@article{Waller2022, author = {Waller, Nicole}, title = {Marronage or underground?}, series = {MELUS : multi-ethnic literature of the U.S. / Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States}, volume = {47}, journal = {MELUS : multi-ethnic literature of the U.S. / Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0163-755X}, doi = {10.1093/melus/mlac021}, pages = {45 -- 70}, year = {2022}, abstract = {I combine a reading of contemporary scholarship on US maroon histories and the Underground Railroad—and the concomitant notions of marronage and the underground—with a reading of two recent works of African American literature: Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (2016) and Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Water Dancer (2019). Foregrounding the idea of Black geographies as a form of placemaking and "thinking otherwise" about land and water, I suggest that despite the differing, and at times contrasting, trajectories of maroon histories and the histories of Black flight to the North, African American maroon experiences and the Underground Railroad are conceptually connected in contemporary African American literature. I read the two novels as recent literary expressions of this conceptual link, which is played out via representations of relating to the land. By reimagining and intertwining marronage and the underground, both novels articulate a critique of settler-colonial and plantation modes of spatial practice, modes they identify as formative for US-American nationhood. They also, tentatively but forcefully, gesture toward alternative ways of being "above" and "below" the land while affirming African American connectedness to place.}, language = {en} } @article{Wilke2021, author = {Wilke, Heinrich}, title = {Character and perspective in cosmic horror}, series = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Anglistik und Amerikanistik : a quarterly of language, literature and cultur}, volume = {69}, journal = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Anglistik und Amerikanistik : a quarterly of language, literature and cultur}, number = {2}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, address = {Berlin}, issn = {0044-2305}, doi = {10.1515/zaa-2021-2038}, pages = {173 -- 190}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Despite their overt focus on inexplicable alien forces, cosmic horror stories are also determined by their human cast. Far from being merely fodder for horror, the characters significantly contribute to the generation of meaning, including that of the supernatural entity or phenomenon itself. The same holds for the narrators' (implicitly) political perspectives on the world of which they are part. Much of the perspective propounded in Lovecraft's cosmic horror stories partakes of myth, adopting in particular the latter's universal view and pronounced sidelining of humanity as a whole, which it intensifies to the point of horror. Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, this universal perspective is consistent with the racism permeating and structuring Lovecraft's writing. Though eschewing racism and universalism, the cosmic horror of Kiernan's "Tidal Forces" negotiates literary reflections of colonialism from an unreflective white perspective.}, language = {en} } @misc{Roeder2016, author = {R{\"o}der, Katrin}, title = {Engaging with T.S. Eliot: Four Quartets as a Multimedia Performance}, series = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Anglistik und Amerikanistik}, journal = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r Anglistik und Amerikanistik}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-397808}, pages = {20}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This article explores a recent performance of excerpts from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets (1935/36-1942) entitled Engaging Eliot: Four Quartets in Word, Color, and Sound as an example of live poetry. In this context, Eliot's poem can be analysed as an auditory artefact that interacts strongly with other oral performances (welcome addresses and artists' conversations), as well as with the musical performance of Christopher Theofanidis's quintet "At the Still Point" at the end of the opening of Engaging Eliot. The event served as an introduction to a 13-day art exhibition and engaged in a re-evaluation of Eliot's poem after 9/11: while its first part emphasises the connection between Eliot's poem and Christian doctrine, its second part - especially the combination of poetry reading and musical performance - highlights the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of Four Quartets.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Peitzker2000, author = {Peitzker, Tania}, title = {Dymphna Cusack (1902 - 1981) : a feminist analysis of gender in her romantic realistic texts}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-0000276}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2000}, abstract = {Das Dissertationsprojekt befasst sich mit der australischen Autorin Dymphna Cusack, deren Popularit{\"a}t in Ost und West zwischen 1955 und 1975 ihren H{\"o}hepunkt erreichte. In diesem Zeitraum wurde sie nicht nur in den westlichen Industriestaaten, in Australien, England, Frankreich und Nord Amerika viel gelesen, sondern auch in China, Russland, der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und in vielen Sowjetrepubliken. Im Verlauf ihres Schaffens wurde ihr grosse Anerkennung f{\"u}r ihren Beitrag zur australischen Literatur zuteil; sie erhielt die \„Commonwealth Literary Pension\“, die \„Queen\′s Silver Jubilee Medal\“ und 1981 den \„Award of her Majesty\“. Trotz dieser Unterst{\"u}tzung durch den Staat in Australien und England {\"a}usserte Cusack immer wieder feministische, humanistisch-pazifistische, und anti-faschistisch bzw. pro-sowjetische Sozialkritik. Sie war auch f{\"u}r ihren starken Nationalismus bekannt, pl{\"a}dierte daf{\"u}r, eine \„einheimische\“ Literatur und Kultur zu pflegen. Besonders das australische Bildungssystem war das Ziel ihrer Kritik, basierend auf ihren Erfahrungen als Lehrerin in st{\"a}dtischen und l{\"a}ndlichen Schulen, die sie ihrer Autobiographie beschrieb. 'Weder ihr Intellekt, noch ihre Seele oder ihre K{\"o}rper wurden gef{\"o}rdert, um ganze M{\"a}nner oder ganze Frauen aus ihnen zu machen. Besonders letztere wurden vernachl{\"a}ssigt. M{\"a}dchen wurden ermutigt, ihren Platz dort zu sehen, wo deutsche M{\"a}dchen ihn einst zu sehen hatten: bei Kindern, K{\"u}che, Kirche.' Cusack engagierte sich stark f{\"u}r Bildungsreformen, die das Versagen australischer Schulen, das erw{\"u}nschte liberal-humanistische Subjekt zu herauszubilden, beheben sollten. Der liberale Humanismus der Nachkriegszeit schuf ein popul{\"a}res Bed{\"u}rfnis nach romantischem Realismus, den man in Cusacks Texten finden kann. Um verstehen zu k{\"o}nnen, wie Frauen sich zwischen \„Realismus und Romanze\“ verfingen, biete ich eine Dekonstruktion von Geschlecht innerhalb dieses \„hybriden\“ Genres an. Mittels feministischer Methodik k{\"o}nnen Einblicke in die konfliktvolle Subjektivit{\"a}t beider Geschlechter in verschiedenen historischen Perioden gewonnen werden: die Zeit zwischen den Kriegen, w{\"a}hrend des Pazifischen Krieges und den Weltkriegen, w{\"a}hrend des Kalten Krieges, zur Zeit der Aborigine-Bewegung, des Vietnamkrieges, sowie zu Beginn der zweiten feministischen Bewegung in den siebziger Jahren. Eine Rezeptionsanalyse des romantischen Realismus und der Diskurse, die diesen pr{\"a}gen, sind in Kapitel zwei und drei untersucht. Die Dekonstruktion von Weiblichkeit und eines weiblichen Subjekts ist in Kapitel vier unternommen, innerhalb einer Diskussion der Art und Weise, wie Cusacks romantischer Erz{\"a}hlstil mit dem sozialen Realismus interagiert. Nach der Forschung von Janice Radway, werden Cusacks Erz{\"a}hlungen in zwei Tabellen unterteilt: die Liebesgeschichte versagt, ist erfolgreich, eine Parodie oder Idealisierung (s. \„Ideal and Failed Romances\“; \„Primary Love Story Succeeds or Fails\“). Unter Einbeziehung von Judith Butlers philosophischem Ansatz in die Literaturkritik wird deutlich, dass diese Hybridisierung der Gattungen das fiktionale Subjekt davon abh{\"a}lt, ihr/sein Geschlecht \„sinnvoll\“ zu inszenieren. Wie das \„reale Subjekt\“, der Frau in der Gesellschaft, agiert die fiktionale Protagonistin in einer nicht intelligiblen Art und Weise aufgrund der multiplen Anforderungen an und den Einschr{\"a}nkungen f{\"u}r ihr Geschlecht. Demnach produziert die geschlechtliche Benennung des Subjektes eine Vielfalt von Geschlechtern: Cusacks Frauen und M{\"a}nner sind gepr{\"a}gt von den unterschiedlichen und konfliktvollen Anspr{\"u}chen der dichotom gegen{\"u}bergestellten Genres. Geschlecht, als biologisches und soziales Gebilde, wird danach undefinierbar durch seine komplexen und inkonsistenten Ausdrucksformen in einem romantisch-realistischen Text. Anders gesagt f{\"u}hrt die popul{\"a}re Kombination von Liebesroman und Realismus zu einer {\"U}berschreitung der Geschlechtsbinarit{\"a}t, die in beiden Genres vorausgesetzt wird. Weiterf{\"u}hrend dient eine Betrachtung von Sexualit{\"a}t und Ethnie in Kapitel f{\"u}nf einer differenzierteren Analyse humanistischer Repr{\"a}sentationen von Geschlecht in der Nachkriegsliteratur. Die Notwendigkeit, diese Repr{\"a}sentationen in der Popul{\"a}r- und in der Literatur des Kanons zu dekonstruieren, ist im letzten Kapitel dieser Dissertation weiter erl{\"a}utert.}, subject = {Cusack}, language = {en} } @misc{Honka2007, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Honka, Agnes}, title = {Writing an alternative Australia : women and national discourse in nineteenth-century literature}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-16502}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {In this thesis, I want to outline the emergence of the Australian national identity in colonial Australia. National identity is not a politically determined construct but culturally produced through discourse on literary works by female and male writers. The emergence of the dominant bushman myth exhibited enormous strength and influence on subsequent generations and infused the notion of "Australianness" with exclusively male characteristics. It provided a unique geographical space, the bush, on and against which the colonial subject could model his identity. Its dominance rendered non-male and non-bush experiences of Australia as "un-Australian." I will present a variety of contemporary voices - postcolonial, Aboriginal, feminist, cultural critics - which see the Australian identity as a prominent topic, not only in the academia but also in everyday culture and politics. Although positioned in different disciplines and influenced by varying histories, these voices share a similar view on Australian society: Australia is a plural society, it is home to millions of different people - women, men, and children, Aboriginal Australians and immigrants, newly arrived and descendents of the first settlers - with millions of different identities which make up one nation. One version of national identity does not account for the multitude of experiences; one version, if applied strictly, renders some voices unheard and oppressed. After exemplifying how the literature of the 1890s and its subsequent criticism constructed the itinerant worker as "the" Australian, literary productions by women will be singled out to counteract the dominant version by presenting different opinions on the state of colonial Australia. The writers Louisa Lawson, Barbara Baynton, and Tasma are discussed with regard to their assessment of their mother country. These women did not only present a different picture, they were also gifted writers and lived the ideal of the "New Women:" they obtained divorces, remarried, were politically active, worked for their living and led independent lives. They paved the way for many Australian women to come. In their literary works they allowed for a dual approach to the bush and the Australian nation. Louisa Lawson credited the bushwoman with heroic traits and described the bush as both cruel and full of opportunities not known to women in England. She understood women's position in Australian society as oppressed and tried to change politics and culture through the writings in her feminist magazine the Dawn and her courageous campaign for women suffrage. Barbara Baynton painted a gloomy picture of the Australian bush and its inhabitants and offered one of the fiercest critiques of bush society. Although the woman is presented as the able and resourceful bushperson, she does not manage to survive in an environment which functions on male rules and only values the economic potential of the individual. Finally, Tasma does not present as outright a critique as Barbara Baynton, however, she also attests the colonies a fascination with wealth which she renders questionable. She offers an informed judgement on colonial developments in the urban surrounds of the city of Melbourne through the comparison of colonial society with the mother country England. Tasma attests that the colonies had a fascination with wealth which she renders questionable. She offers an informed judgement on colonial developments in the urban surrounds of the city of Melbourne through the comparison of colonial society with the mother country England and demonstrates how uncertainties and irritations emerged in the course of Australia's nation formation. These three women, as writers, commentators, and political activists, faced exclusion from the dominant literary discourses. Their assessment of colonial society remained unheard for a long time. Now, after much academic excavation, these voices speak to us from the past and remind us that people are diverse, thus nation is diverse. Dominant power structures, the institutions and individuals who decide who can contribute to the discourse on nation, have to be questioned and reassessed, for they mute voices which contribute to a wider, to the "full", and maybe "real" picture of society.}, language = {en} } @misc{Eckstein2009, author = {Eckstein, Lars}, title = {Transatlantic slavery and the literary imagination}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-59201}, year = {2009}, abstract = {Transatlantic slavery and the literary imagination The challenges of turning transatlantic slavery into literature A polyphony of historical voices: Caryl Phillips's dialogic imagination Literary imagination and the Zong Massacre: Fred D'Aguiar and David Dabydeen Perspectives}, language = {en} } @article{Crane2019, author = {Crane, Kylie Ann}, title = {Anthropocene Presences and the Limits of Deferral}, series = {Open library of humanities}, volume = {5}, journal = {Open library of humanities}, number = {1}, publisher = {Open library of humanities}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {2056-6700}, doi = {10.16995/olh.348}, pages = {24}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Literary criticism, particularly ecocriticism, occupies an uneasy position with regard to activism: reading books (or plays, or poems) seems like a rather leisurely activity to be undertaking if our environment—our planet—is in crisis. And yet, critiquing the narratives that structure worlds and discourses is key to the activities of the (literary) critic in this time of crisis. If this crisis manifests as a 'crisis of imagination' (e.g. Ghosh), I argue that this not so much a crisis of the absence of texts that address the environmental disaster, but rather a failure to comprehend the presences of the Anthropocene in the present. To interpret (literary) texts in this framework must entail acknowledging and scrutinising the extent of the incapacity of the privileged reader to comprehend the crisis as presence and present rather than spatially or temporally remote. The readings of the novels Carpentaria (2006) and The Swan Book (2013) by Waanyi writer Alexis Wright (Australia) trace the uneven presences of Anthropocenes in the present by way of bringing future worlds (The Swan Book) to the contemporary (Carpentaria). In both novels, protagonists must forge survival amongst ruins of the present and future: the depicted worlds, in particular the representations of the disenfranchisement of indigenous inhabitants of the far north of the Australian continent, emerge as a critique of the intersections of capitalist and colonial projects that define modernity and its impact on the global climate.}, language = {en} } @article{Hartung2018, author = {Hartung, Heike}, title = {Longevity narratives}, series = {Journal of aging studie}, volume = {47}, journal = {Journal of aging studie}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {New York}, issn = {0890-4065}, doi = {10.1016/j.jaging.2018.03.002}, pages = {84 -- 89}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The essay looks at longevity narratives as an important configuration of old age, which is closely related to evolutionary theories of ageing. In order to analyse two case studies of longevity published in the early twentieth century, the American psychologist G. Stanley Hall's book Senescence (1922) and the British dramatist Bernard Shaw's play cycle Back to Methuselah (1921), the essay draws on an outline of theories of longevity from the Enlightenment to the present. The analysis of the two case studies illustrates that evolutionary and cultural perspectives on ageing and longevity are ambivalent and problematic. In Hall's and Shaw's texts this is related to a crisis narrative of culture and civilization against which both writers place their specific solutions of individual and species longevity. Whereas Hall employs autobiographical accounts of artists as examples of longevity to strengthen his argument about wise old men as exclusive repositories of knowledge, Shaw in his vision of longevity as an extended form of midlife for both genders encounters the limits of age representation.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Lottes2014, author = {Lottes, G{\"u}nther}, title = {Language and Content}, series = {Perspectives on English revolutionary republicanism}, booktitle = {Perspectives on English revolutionary republicanism}, publisher = {Ashgate}, address = {Farnham}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {53 -- 61}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @misc{Reimer2017, author = {Reimer, Anna Maria}, title = {Pink, Katharina, Identitas Oriens: Discursive Constructions of Identity and Alterity in British Orient Travelogues / [reviewed by] Anna Maria Reimer}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe}, number = {126}, issn = {1866-8380}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-397856}, pages = {3}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Rezensiertes Werk Pink, Katharina, Identitas Oriens: Diskursive Konstruktionen von Identit{\"a}t und Alterit{\"a}t in britischer Orient-Reiseliteratur - W{\"u}rzburg, Ergon Verlag, 2014 337 S. - (Literatur - Kultur - Theorie, 19)}, language = {en} }