Interview with Brigitte Burmeister (Washington D.C., 15 April 2000) (Kerstin
Gaddy)
After a brief introduction dealing with the translatability or ultimate
intranslatability of texts by Walter de la Mare, Samuel Beckett, Günter Kunert,
and Christian Morgenstern, the bulk of this article is devoted to a detailed
investigation and comparison of various aspects of the English version (by H. T.
Lowe-Porter) of Thomas Mann's novel Joseph und seine Brüder; then, as a
kind of supplement, there follows a cursory discussion of similar problems in
the English version(s) of Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers.
As it turns out, even the very basics of the "ritual of translation"
are in dire need of constant admonition, indeed exhortations. (RG)
Reinhold Grimm
The Ritual of Translation: Some Examples Chiefly from English and German Letters
After a brief introduction dealing with the translatability or ultimate
intranslatability of texts by Walter de la Mare, Samuel Beckett, Günter Kunert,
and Christian Morgenstern, the bulk of this article is devoted to a detailed
investigation and comparison of various aspects of the English version (by H. T.
Lowe-Porter) of Thomas Mann's novel Joseph und seine Brüder; then, as a
kind of supplement, there follows a cursory discussion of similar problems in
the English version(s) of Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers.
As it turns out, even the very basics of the "ritual of translation"
are in dire need of constant admonition, indeed exhortations. (RG)
Alexander Košenina
Friedrich Nicolai’s Satires on Philosophy
Friedrich Nicolai's Satires Geschichte eines dicken Mannes (1794) and Leben
und Meinungen des Sempronius Gundibert, eines deutschen Philosophen (1798)
are as much neglected as his philosophical writings. But his entertaining
literary polemics as well as his painstaking academic books and essays are
merely two strategies in the same battle. In both areas, Nicolai attempted to
fight as a popular philosopher and advocate of practical Enlightenment against
darkness, incomprehensibility, and lack of usefulness which he recognized in the
abstract philosophy of German Idealism. This article reconsiders Nicolai's
contribution to the Enlightenment, which has largely been ignored by a
historiography which emphasizes the giants, both in philosophy and in
literature. (AK)
Rudolf Drux
"Aussterben" als Innovation. "Die abgelebte moderne Gesellschaft" in den Dramen Georg Büchners
According to Büchner, modern society, where "the King and the Chambers rule" while
"the people applaud and pay" (letter to the family, Dec. 1832), has
outlived itself to the extent that it will self-destruct without external force.
Georg Büchner exposes it in all his plays by reproducing its characteristic
features: political measures intended to maintain the ruling order are denounced
in equal fashion as philosophical views that declare it legitimate and an art
that glosses over and provides consolation for a miserable reality. This society
is characterized by the "entsetzlichste Langeweile" that results from
the complete ossification of all intellectual life,–– thus its own end is
the only thing new this society can still produce, and this end is inevitable,
at least if we follow Büchner's description. (RD) (In German)
Gerrit-Jan Berendse
Schreiben als Köperverletzung: Zur Anthropologie des Terrors in Bernward Vespers Die Reise
In the context of Germany’s encounter with left-wing terrorism, the novel Die Reise
(1977) by Bernward Vesper (1938-71) initiated a new discourse on politically
motivated violence. The voyeuristic insights into the author’s inner feelings
while confronted with "verbal terrorism" and the juxtaposition of
anger, fear, and aggression offers an alternative rhetoric within the dualistic
framework in which the ideological debates of the so-called German Autumn took
place. Die Reise is a study of the author’s both hostile and tortured
body, resulting—not solely metaphorically—in the author's death. This
article critically examines Vesper’s masochistic treatment of the body in
conjunction with the one-dimensional representation of the terrorist’s body as
a demon in the West German media, and the preoccupation with corporeality and
self-mutilation in the arts in the 1970s. Vesper’s anthropology of terror
finds its counterpart in the sadistic "politics of the body" (Michael
Rutschky) which constructed the rationale for the violent actions of the first
generation of the Red Army Faction. (G-JB) (In German)
Sabine Wilke
"Hätte er bleiben wollen, er hätte anders denken und fühlen lernen
müssen": Afrika geschildert aus Sicht der Weißen in Uwe Timms Morenga
At the beginning of the 1980s, a long overdue discussion concerning German
colonial history came to the fore in the Federal Republic of Germany. The writer
Uwe Timm took part, first with a volume of pictures and then with the novel Morenga.
This article investigates how Timm represents Germany's role in this novel
through the fictionalized encounter between German colonists and Africans in
Southwest Africa, which is known as Namibia today. Timm's representation of
everyday colonial life is informed by his reading of historical sources and
studies which then are presented in dialogue with fictitious and
pseudo-fictitious figures. Unfortunately, we find here only descriptions of
African culture from the point of view of the European colonists, and thus the
artificially created discourse of the colonized Africans, which Timm has sensed
and criticized in the German public of the 1980s, is essentially not questioned
even in this novel. (SW) (In German)
Sabine Gross
Image and Text: Recent Research in Intermediality