“Gegen die Wand” Film Review by Inga Keller
Within an initially hyperbolic narrative, farfetched in its extreme situations, Gegen die Wand (Head-On) manages to insert many small insights into the Turkish community living in Germany, characterizing the difficulty immigrants have in defining themselves when they no longer feel Turkish but don’t completely identify with being German. In 2004 it was the winner of […]
Film Review: “Born in Absurdistan”
As part of the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students reviewed recent German films relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Tanja Mehlo reviewed the 1999 film “Geboren in Absurdistan” (Born in Absurdistan): Geboren in Absurdistan, a 1999 Austrian drama film directed by Houchang and Tom-Dariusch Allahyari and […]
Film Review: “Brudermord” (Fratricide)
As part of the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students reviewed recent German films relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Melissa Carlson reviewed Yilmaz Arslan’s 2005 film “Brudermord”: Fratricide is a drama with moments of extreme violence. The movie follows the story of two young Kurdish refugees who […]
Film Reviews: “Auf der anderen Seite” (The Edge of Heaven)
As part of their work in the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students in the course have reviewed recent German films relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Ying Ruan and Ann Huang both reviewed Fatih Akin’s 2007 film “Auf der anderen Seite” (The Edge of Heaven). Review by Ying Ruan: The movie follows […]
Book Review: “Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta”
As part of their work for the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students in the course have reviewed recent German books relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Ying Ruan reviewed Aglaja Veteranyi’s novel “Warum das Kind das Polenta kocht” (Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta): […]
Warum das Kind das Polenta kocht
English translation: Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta, translated by Vincent King, Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press , 2012. Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Ying Ruan: Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Romanian writer Aglaja Veteranyi in 1999. The narrator is an unnamed girl, who travels with […]
Book Review: “The Passport”
UC Berkeley undergraduate Preethi Kandhalu reviewed Herta Müller’s 1986 novel “Der Mensch ist ein grosser Fasan auf der Welt” (The Passport): The Passport presents the story of Windisch, a miller who lives in the Socialist Republic of Romania with his wife and daughter, Amalie, who is in a desperate quest to acquire a passport to emigrate to […]
Der Mensch ist ein grosser Fasan auf der Welt (The Passport)
English translation: The Passport, translated by Martin Chalmers, London: Serpent’s Tail, 1989 Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Preethi Kandhalu: The Passport is a novel by Herta Müller that was published in 1986; Müller was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. The novel was later translated into English by Serpent’s Tail – a […]
Book Review: “Transit”
UC Berkeley undergraduate Victoria Brinkerhoff reviewed Anna Seghers’ novel Transit: Transit describes the encounters and emotional turmoil of an anonymous twenty-seven-year-old German refugee in the early 1940s. The novel is written from the refugee’s perspective; in his narration, he documents his new experiences in the unoccupied city of Marseille, France after he flees from Paris in search […]
Transit
Written between 1941-42 while in Exile. First published in English, Spanish, and French in 1944; German original first published in the Berliner Zeitung in 1947. Newest English translation: Transit, translated by Margo Bettauer Dembo, New York: New York Review of Books, 2013. (Introduction by Peter Conrad, Afterword by Heinrich Böll) Book review by UC undergraduate Victoria Brinkerhoff: […]