| 1. |
- Renard, Fredrik, 1987-
(author)
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Arbeit am Zufall : Die Formierung des modernen deutschen Romans im 18. Jahrhundert
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The present dissertation deals with the relationship between chance and the form of the German novel during its modernization in the eighteenth century. In novels by Wieland, Moritz and Goethe, ‘chance’ poses a complex of problems that the novels process in the course of their narrations and that in turn also influences how the German novel itself, as a new genre in the late eighteenth century, began to gain definition. The overarching thesis is that neither chance as it appears in the novel nor the novel itself have a fixed form in modernity, but that both arise as part of the same dynamic and evolve in interaction with one another. In this context, the ‘work on chance’ describes the process whereby the novels under consideration seek to define their form by exploring different ways that chance can be given shape in the narrative. The work on chance is thus at the same time an examination of the possibilities of the form of the novel, which the narratives of Wieland, Moritz and Goethe undertake in three different ways. What ultimately unites them is the way that the form of the novel emerges as the protagonist of the story being told, thus making the novel itself the hero of the modern German novel.
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| 2. |
- Christensen, Henrik, 1984-
(author)
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We Call upon the Author : Contemporary Biofiction and Fyodor Dostoevsky
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis studies fictional representations of Fyodor Dostoevsky in contemporary biofiction. The aim of the study is to present an intermedial theoretical framework for biofiction, a genre defined as fictional biographical and often metafictional narratives in which a biographical subject serves as the focal point for the story or plays a role integral to the narrative. Drawing on contributions from prior studies within different areas—biopics, the biographical novel, intermediality, transmedial narratology—the thesis identifies the most salient tenets of an increasingly important and ubiquitous genre—its fictional, intermedial, and metafictional properties—to suggest a medium-spanning definition. From this intermedial definition of the genre, it is suggested that biofiction studies should move beyond medium-specific analysis. By situating the genre firmly within the realm of fiction, the thesis underlines the fact that it is exactly the fictional element that allows the genre to open up important ways to engage with a certain biographical subject. Overall, the biofiction definition presented in the thesis is inspired by Jacques Derrida’s différance.Arguing that contemporary biofiction arose from the larger aporetic shift in theory and fiction in the 1960s, which was directed toward various presuppositions undergirding epistemological, metaphysical, and ontological projects, it is contended that biofiction fictionalizes subjects to engage with and reassess the assumptions that suffuse our understanding of the subject. From their metafictional perspective, biofictions also employ subjects for various purposes to interrogate contemporary issues. Biofictions are thus turned toward both a historical moment and its own contemporary context. Buttressed by the intermedial perspective, it is argued that biofictions often employ sustained intermedial strategies—for instance, intermedial references and formal imitation—to engage not only with artistic subjects such as Dostoevsky and their work but also with the premises of creating art.The thesis centers on five Dostoevsky biofictions within film and literature: Aleksandr Zarkhi’s biopic Twenty-Six Days from the Life of Dostoevsky (1980), Leonid Tsypkin’s novel Summer in Baden-Baden (1982), J. M. Coetzee’s novel The Master of Petersburg (1994), Lara Vapnyar’s novel Memoirs of a Muse (2006), and Vladimir Khotinenko’s television series Dostoevsky (2010). As contemporary biofictions, these fictional representations of Dostoevsky were all produced or written in the wake of the aforementioned aporetic shift and therefore comprise examples of the reflexive and metacritical form of biofiction that is discussed in the thesis. The inclusion of Dostoevsky biofictions is, in part, connected with the various critical perceptions of the writer; it is maintained that biofictions such as those analyzed in the thesis proffer new readings of issues that have been overlooked or have not received due attention, such as how Dostoevsky engaged with and augmented the rivalry polemics of his day; the ways in which his conceptualization of Russian identity rested as much on inclusion as exclusion; how Dostoevsky has been employed to propagate certain models of the muse, the genius, and canonicity; and how, in today’s Russia, the writer is employed to embody and express the hyperreal politics of Vladimir Putin’s administration.
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| 3. |
- Kusche, Sabrina, 1984-
(author)
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Der E-Mail-Roman : Zur Medialisierung des Erzählens in der zeitgenössischen deutsch- und englischsprachigen Literatur
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- It has often been remarked that over the last two decades e-mails have become increasingly integrated into the novel and have thus reshaped not only its structure but also its plots. A number of scholars and critics have called for extensive scientific research into the new genre, which they refer to as the ‘E-Mail-Novel’. This dissertation is a reply to that call and focuses on this newly emerging genre within German- and English-speaking contexts. It does so by analyzing the modifications which e-mails have brought about in the novel on both the story and the discourse levels. In an effort to systematize the intermedial references to the communicative medium of e-mail in the novel, the study draws on categories from the work of Irina Rajewsky and Werner Wolf and reconfigures them according to their aptness for explicating features of the E-Mail-Novel. The intermedial categories developed in this dissertation – i. e., mention, report and imitation – also provide a basis for the analytical description of other interrelations between new media and literature and thus lend themselves to a theorization of the mediatization of narrative. Against this backdrop of different intermedial references, the study develops the idea of a scale for ordering and systematizing the varieties of the genre by simultaneously defining two major groups of e-mail-novels: hybrid and pure forms. Taking into account the historical variability of generic forms, the dissertation shows how the E-Mail-Novel depends on the cultural contexts in which it emerged by pointing out the ways in which the novels draw on contemporary issues. Among these are internet surveillance, the loss of control over the overwhelming amount of acts of virtual communication and the complexity of social relationships established and carried out via e-mail. Thus, the dissertation describes certain topoi and plot structures that can be regarded as paradigmatic for the E-Mail-Novel. In conclusion, the study maps six potential functions that e-mails can fulfill within the novel: on the intratextual level, intermedial references to e-mails can have a dramaturgical, explicative and instrumental potential while, on the extratextual level, they can fulfill representative, discursive and self-reflexive functions.
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| 4. |
- Lundström, Kerstin, 1980-
(author)
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Polemik in den Schriften Melchior Hoffmans : Inszenierungen rhetorischer Streitkultur in der Reformationszeit
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The way in which Reformation conflicts were carried out by the leading clerical Reformers has been studied in depth, but those at the margins of the Reformation have often been neglected. Hence, this thesis examines lay perceptions and manifestations of the ‘rhetorical Streitkultur’ (culture of conflict) through the writings of the furrier and radical reformer Melchior Hoffman.After an introductory chapter, the second chapter of the study provides a detailed theoretical framework with three main objectives: First, it introduces the concept of the ‘rhetorical Streitkultur,’ in order to more thoroughly describe the manner in which cultural norms and the staging of debates in writing interrelate. Second, the notion of ‘polemics’ is redefined, and its performative nature is stressed. Third, the theoretical part of the dissertation generates a classification system for different types of polemical communication situations: ‘overt’ vs. ‘covert’, and ‘direct’ vs. ‘indirect’.The analyses of Hoffman’s polemic pamphlets are divided into two sections: Chapter three examines how Hoffman polemicizes ‘overtly’ and/or ‘directly’ in the controversy with Nikolaus von Amsdorf, while chapter four attends to texts in which he polemicizes ‘covertly’ and/or ‘indirectly.’ The analyses show in detail how these different types of communicative situations are bound up with certain rhetorical strategies and particular polemical functions in Hoffman’s texts.In addition to the mode of polemical communication, another central point of the analysis in chapter three and four consists of how Hoffman positions himself with respect to his status as a layman. The focus here is on how Hoffman utilizes (self-)attributions, attitude, and language in his polemic pamphlets to influence perceptions and conceptions of hierarchy and social roles. Thus, Hoffman’s polemics against his clerical opponents can provide new insights about the role of laymen within Reformation discourse and culture.
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| 5. |
- Schirrmacher, Beate, 1973-
(author)
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Musik in der Prosa von Günter Grass : Intermediale Bezüge —Transmediale Perspektiven
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis explores the role of music in Günter Grass’s novels. In pointing out the vital role of intermediality for Grass’s narrative strategies, the thesis opens up for a new, intermedial perspective on his work. It shows how references to music are used to realise Grass’s poetological concept “paspresenture” – the simultaneous presence of past, present and future – as well as his constant strive towards concreteness.The study draws on theories of intermediality, with a special focus on the role of transmedial media characteristics. It develops a transmedial methodology for analysing intermedial references, stressing how the notion of “musicality” within the text is created by media characteristics shared by both music and literature. Intermedial references are conceived as highlighting structures that are inherent in literature.The textual analyses of The Tin Drum (1959), Too Far Afield (1995) and Crabwalk (2002) are divided into three steps. First, explicit musical references in the narratives are interpreted as indexes pointing towards transmedial structures relevant to this specific context. Second, the examination demonstrates the prominent role of transmedial characteristics such as repetitivity, contrast, simultaneity and performativity within the texts. Third and last, the function of musical reference is discussed: in all three narratives, the focus on transmedial structures supplies a more consistent interpretation of passages which otherwise prove difficult to decipher. In Grass’s fiction, issues appear not to be discussed but performatively reenacted and thus remind more of musical than literary development. What is more, music – as handled by Grass – does not appear absolute or transcendent; rather, its manipulative potential is always prominent. However, the way musical references are used to realise Grass’s poetological aims stresses the bodily presence of musical performance, thus making music appear as the performative realisation of time.
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| 6. |
- Becker, Christine, 1979-
(author)
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Kulturbezogenes Lernen in asynchroner computervermittelter Kommunikation : Eine empirische Untersuchung von Online-Diskussionen im universitären Landeskundeunterricht
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The omnipresence of digital media in all parts of our daily life raises the question of how it can contribute to language learning. This research project focuses on the potential of asynchronous computer-mediated communication for cultural learning in the context of language learning. The study was conducted in the seminar on Landeskunde at Stockholm University which integrates language learning and content learning about the ‘culture’ of German-speaking countries. The concept of cultural learning that underlies this seminar rests upon a knowledge-based concept of culture: Language learners are supposed to acquire parts of the explicit and implicit knowledge that is shared by the speakers of the target language. In the context of language learning, asynchronous computer-mediated communication is mainly used for two reasons. First, it allows learners to reflect to a greater extent on the content and the language of their written contributions (in comparison to face-to-face-discussions). Second, it facilitates interaction between the learners which can result in the co-construction of knowledge. As there are no studies on cultural learning in asynchronous computer-mediated communication, this qualitative research is exploratory. The data consists of the written contributions in a discussion forum. Furthermore, students who participated in the discussions were interviewed about their experiences during the course. By describing features of the online-discussions (e.g. length of the written contributions) and factors that influence the activity of the students (e.g. task, teacher role, teaching context), the first part of the analysis constitutes the background for the second part of the analysis and shows that computer-mediated communication is a meaningful tool for content and language integrated learning because it supports language and content leaning. Different modes of task processing are identified in the second part of the analysis: Summary of facts, Reflection about terms and interpretations, Present-day relevance, Change of perspective and Narrative practices. Those modes are analysed with regard to their potential for cultural learning in asynchronous computer-mediated communication. The analysis shows that all modes have a potential for cultural learning but only contributions which contain Reflection about terms and interpretations and those which identify the Present-day relevance of historical events lead to interaction between the students. In summary, this study identifies factors that influence students’ actions in an asynchronous online discussion forum and the potential of their practices for cultural learning.
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| 7. |
- Marx Åberg, Angela, 1971-
(author)
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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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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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