The Quest For Christa T

Christa is a young girl in Hitler's Germany; she survives to embrace the new order but her idealism withers as crass materialists corrode its dream. Her story is the story of a whole generation, and a celebration of the unique value of each human being and all human life..

This title was first published in 2002: This study of the poetics of the Romantic K nstlerinroman (female artist novel) brings to the foreground its salient metafictional discourse on the aesthetics of the sublime, ever since its beginnings in Madame de Sta l's "Corinne ou L'Italie". The book presents detailed readings of H.D.'s "Palimpsest", Christa Wolf's "Nachdenken ber Christa T." and Marguerite Duras' "L'Amant" in a dialogue with Kant, Freud, Lacan, Cixous, Derrida and other philosophers, theorists, literary critics and writers. Each novel is explored in terms of its generic affiliations, its reflections on the role of literature and the writer in society and its aesthetic discourse on the sublime. The book stages an inquiry into the relation between genre, the sublime, gender and literary history from which emerge insights into the conditions of subjectivity underlying the experience and communication of the sublime..

At a time when the memoir has never been more popular, Memory and Narrative presents an account of how the weave of life-writing has altered over time to arrive at its present form. James Olney, tells the story of an evolving literary form that originated in the autobiographical writings of St. Augustine, underwent profound and disruptive changes in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's life-writing trilogy, and found its momentary conclusion in the body of Samuel Beckett's work. Among other issues, Olney considers the rejection of the pronoun "I" by many post-Rousseau writers; the uses of narrative in the works of Beckett, Franz Kafka, and the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, and the role of literary memory in light of recent "memory work" from a variety of scientific disciplines. Giambattista Vico, Henry Adams, Gertrude Stein, Richard Wright, and Christa Wolf are some of the many writers examined in this monumental study..

The articles in Women in German Yearbook 7 demonstrate the breadth and originality of feminist scholarship in German studies. Contributors draw on recent theoretical work in literary criticism, sociology, philosophy, and psychology in analyses of works from the Baroque Age to the present. Myra Love confronts the paranormal, a hitherto unexplored aspect of Christa Wolf's writings. Mother figures in the novels of Ingeborg Drewitz are analyzed by Monika Shafi in the light of recent feminist work on mothering. In a study of Baroque writers, Ute Brandes begins to document women's influence on a developing bourgeois public sphere before the Age of Reason. Kay Goodman translates into English and introduces a letter by Bettina von Arnim that underscores von Arnim's appeal to contemporary feminists. In concluding essays British scholar Ricarda Schmidt surveys recent trends in German feminist criticism. Sarah Lennox draws on her experience as an American Germanist to suggest directions for meaningful, socially engaged feminist scholarship. In response to the rapid unification of Germany a special section of the volume is devoted to the literature and society of the former German Democratic Republic after the Wende (turning point). It includes original pieces by prize-winning writers Helga K”nigsdorf, Angela Krauss, and Waldtraut Lewin, as well as critical articles by literary scholar Eva Kaufmann and sociologist Irene D”lling--all from the former GDR. Dinah Dodds contributes an interview with writer Helga Sch_tz and Gisela Bahr shares excerpts from her diary of winter 1989-1990 in Berlin. Concluding the volume, Dorothy Rosenberg evaluates works on women in the former GDR published since the fall of the Berlin wall..

The author should not disappear into her own work, says Christa Wolf, but should stand up and be counted. In this series of interviews and conversations spanning more than a decade, Christ Wolf does precisely that. Here, one of the greatest contemporary novelists discusses the origins of an inspirations for her best known works. Often taking as her starting point events from the past, her novels, she explains, remain fictions of the present, whether her concern is to reassess the experiences of growing up in Nazi Germany, as in A Model Childhood, or to attempt to trace the roots of the contradictions in which our civilisation is now trapped, as in Cassandra. These conversations, however, take her far beyond the purely literary. She talks openly about what it means to be both a writer and a woman in East Germany today, and concludes that literature is no longer territorially defined. We are not so much divided by boundaries between East and West as united in our common experience of highly organized patriarchal society, she says, which has brought us to ‘the verge of annihilation’. It is the author’s voice, according to Christa Wolf, which provides ‘the fourth dimension’ of modern prose. In these pages her own voice emerges more loudly and clearly than ever..

Arnim, Bettina von ; Hugo, Adèle ; Wolf, Christa ; Mill, John Stuart ; Thackeray Ritchie, Anne ; Shortridge Foltz, Clara..

This is the first book to describe German literary history up to the unification of Germany in 1990. It takes a fresh look at the main authors and movements, and also asks what Germans in a given period were actually reading and writing, what they would have seen at the local theatre or found in the local lending library; it includes, for example, discussions of literature in Latin as well as in German, eighteenth-century letters and popular novels, Nazi literature and radio plays, and modern Swiss and Austrian literature. A new prominence is given to writing by women. Contributors, all leading scholars in their field, have re-examined standard judgements in writing a history for our own times. The book is designed for the general reader as well as the advanced student: titles and quotations are translated, and there is a comprehensive bibliography..

Reconsideration of the phenomenon of narcissism in the works of a number of important German writers. This important collection of essays opens new pyschological perspectives on writers such as Tieck, Goethe, Freud, Thomas Mann, Heidegger and Thomas Bernhard. Psychological approaches to literature have grown rapidly in the last few decades, new developments in literary psychoanalysis mirroring the reassessment of Freud in the psychoanalytic community; particularly important revisions have come both from the Lacanian school, and from the field of object relations and self-psychology. The latter studies narcissism not only as a pathological condition, but as a healthy and universal aspect of all psychological reality. Theorists such as Heinz Kohut have also suggested that the transformations of narcissism can be healthy and may contribute to the development of wisdom, humour and creativity. The articles in this volume consider the phenomenon of narcissism across a wide range of works, several reflecting the current re-evaluations of narcissism as a counter-challenge to Freudian thought and attitudes..

Women in German Yearbook is a refereed publication that presents a wide range of feminist approaches to all aspects of German literary, cultural, and language studies, including pedagogy. Each issue contains critical studies on the work, history, life, literature, and arts of women in the German-speaking world, reflecting the interdisciplinary perspectives that inform feminist German studies..

Analyzes East German feminism for an American audience through an exploration of their women writers..

Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels achieved stunning global success in part because of the mystery surrounding their pseudonymous author. English-speaking readers were tantalized by her enigmatic biography as well as what they took to be her authentic portrayal of working-class Naples. However, we now know that the person behind the writing is most likely Anita Raja, a prominent translator of German literature whose background is very different from Ferrante’s supposed life. In Finding Ferrante, Alessia Ricciardi revisits questions about Ferrante’s identity to show how the problem of authorship is deeply intertwined with the novels’ literary ambition and politics. Going beyond the local and national cultures of Naples and Italy, Ricciardi reads Ferrante’s fiction as world literature, foregrounding Raja’s work as a translator. She examines the novels’ engagement with German literature and criticism, particularly Goethe, Walter Benjamin, and Christa Wolf, while also tracing the influence of Italian thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, Carla Lonzi, and the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective. Considering central questions of sexuality, work, politics, and place, Ricciardi demonstrates how intertextual resonances reshape our understanding of Lila and Elena, the protagonists of the Neapolitan Quartet, as well as the characters and language of Ferrante’s other books. This bold reconsideration of one of today’s most acclaimed authors reveals Ferrante’s works as fiercely intellectual, showing their deep concern with feminist and cultural politics and the ethical and political stakes of literature..

This book, the first in-depth study of authorship in translation, explores how authorial identity is ‘translated’ in the literary text. In a detailed exploration of the writing of East German author Christa Wolf in English translation, it examines how the work of translators, publishers, readers and reviewers reframes the writer’s identity for a new reading public. This detailed study of Wolf, an author with a complex and contested public profile, intervenes in wide-ranging contemporary debates on globalised literary culture by examining how the fragmented identity of the ‘international’ author is contested by different stakeholders in the construction of a world literature. The book is interdisciplinary in its approach, representing new work in Translation Studies and German Studies that is also of interest and relevance to scholars of literature in other languages..

Self-indictment -- The language of the turning point -- Momentary interruption -- A German you can contradict : Hans Mayer -- Whatever happened to your smile? Wasteland Berlin 1990 -- Rummelplatz, the eleventh plenum of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party, 1965 : a report from memory -- Two letters : I. To an Academy ; II. To Wolfgang Thierse -- "The truth of our tongues" : the stories of Grace Paley -- Woserin, Friday, September 27, 1991 -- Cancer and society -- The leftover baggage of German history : correspondence with Jurgen Habermas -- Trial by nail. (Cont'd) On the road to Tabou : Paul Parin -- Clinical findings -- The multiple being inside us : correspondence with Efim Etkind -- Mood fit -- Caught talking : Otl Aicher -- The faces of Anna Seghers : a picture book -- Santa Monica, Sunday, September 27, 1992 -- "Free, ordered, inconsolable" : to Heinrich Boll on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday -- Hours of weakness, hours of strength : correspondence with Gunter Grass -- One's own contradictory life : Volker and Anne Braun to Christa Wolf -- Reply to a letter from Volker Braun -- Berlin, Monday, September 17, 1993 -- Insisting on myself : Christa Wolf in conversation with Gunter Gaus -- The symbols of Nuria Quevedo -- Parting from phantoms : on Germany..

Elena Ferrante--named one of the 100 most influential people in 2016 by Time magazine--is best known for her Neapolitan novels, which explore such themes as the complexity of female friendship; the joys and constraints of motherhood; the impact of changing gender roles; the pervasiveness of male violence; the struggle for upward mobility; and the impact of the feminist movement. Ferrante's three novellas encompass similar themes, focusing on moments of extreme tension in women's lives. This study analyzes the integration of political themes and feminist theory in Ferrante's works, including men's entrapment in a sexist script written for them from time immemorial. Her decision to write under a pseudonym is examined, along with speculation that Rome-based translator Anita Raja and her husband Domenico Starnone are coauthors of Ferrante's books..

Auteurs and Authorship: A Film Reader offers students an introductory and comprehensive view of perhaps the most central concept in film studies. This unique anthology addresses the aesthetic and historical debates surrounding auteurship while providing author criticism and analysis in practice. Examines a number of mainstream and established directors, including John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Douglas Sirk, Frank Capra, Kathryn Bigelow, and Spike Lee Features historically important, foundational texts as well as contemporary pieces Includes numerous student features, such as a general editor’s introduction, short prefaces to each of the sections, bibliography, alternative tables of contents, and boxed features Each essay deliberately focuses across film makers’ oeuvres, rather than on one specific film, to enable lecturers to have flexibility in constructing their syllabi.

"[The Woman at the Keyhole is one] of the most significant contributions to feminist film theory sin ce the 1970s." -- SubStance "... this intelligent, eminently readable volume puts women's filmmaking on the main stage.... serves at once as introduction and original contribution to the debates structuring the field. Erudite but never obscure, effectively argued but not polemical, The Woman at the Keyhole should prove to be a valuable text for courses on women and cinema." -- The Independent When we imagine a "woman" and a "keyhole," it is usually a woman on the other side of the keyhole, as the proverbial object of the look, that comes to mind. In this work the author is not necessarily reversing the conventional image, but rather asking what happens when women are situated on both sides of the keyhole. In all of the films discussed, the threshold between subject and object, between inside and outside, between virtually all opposing pairs, is a central figure for the reinvention of cinematic narrative..

Memory Matters juxtaposes in tripartite structure texts by a child of German bystanders (Wolf), an Austrian-Jewish child-survivor (Klüger), a daughter of Jewish émigrés (Honigmann), a daughter of an officer involved in the German resistance (Bruhns), a granddaughter of a baptized Polish Jew (Maron), and a granddaughter of German refuges from East Prussia (Dückers). Placed outside of the distorting victim-perpetrator, Jewish-German, man-woman, and war-postwar binary, it becomes visible that the texts neither complete nor contradict each other, but respond to one another by means of inspiration, reverberation, refraction, incongruity, and ambiguity. Focusing on genealogies of women, the book delineates a different cultural memory than the counting of (male-inflected) generations and a male-dominated Holocaust and postwar literature canon. It examines intergenerational conflicts and the negotiation of memories against the backdrop of a complicated mother-daughter relationship that follows unpredictable patterns and provokes both discord and empathy. Schaumann’s approach questions the assumption that German-gentile and German-Jewish postwar experiences are necessarily diametrically opposed (i.e. respond to a “negative symbiosis”) and uncovers intersections and continuities in addition to conflicts..