Ernest Schonfield

Alfred Döblin: Paradigms of Modernism

Alfred Doblin is one of the most important twentieth-century German writers. This volume reassesses the uniquely interdisciplinary quality of his texts, which are paradigms of the encounter between literary and scientific modernity. It analyses Doblins best-known literary works as well as his medical essays, political journalism and autobiographical texts, and it situates him in relation to other writers such as Heine, Benn, Brecht and Sebald. Wide-ranging and with contributions in English and German, this is a valuable study for students and advanced researchers alike.

Heine and Convivencia: Coexistence in Muslim Spain

‘Convivencia’ refers to the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews during the period of Muslim rule in Spain (711–1492). Like the historian Isaak Markus Jost (1793–1860), Heine formed an idealized image of Muslim Spain in support of his own cultural ambitions. Heine’s identification with Marranos is well documented (Veit). This article considers the depiction of ‘convivencia’ in two texts by Heine, the drama Almansor and the poem ‘Jehuda ben Halevy’. In accordance with Heine’s sources, the chorus of Almansor presents Muslim Spain as a centre of cultural and religious tolerance for modern Europeans to emulate. Three decades later, Heine’s poem ‘Jehuda ben Halevy’ presents a more troubled picture, as two of the three Sephardi poets are murdered. Crucially, though, in Cordoba the murderer is punished. In this way, the poem asserts that the rule of law prevailed in Muslim Spain.

Introduction: European dialogues

Europe is a diverse continent, and the aim of this special issue of Oxford German Studies is to offer a small taste of that diversity. This issue focuses on cultural exchanges between German and European authors/auteurs. It examines a few episodes in literary and cultural history in order to shed light on Germany’s changing relationships with some of its European neighbours including Britain, France, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. A number of these articles originated as research presentations at the School of Modern Language and Cultures at the University of Glasgow over the course of 2014–15. The articles bear witness to just a few of the many dialogues which have shaped European culture. Such dialogues are not only intercultural but also transcultural; indeed, Wolfgang Welsch argues that we should prefer the latter term because it suggests that different cultures can coexist and overlap within the same community. Starting chronologically in the middle ages, James Simpson’s article on Reinhart the fox (otherwise known as Renart, Reynard and Reineke Fuchs) reflects on an exemplary European dialogue, for the beast epic is a tradition shared between Germany and France. It is significant that Heinrich (sometimes known as ‘der Glichezare’), the author of the oldest extant version, was a native of Alsace, a region which symbolizes the history shared between France andGermany.MichaelWood considersWalter Scott’s reception ofGoethe in the 1790s, a key exchange between two national poets at a time when modern European nation states were still in the process of being formed. Given the theme of European dialogues, Heine seems an obvious candidate for inclusion. In a letter to an unnamed friend in Hamburg, published in Unser Planet on 11 April 1833, Heine described himself as ‘der inkarnirte Kosmopolitismus’. Heine’s internationalism even led the British poet Tony Harrison (born

Büchner and Paine on Elitism and Equality

Buchner’s belief in equality and in the value of every human life motivate his constant polemics against elitism. Taking the letter of mid-February 1834 on aristocratic elitism as a starting point, this chapter explores Buchner’s critique of elitism in the fields of politics, morality, aesthetics and history. Particularly relevant is the relentless unmasking of aristocratic, heroic ideology in Danton’s Tod. Close affinities between Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (1791-92) and Dantons Tod suggest that Buchner’s critique of idealist drama in the letter of 28 July 1835 draws in part on Paine’s critique of Edmund Burke. Buchner’s programmatic insistence on human suffering is intended to counter ideological distortions of history.

Linksalternatives Leben: Wohngemeinschaften in Özdamars Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde und ‘Ein unzeitgemäßer Üsküdarer’

Dieser Artikel konzentriert sich auf die Darstellung der Wohn- und Arbeitsgemeinschaften in Ost- und Westberlin in Özdamars Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde, ergänzt mit einer Besprechung der Istanbuler Wohngemeinschaft in dem Prosa-Fragment ‘Ein unzeitgemäßer Üsküdarer’. Die Wohngemeinschaft wird als paradigmatischer Ort der antiautoritären Reformbewegungen der siebziger Jahre betrachtet, als Versuch, die linksalternativen Ideen der Studentenbewegung in die Praxis umzusetzen. Programmatische Formulierungen dieser antiautoritären Lebensversuche befinden sich sowohl beim Dissidenten Rudolf Bahro als auch beim Dichter Ece Ayhan Çağlar. Untersucht werden diese Lebensversuche in Westberlin, in Ostberlin (an der Volksbühne und bei Gabriele Gysi) und in der Türkei bei Ece Ayhan. In Seltsame Sterne und ‘Ein unzeitgemäßer Üsküdarer’ werden Andersartigkeit, Vielfältigkeit und Nebeneinanderwohnen zum poetologischen Programm gestaltet. In diesen Texten hängen Thema und literarische Form miteinander zusammen: Der Topos der Wohngemeinschaft entspricht der Mehrstimmigkeit der Form. Durch die Erzähltechnik der Montage bietet Özdamar eine inklusive Ästhetik des Nebeneinanders.

SATIRE AND LAUGHTER IN HEINE’S DEUTSCHLAND: EIN WINTERMÄRCHEN

Abstract This article explores satire and laughter in ‘Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen’ in order to show how the poem performs its own ambivalence by means of emotional displays. The first section concentrates on Heine’s rejection of an aesthetic of wholeness and his debt to the classical satire of Aristophanes. The second section focuses on the contrast between the poet’s wit and the wit of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, in order to show how the satirical persona is defined in opposition to the king. The third section analyses instances of laughter in the ‘Wintermärchen’ alongside other expressions of affect such as smiling and crying, in order to consider their implications for our understanding of the poem as a whole. Instances of laughter are linked to the idea of revolution, and thus imply the uses and misuses of power.

Brecht and the modern picaresque

This essay analyzes Brechts engagement with the picaresque genre, which derives from his reading of HaSek and Grimmelshausen. Proceeding chronologically, the discussion begins with the subversive cabaret humour of Mann ist Mann (1926), which Brecht rediscovered in a different form when he read HaSeks Svejk in 1927. The poems Aus dem Lesebuch fur Stadtebewohner (1926127) are considered as an example of the transposition of picaresque elements into lyric poetry Brechts involvement with Piscators Schwejk (1927128) is shown to he an important phase in his development of Epic Theatre, since three key features of Epic Theatre - episodic structure, exposition and Verfremdung - have structural affinities with the picaresque genre. The essay concludes with an e examination of the picaresque in the later plays Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder and Schweyk.