Volume 7: Foreword
DEAR READERS, I am very pleased to announce the publication of the Special Topic “Cosmopolitical and Transnational Interventions in German Studies,” the first installment of our 2011 issue. This Special Topic is the product of a close collaboration with Guest Editors B. Venkat Mani (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Elke Segelcke (Illinois State University). The papers […]
Cosmopolitical and Transnational Interventions in German Studies
B. Venkat Mani and Elke Segelcke, Guest Editors Download PDF Abstract: This Special Topic presents a collection of scholarly essays which emerged from a multi- and interdisciplinary panel series at the 49th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, and which represent the continuation of a collaborative thought process about transnational and cosmopolitical interventions that […]
The Visual Regime of the Globe
David D. Kim Abstract: How do we envision our relation to the rest of the world if responsibility and response are predetermined by images of planet earth? While our understanding of translocal relations heavily draws upon the globe to grasp various works of globalization, this article shows how eclipsing the planetary gaze is an essential […]
Zeitnetze. Globalisierung und postmoderne Ästhetik in Helmut Kraussers Roman UC
Johannes Pause Download PDF Abstract: Der Artikel untersucht am Beispiel von Helmut Kraussers 2003 erschienenem Roman UC die Auseinandersetzung mit der „Episteme Netz“ (Hartmut Böhme) in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Gezeigt wird, wie in neueren Romanen Figuren des Netzes und der Vernetzung globalisierungskritisch gewendet werden, indem sie mit Symptomen der Entortung und des Identitätsverlustes assoziiert werden. […]
Bilingual Signs in Carinthia: International Treaties, the Ortstafelstreit, and the Spaces of German
Jennifer M. Gully Download PDF Abstract: Analyzing the long-running conflict surrounding bilingual (German-Slovene) signs in Southern Austria, this article approaches the Ortstafelstreit as an illustration of the performative character of national languages, the performances to which contested national languages give rise, and the destabilization of national languages in a transnational era. Acknowledgements: I thank the […]
Bordering on Names: Strategies of Mapping in the Prose of Terézia Mora and Peter Handke
Paul Buchholz Download PDF Abstract: The contemporary prose works of Peter Handke and Terézia Mora are marked by a common formal feature: the strategy of circumlocution, whereby narrative intrigue is fueled by the continual and nimble avoidance of any proper place-names. Their commitment to this aesthetic strategy of non-naming can be linked to a literary […]
Ein Krieg auf Tuchfühlung. Hans Magnus Enzensbergers (unwillkürliche) Annäherungen an den Jugoslawienkonflikt
Gordana-Dana Grozdanic Download PDF Abstract: Hans Magnus Enzensbergers Essay Aussichten auf den Bürgerkrieg ist eines der ersten literarischen Zeugnisse, in dem ein breit angelegter, global ausgerichteter Versuch unternommen wird, sich mit der neuen geopolitischen und ideologischen Weltkonstellation auseinanderzusetzen, die sich in den ersten Jahren nach dem Mauerfall durch eine Gewalteskalation auszeichnete. In Enzensbergers makroperspektivischer Zeitdiagnose, […]
Postcolonialism, Islam, and Contemporary Germany
Monika Albrecht Download PDF Abstract: This paper argues that unlike in Britain, France, or the United States, postcolonial thought has not yet arrived in German public debates on migration, integration, and Islam. Instead of accusing the German majority of neglecting the powerful explanatory framework the postcolonial paradigm provides, the article explores the reasons for this […]
Multilingual Development in Germany in the Crossfire of Ideology and Politics: Monolingual and Multilingual Expectations, Polylingual Practices
Carol W. Pfaff Download PDF Abstract: The years since German reunification have seen changes in ideologies and policies toward societal multilingualism, linguistic pluralism of linguistic minorities. These changes have responded to the increasing diversity of minority languages as a result of immigration from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the subsequent expansion of […]
In the Postmonolingual Condition: Karin Sander’s Wordsearch and Yoko Tawada’s Wordplay
Yasemin Yildiz Download PDF Abstract: The last two decades have seen a rapid increase in multilingual cultural productions in many different contexts. Frequently, the multilingual make-up of these literary, cinematic, musical, and artistic works has been celebrated as an expression of cultural heterogeneity, pluralism, cosmopolitanism, and hybridity. This essay, however, argues that the meaning produced […]