The Stacks (Library of Anglo-American Culture & History - FID AAC, Göttingen State and University Library)
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Mudrooroo (1938 – 2019)
No full textThe paper is an attempt to outline Mudrooroo’s take on globalization, based mostly on his texts ‘The Spectral Homelands’, ‘Globalization in Dharamsala, Genoa and Singapore Airport’, and two short stories, ‘How I Tried to Change My Name’ and ‘School Boy Hero’, set in and around Dharamsala. Written immediately after having witnessed the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, where the globalized institutional power replied to the democratic contestation of concerned citizens with a massive display of violence, Mudrooroo’s texts envisage two versions of globalization, represented by Singapore Airport on the one hand and the northern Indian city of Dharamsala on the other. While the airport appears as a global marketplace where local content and culture are ‘submerged’, granted only a token presence, the capital-in-exile of Tibetan Buddhism features a global dimension still founded on local roots. Following Derrida, Mudrooroo emphasizes the airport as pure spectacle while the provincial city is described as ‘spectral’: here, “certain underground forces” are still attempting to “humanize globalization”, to render it “homely”. In the paper, I argue that Mudrooroo’s conceptualization of two versions of globalization is politically useful to analyze the events of the following decades which, after 9/11, produced the wars of the 21st century
Church Authority Structures, Denominational Responses, and the Stances of the Affiliated
No full textWith religion serving an important role in shaping individuals’ stances on moral issues, the question of how religion impacts major social and political issues is of undeniable consequence. This paper explores both the response of Christian denominations in the USA to the evolving social dialog on abortion and the stances of affiliated members in relation to those denominational stances. For the first aspect, the organizational and authority structures of the denominations in question were examined to see if they play a role in how denominations responded to this social issue. For the second aspect, General Social Survey data were used to examine the general stances on abortion of the religiously affiliated belonging to specific polities over the past half-century. Polities were selected due to their similar organizational structures, as this granted insight into possible organizational influence at the individual level. This research highlights both the dissimilarities between similarly structured religious organizations and the general mindsets of the congregations on abortion as well as how the varying organizational structures in question exhibit inherent differences between one another yet have relative stability in their positions on abortion over time.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V. (3447
English in Germany as a Foreign Language and as a Lingua Franca
No full textThe massive expansion of English in Germany over the past few decades has not challenged a robustly exonormative orientation, which still by and large recognises standardised British and American English as the most authentic and prestigious representations of the language. Attitudes to the use of English in the national context are diverse, ranging from enthusiastic embracement via grudging acceptance to active resistance. This diversity of opinion reflects the fact that English is currently transitioning from a foreign language (EFL) to a lingua franca (ELF). On the national scale, ELF use is promoted in business, academia and, more generally, among young and well‐educated Germans with an international orientation, but deeply resented by sectors of society. This paper argues that English (in its lingua franca function) has become the only language other than German that has open prestige. The task ahead will be to develop strategies of intelligent multilingualism that will help to ‘domesticate’ English in the national sociolinguistic context.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/50110000165
Scribal Relics and the Authorial Body
No full textOver the course of the nineteenth century, literary manuscripts came to be seen as tangible evidence of the creative process and as a key to the personality of the author. The material traces of writing were understood to outlive their creators and promise to resurrect the authorial body through the magic of the relic. This article reconstructs how authorial script gradually transformed into a collectible object pursued as a memento and a commodity. Letters, drafts, and fair copies by major modern writers found their way into the collections of British aristocrats and American industrialists at the same time that hunting for literary autographs diversified into a middle‐class pursuit. Surveying recent scholarship on nineteenth‐century collecting and material culture, the essay offers a condensed cultural history of the literary manuscript as a collectible and draws attention to how collectors and collecting feature in fictional texts of the period. It focuses on the artefactual mobility and custodial afterlives of Romantic papers in Victorian literature and culture, exploring a form of collecting which crossed boundaries between periods and national literary traditions
Religiöse Motive und Geschlechterkonzepte in der 'Edelsteintrilogie' von Kerstin Gier und David Levithans 'Day'-Trilogie
No full textIn den fantastischen Jugendbuchbänden der Edelsteintrilogie von Kerstin Gier und der Day-Trilogie von David Levithan verfügen die Protagonist:innen über transzendente Erfahrungen, Fähigkeiten oder Wesenszüge. Die in diesem Zusammenhang rezipierten religiösen Motive, Strukturen und Funktionen werden in der vorliegenden Analyse in Verbindung zur Darstellung der Geschlechter erörtert. Hierbei steht die Frage im Fokus, ob innerhalb der Trilogien eine Korrelation zwischen fantastisch-religiösen Transzendenzentwürfen und alternativen Konventionen transzendierenden Geschlechterkonzeptionen festgestellt werden kann.In the fantastic books for young adults from both the Ruby Red Trilogy by Kerstin Gier and the Day Trilogy by David Levithan, the protagonists have transcendent experiences, abilities or character traits. The religious motifs, structures and functions received in this context are discussed in this analysis in connection with the representation of gender. The focus lies on the question whether a correlation can be established within the trilogies between fantastic religious concepts of transcendence and alternative gender concepts that transcend conventions
A Comparison Based on Dining Scenes
No full textThis article offers a comparative analysis of the aesthetic functions of photos vs. drawings in baby books. Baby books are understood as books for children between 0 and 3 years of age. Since the development of food intake and eating behavior is very important at this age, appropriate pictures of dining scenes can be found in many baby books. This article compares picturebooks for babies that show dining scenes, with two photo books, Trine kan… (1955) and Se hvad vi kan! (1964), and two baby books with drawings, The Picturebook for BABY (1950) and I See (1985). The null hypothesis is that photos tend more towards documentary, authentic, and objective representation, while drawings emphasize a stereotypical, expressive, and subjective perspective. Important intermittent factors are the concept of portraiture, expressed cuteness, and the position on a scale from avant-garde to kitsch. The analysis of the images and the accompanying texts (including the peritexts) shows that the representation of babies is subject to historical changes, which is related to different constructions of what it means to be a baby. In particular, the orientation towards parental or pedagogical ideals influences the respective representations.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (1030
Frequently Asked Questions
No full textDas Konzept der Normdaten bietet den Geisteswissenschaften ein großes Potential und ist in den letzten Jahren ein wichtiges Arbeitsinstrument für sie geworden. Normdaten sind überall dort nützlich, wo eindeutige Identifizierbarkeit erforderlich ist (u. a. bei Editionen, Bibliographien, Wörterbüchern) oder automatischer Datenaustausch zwischen unabhängigen Projekten angestrebt wird. Dieser Beitrag richtet sich aber nicht nur an Mitarbeitende in Datenbank-Projekten, sondern auch an LeserInnen außerhalb der Digital Humanities; er will dafür sensibilisieren, welchen Nutzen es bringt, wenn WissenschaftlerInnen Normdaten in ihre Arbeit einbeziehen. Geboten werden Informationen zum Aufbau und Zweck von Normdaten allgemein sowie zum Umgang mit ihnen; mit der Gemeinsamen Normdatei (GND) wird eine im deutschsprachigen Raum viel genutzte Normdatei vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus wird erklärt, wie die Daten der GND für eigene Forschungsvorhaben nachgenutzt werden können und unter welchen Umständen die Forschung die GND aktiv bearbeiten kann.The concept authority control offers great potential for the humanities and has become an important tool in recent years. Authority control is useful when unique identifiability is required (e.g. in editions, bibliographies or dictionaries) or automatic data exchange between independent projects is desired. This article is aimed not only at those working on database projects but also at readers outside the Digital Humanities. It aims to raise awareness of the means by which scholars can benefit while incorporating authority files into their work. The paper provides information on the structure and purpose of authority control in general as well as on how to use it. It introduces the Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND), an authority file widely used in German-speaking area. This contribution also explains how the GND data can be used for research projects as well as the circumstances under which researchers can actively change the GND.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.Philipps-Universität Marburg (1009
An Ecocritical Perspective on the Representation of Religion in Twenty-First Century British Animal Fantasies
No full textTwenty-first century “animal fantasies” often employ literary animal religions as a vehicle to transmit green ideologies. Yet, in conflating essentialist religious systems and the universally “natural”, such stories build static worlds based on dualistic natural/unnatural paradigms. In an ecocritical reading of a selection of contemporary British animal fantasies, this paper will argue that, despite deliberate efforts at political correctness in the green cause, most representations of animal religion in twenty-first century British animal fantasies do little to help tackle the central ecological issues of our time, or are even counter-productive to environmental literacy.In den phantastischen Tiergeschichten des einundzwanzigsten Jahrhunderts werden häufig literarische Tierreligionen als Vehikel zur Vermittlung grüner Ideologien genutzt. Durch die Verquickung von essentialistischen religiösen Systemen und dem universell „Natürlichen“ bauen solche Geschichten jedoch statische Welten auf, die auf dualistischen natürlich/unnatürlich Paradigmen basieren. In einer ökokritischen Lektüre einer Auswahl zeitgenössischer britischer phantastischer Tiergeschichten wird in diesem Beitrag argumentiert, dass die meisten Darstellungen von Tierreligion in entsprechenden Werken des 21. Jahrhunderts trotz bewusster Bemühungen um politische Korrektheit im Sinne der grünen Bewegung wenig dazu beitragen, die zentralen ökologischen Fragen unserer Zeit anzugehen, oder sogar kontraproduktiv für die Umweltkompetenz sind
