular compositional approaches relevant to the body of works in the folio within a music history context, whilst also identifying the application of compositional processes and approaches encountered in the folio

Between Resurrection and Insurrection: Jesus and the “Deconstruction of Monotheism” in “Von der Zärtlichkeit” by Navid Kermani and “ich, jesus von nazareth” by SAID

The work of Navid Kermani and SAID frequently engages with religious themes and their respective oeuvres foreground the diversity within Islam and blur religious dividing lines. In spite of their differences, the short stories “Von der Zärtlichkeit” (Of Tenderness) by Kermani and “ich, jesus von nazareth” (i, jesus of nazareth) by SAID invite comparison because they share a deconstructive engagement with the figure of Jesus, conveying a spirituality felt in the material, rather than the metaphysical world. Whereas the former depicts a mystical experience in which Jesus’s presence is felt without him being glimpsed, implying an ambiguous sense of the divine in withdrawal and of empty sacred space, the latter is an at times angry monologue delivered by Jesus, in which holiness is located in righteous action against injustice. Hence the former evokes issues of spiritual absence and presence through Jesus’s resurrection, whereas the latter conveys a sense of insurrection, underlining Jesus’s role as a social radical. Both texts, however, shift meaning away from a transcendent God and toward the world, suggesting a religiosity beyond identity and ideology which can be illuminated by bringing Jean-Luc Nancy’s non-dualist concept of the “deconstruction of monotheism” into dialogue with the texts’ Christian and Sufi allusions

\u27Es kostet Sinn und Zeit / die Sphären zu einen\u27: Das Selbst und der Andere, der Himmel und die Erde in Zafer Şenocaks Übergang

Zafer Şenocak (geb. 1961) wies schon 1990 im Essay „Deutschland – Heimat für Türken? Ein Plädoyer für die Überwindung der Krise zwischen Okzident und Orient“ darauf hin, dass der Islam langsam wieder dabei war, in Europa zu einem Streitpunkt zu werden. Nach den islamistischen Terroranschlägen vom 11. September 2001 in den USA stehen die Muslime Deutschlands (und im Allgemeinen) unter zunehmendem Verdacht und, wie die Untersuchung von Reim Spielhaus aufzeigt, ersetzt die Bezeichnung minderheitlicher Deutscher als "Muslim“ nach 9/11 immer mehr die früher häufig verwendeten Etikettierungen wie "Gastarbeiter“, "Migrant“ oder "Türke". Dieses neue Etikett ist genauso einschränkend wie es die alten Etikettierungen sind, aber die Bezeichnung Muslim führt zudem zur diskriminierenden Verknüpfung zwischen (vermuteten) muslimischen Bürgern und Terroristen aus aller Welt, wie Yasemin Yildiz argumentiert

'Es kostet Sinn und Zeit / die Sphären zu einen': Das Selbst und der Andere, der Himmel und die Erde in Zafer Şenocaks Übergang

Zafer Şenocak (geb. 1961) wies schon 1990 im Essay „Deutschland – Heimat für Türken? Ein Plädoyer für die Überwindung der Krise zwischen Okzident und Orient“ darauf hin, dass der Islam langsam wieder dabei war, in Europa zu einem Streitpunkt zu werden. Nach den islamistischen Terroranschlägen vom 11. September 2001 in den USA stehen die Muslime Deutschlands (und im Allgemeinen) unter zunehmendem Verdacht und, wie die Untersuchung von Reim Spielhaus aufzeigt, ersetzt die Bezeichnung minderheitlicher Deutscher als "Muslim“ nach 9/11 immer mehr die früher häufig verwendeten Etikettierungen wie "Gastarbeiter“, "Migrant“ oder "Türke". Dieses neue Etikett ist genauso einschränkend wie es die alten Etikettierungen sind, aber die Bezeichnung Muslim führt zudem zur diskriminierenden Verknüpfung zwischen (vermuteten) muslimischen Bürgern und Terroristen aus aller Welt, wie Yasemin Yildiz argumentiert

From Roots to Rhizomes: Similarity and Difference in Contemporary German Postmigrant Literature

There has traditionally been some divergence in the interpretive paradigms used by scholars analysing minority literature in the Germanophone and Anglophone contexts. Whereas the Anglosphere has tended to utilize poststructural and postcolonial approaches, interculturality and transculturality are favoured in the German-speaking world. However, these positions are aligning more closely, as the concept of similarity is gaining ground in Germany, disrupting the self–other binary in what can be regarded as a shift from the idea of roots to rhizomes. In dialogue with Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of the rhizome, the paradigm of similarity will be explored in terms of culture in Zafer Şenocak’s essay collection Das Fremde, das in jedem wohnt: Wie Unterschiede unsere Gesellschaft zusammenhalten (The Foreign that Resides in Everyone: How Differences Hold Our Society Together, 2018), which explores the similarities between Turkish and German culture alongside their internal differences; in terms of language in Uljana Wolf’s poetry cycle “DICHTionary” (2009), which seeks out links between German and English through ‘false friends’; and in terms of religion in Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel’s play Nathan Messias (Nathan Messiah 2006), which raises questions about interreligious dialogue. All three texts challenge binary notions of identity in favour of a more complex, rhizomatic network of relations

Translating Yunus Emre, Translating the Self, Translating Islam: Zafer Şenocak's Turkish-German Path to Modernity

The writer and public intellectual Zafer Şenocak (b. 1961 in Ankara) is well aware of the imbalances in today’s globalized literary markets. Mass migration is, however, bringing about processes of cultural crosspollination that challenge traditional ideas of center and periphery. If, with David Damrosch, we regard world literature as encompassing “all literary works that circulate beyond their culture of origin, either in translation or in their original language” (2003, 199), it can be argued that Turkish literature is increasingly playing such a role in Germany, where Turks currently form the largest ethnic minority (Statistisches Bundesamt 2018). As one-sided as the cultural exchanges between Germany and Turkey may appear, Şenocak’s own publications demonstrate that there is movement in both directions. He has written essays on Turkish and Ottoman literature, such as “Einen anderen Duft als den der Rose: Über türkische Volks- und Diwandichtung” (Another Scent than that of the Rose: On Turkish Folk and Divan Poetry, 1993), and he has translated the poetry of Pir Sultan Abdal (Şenocak 1988) and Yunus Emre (Yunus Emre 1986) into German. Moreover, his own literary and essayistic writing (in both German and Turkish) is inspired by authors and thinkers from both cultural spheres.National University of Ireland Galwa

Everyday Life and Death: Mortality and Community in Navid Kermani\u27s Kurzmitteilung

Navid Kermani (born 1967 in Siegen of Iranian parents) is a writer, Islam scholar and public intellectual of rising prominence, as evidenced by speech in the Reichstag marking the 65th anniversary of the Grundgesetz and by his connection to the Green Party’s 2017 presidential candidacy. It is for his essays and articles on Islam and the West that Kermani is most well-known and he continues to provide an authoritative counterbalance to the increasingly xenophobic and divisive rhetoric of organisations such as the movement Pegida (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes) and the far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland. Despite the variety of Kermani’s essayistic writing, which also deals with German literature, the current refugee crisis, and the politics of the Middle East and of India, questions of community and belonging remain its central focus. He repeatedly argues for an understanding of the complexity of identity and for a cosmopolitan idea of coexistence that involves concern for the other and the acceptance of difference, earning him the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (2015) and the Marion Dönhoff Preis für internationale Verständigung (2016), to name two examples

Sacred and Secular Spaces: Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei and “Großvater Zunge”

Labor migration from Muslim-majority countries to the Federal Republic of Germany between the 1961 agreement with the Turkish government and the Anwerbestopp in 1973 was followed by family reunions and successive waves of political refugees and asylum seekers predominantly from the Balkans and the Middle East, leading to an increasingly visible Muslim presence in all areas of German culture, politics and society. The German literary scene is no exception, as the success of prize-winning authors who identify as Muslims, such as Navid Kermani and Feridun Zaimoglu, demonstrates. There has also been a notable post-9/11 rise in Islamic themes in German literary texts regardless of their author’s background, outlined by Karin E. Yeşilada’s study of the “Muslim turn.” Yet the literary writing of Emine Sevgi Özdamar seems to contradict this trend. It is her publications in the early 1990s, not her post-9/11 work, that deal primarily with Islamic themes. Although her position within the many debates surrounding Islam in German society is more difficult to ascertain than that of other writers, such as Kermani, who have enthusiastically adopted the role of public intellectual, Özdamar’s early semi-autobiographical works of fiction, including the novel Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei hat zwei Türen aus einer kam ich rein aus der anderen ging ich raus (1992, henceforth Karawanserei) and the short story “Großvater Zunge” (the second story in the collection Mutterzunge, 1990), raise questions that are central to debates over Islam’s place in society, be it in Germany or Turkey

'The Crossing of Love': The Inoperative Community and Romantic Love in Feridun Zaimoglu's 'Fünf klopfende Herzen, wenn die Liebe Springt' and Hinterland

In the short story ‘Fünf klopfende Herzen, wenn die Liebe springt’ (2004) and the novel Hinterland (2009), Feridun Zaimoglu engages with cosmopolitanism and German Romanticism – both characteristic themes of his more recent fiction. A dialogue between the ideas of love presented by Jean-Luc Nancy and the Romantics Fr. Schlegel, Novalis and Kleist can illuminate the non-identitarian nature of Zaimoglu's cosmopolitanism, suggesting a radical openness to the future and an ontological interrelatedness in line with Nancy's ‘communauté désœuvrée’ (‘inoperative community’), rather than a new cosmopolitan identity with its own moral code. Just as the Romantics invested in the power of love to create a harmonious world, love is equally important for Nancy in that it renders the inoperative community more accessible to us. This understanding of cosmopolitanism can be glimpsed in ‘Fünf klopfende Herzen’, in which falling in love presents the protagonist with the radical possibilities brought about by the interconnected nature of being. Similarly, in Hinterland, in which transnational sensibilities create a cosmopolitan web across Europe, it is implied that being-with is not subordinate to being-one. Zaimoglu's engagement with the Brothers Grimm and the more nationalist aspects of Romanticism also requires close scrutiny, and can be illuminated by an appeal to Nancy's concepts of ‘myth’ and ‘literature’