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- Löwe, Corina, 1970-
(författare)
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Von Jungen Pionieren und Gangstern : Der Kinder- und Jugendkriminalroman in der DDR
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation examines detective novels for children and young adults written and published in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The aim of the thesis is to study how the genre developed under the conditions of a socialist society. The analysis of the 66 texts included in the corpus is based on a socio-historical approach assuming that dialogical interdependencies between texts and society exist and can be verified. Central to the analytical work with the texts is the thesis that detective novels written for young readers reflect the socio-political development in East-German society. It shows, however, that—because of their strong didactic impetus—the texts did generally not, like detective novels for adults, develop into a forum for socio-critical discussions. In the diachronic development, which extends from the beginning in the Soviet occupation zone to the post-reunification period, it is shown that changing socio-political conditions interact with the texts, which becomes particularly obvious in the changing presentation of the detectives and criminals.Studying the texts, the dissertation presents basic research and an overview of the genre. Ten texts from the corpus are subject to a detailed analysis in order to deepen the general insights with examples. This way, different aspects of detective novels for children and young adults in the GDR are emphasized, e.g. the interaction between text and illustration. The embedding of figures in a socialist community produces further motives frequently occurring in the texts such as: the Heimat motive or the anti-fascist society.Although the majority of the texts do not go beyond stereotypical representations of characters, criminal cases, and locations—and hence demonstrate the close link between (normative) ideas of society and their literary implementation—the body of texts contains some innovative exceptions in which the social development is questioned and even cautiously criticized.
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| 2. |
- Johansson, Nina
(författare)
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". . . die grenzen der Witwen wird er feste machen . . ." : Konstruktionen von Weiblichkeit im lyrischen und didaktischen Werk der Herzogin Elisabeth von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1510-1558)
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present dissertation examines constructions of femininity in the lyrical and didactical works of Elisabeth von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1510-1558). It shows how this widow ruler and promoter of the reformation transforms and re-interprets contemporary ideas about women and gender according to her own personal interests, and how gender roles are thus negotiated in her texts. In accordance with current theoretical ideas about subjectivity, discourse, and gender, it is shown among other things how Elisabeth von Braunschweig-Lüneburg uses established genres to further her own personal agenda, and how she manipulates contemporary notions of gender in order to create authority for herself as a political force, as an upholder of Christian virtues, and, most importantly, as a writer. The analysis is based on an understanding of subjectivity as dialogical – as a negotiation with the surrounding culture – and of gender as socially constructed. Using the theories presented by Judith Butler and Joan Wallach Scott as a basis, the study shows how Elisabeth works within the various discourses available to her in order to describe established gender roles in a fashion that challenges prevailing notions of femininity and a woman’s place in society. The study focuses on a number of aspects of femininity important in Elisabeth’s texts as well as in the cultural context in which they were written. The textual construction of woman as writer, ruler, preacher, wife, mother, and widow is examined. The dissertation presents not previously acknowledged insights into the ambivalence coloring Elisabeth’s descriptions of women and femininity.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Karlsson Hammarfelt, Linda, 1981-
(författare)
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Praktiken im Zwischenraum : Transitorisches Schreiben bei Katja Lange-Müller
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyzes works by the contemporary German author Katja Lange-Müller, focusing on their representations of borders and in-between spaces. Thus, the thesis offers a new perspective on Lange-Müller’s work, which, in the few previous studies, has mainly been interpreted within the context of ‘subversive writing’ in the German Democratic Republic in the 1980s. In an effort to analyze transitory aspects of Lange-Müller’s writing, the study draws on theories of liminality and the peripheral in literature and merges them with Michel de Certeau’s notion of ‘everyday tactics’ in Practice of Everyday Life. The study develops the concept of ‘in-between practices’, which provides a basis for the analysis of Lange-Müller’s texts. ‘In-between practices’ are conceived as operations carried out by marginalized characters and narrators by which they intervene in border zones and interstices of systems in order to alienate codes, re-negotiate histories and assert themselves within a specific context. The analysis is structured into four parts, out of which three focus on a certain category of in-betweenness: state borders and attempts of border crossing; bodily borders and their transgression; and margins of written texts as potential spaces of rewriting histories. Focusing on the novel Böse Schafe (2007), the fourth analysis investigates the interplay of different border categories and practices of re-negotiation. In the interaction between the theoretical framework and a close reading of the primary texts, this thesis maps different activities of characters and narrators on borders and in the in-between. The study shows that these spaces bear critical, creative and political potential that Lange-Müller’s texts make use of not only on the level of histoire, but also within the discours. In conclusion, the study argues that Lange-Müller’s transitory poetics develops as the result of a correspondence between these two levels.
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| 5. |
- Marx Åberg, Angela, 1971-
(författare)
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Lesefreude und Lernerorientierung : Eine Untersuchung von Lehrerentscheidungen beim Lesen eines Romans in einer Schülergruppe im schwedischen Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study, teaching is seen as a complex decision-making situation, where different factors that influence the teaching and learning process are interwoven and connected with each other. To describe and analyse the complexity of teaching literature in a foreign language instruction setting is the aim of the study. The study was conducted with one teacher participant and her group of 16–17 years old pupils in a Swedish upper secondary school, while they read a German youth novel.Data on the teacher decisions in the planning phase was collected by interviewing the teacher before the actual teaching of the novel and between lessons, while the implementation of the teacher decisions was observed during the lessons. In the interviews, four decision areas showed to be central to the teacher: teaching goals, choice of text, task formulation, and the role of freedom and control as central concepts of learner autonomy. In the analysis chapters, the decisions within these different areas are described, commented on, and contextualized within the teacher’s own teaching concepts, and within current research and theory on foreign language reading, learning, and teaching. Factors critical to the decision-making situation are identified.The findings of the study show that teaching literature employs a decision-making process of great complexity because of the subjective character of the reading process. The complexity of the process is increased by the fact that a foreign language was being taught. Even for an experienced teacher (as the teacher who was observed in the study is) teaching decisions are characterized by a complexity which her many years of teaching experience can only partly compensate for. The main goal for the teaching of the novel was formulated by the teacher as ‘reading pleasure’, a concept grounded on a previous teaching experience. Since the teacher saw tasks as an obstacle for a reading experience, the task formulation constituted a conflict for her. In the study, the structure of the conflict is described by investigating different understandings of the concepts ‘reading pleasure’ and ‘task’. A crucial question was raised: What was considered to be the most important activity of the lesson: the reading or the tasks? When the task is secondary to the reading, there is an opportunity for the learner to focus on the reading experience; an important condition for reading pleasure. When the task is considered to be the primary activity, the student’s focus is on solving the task, and the reading activity thus looses its importance when the task is fulfilled. The interpretation of teaching concepts like ‘task’ is therefore a crucial factor that influences the teacher’s decisions about the teaching.A second concept that is central to the teacher’s teaching activities is ‘learner autonomy’. Since it is a central concept in the Swedish school curriculum, learner autonomy is held in very high esteem, whilst teacher control is consequently held in very low esteem. The idealization of learner autonomy, along with insufficient explanation of its impact on the distribution of the responsibility for the learning process between teachers and pupils are seen as factors that lead to an increased complexity in the decision-making process about how to manage situations where pupils are not prepared to take on the responsibility that is given to them.
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