154 research outputs found
Marion Gymnich (ed.), <i>Who’s Afraid of…? Facets of Fear in Anglophone Literature and Film</i>
No full textReview of Who’s Afraid of…? Facets of Fear in Anglophone Literature and Film edited by Marion Gymnich
The German TV Series Berlin, Berlin
No full textWhen the German TV series Berlin, Berlin was launched with 26 episodes in the spring of 2002, it was quite a sensation because of its innovative use of narrative strategies. The 20 episodes of the second season confirmed that the recurrent and varied use of internal focalization via both the visual track and the soundtrack is one of the hallmarks of this series. The protagonist Lolle’s inner life is presented by means of dream sequences in blurred pictures and animated cartoons, resulting in an insertion of cartoon sequences in the real film in a manner similar to Tom Tykwer’s famous film Run Lola Run (1998). Furthermore, voice-over commentaries and music are used to reveal what is going on in Lolle’s mind. These different techniques of presenting consciousness on screen are not entirely new, but are reminiscent of such series as Ally McBeal. What is remarkable, however, is such an extensive use of these techniques in a German TV series that they are becoming one of its staple features. Critics were full of praise for Berlin, Berlin and welcomed the series because it stood out from the usual uniformity of German daily soaps. The formation of a large number of Berlin, Berlin fan clubs as well as the awarding of the ‘Deutscher Fernsehpreis’ (German Television Award) to Felicitas Woll (Lolle) in the category of best actress in a series (2002) and to the series as a whole in the category of best sitcom (2004) further testify to the great success of Berlin, Berlin. On the international level, the series was even awarded an Emmy in the category of best comedy (2004)
Towards a Narratology of TV Series
No full textAs ‘the principal storyteller in contemporary American society’ (Kozloff 1992: 67) — as well as in many other contemporary societies — television is replete with narrative forms and genres. It is not only ‘the sitcom, the action series, the cartoon, the soap opera, the miniseries, the made-for-TV movie’ (ibid.: 68) that clearly show narrative traits. Even types of programmes which appear to be far less likely as narratives — such as advertisements, music videos or nature documentaries — often tell a story, though these stories admittedly vary considerably in terms of how elaborate they are: A commercial for pain relievers may rely on comparison and argument, or an ad for a car may be abstract and descriptive, but a vast number of advertisements offer a compressed narrative exemplifying the products’ beneficial effects. Music videos often enact the storyline of the song’s lyrics. Nature documentaries tend to follow the story of the animal’s life cycle or of the seasonal progression in a geographical area. (Ibid.: 68–9
Der ‚unbefiederte‘ moderne Dichter: Friedrich Hölderlins Konzepte Erinnerung und Charakter in Homburg 1799
No full textSproll M. Der ‚unbefiederte‘ moderne Dichter: Friedrich Hölderlins Konzepte Erinnerung und Charakter in Homburg 1799. In: Erll A, Gymnich M, Nünning A, eds. Literatur – Erinnerung – Identität. Theoriekonzeptionen und Fallstudien. 1st ed. Trier; 2003: 291-306
Naming Eunuchs in Islamicate Societies
No full textThe variety of words used in Islamicate societies to define different aspects of slavery and dependency in both the pre-modern and the modern period is impressive and largely unexplored. This means that we are also unable to make sense on the one hand of the relevant terminology in different parts of the Islamicate world, and on the other of the ruptures and continuities in declining different forms of slavery over different historical periods.
In order to contribute to this discussion, this article focuses on the case of eunuchs in Islamicate societies, to show how such an approach can help us to better conceptualise the social history of slavery in such societies.
Looking at the variety of words and concepts used to refer to slaves enables us to draw a much more nuanced picture of the slave. Indeed, sources did not always use the same words to refer to slaves: different documents used different terms in relation to different typologies of slaves, but also to define the same typology of slaves.
To reconstruct how eunuchs were named in pre-modern Arabic-speaking Islamicate societies and what this can tell us about their functions, I will look here at three kinds of sources: lexica, manuals of fiqh (jurisprudence) and chronicles that focus on the Fatimid period. With the exception of the lexica, which are partially later sources, the main focus will be on the period from the ninth to the twelfth centuries
<em>Dota 2</em> and <em>League of Legends</em> : Two of the world’s most popular video games, their cultural aspects, their genre and its definition
No full textThis book is a foundational work about the MOBA genre: Its history, genre, game design, cultural aspects, appeal, player & esports culture and mental health implications as well as their publishers’ monetization strategies.
Dota 2 and League of Legends have never been analysed this closely - despite the fact that the two MOBAs League of Legends (Riot 2009) and Dota 2 (VALVE Corporation 2013) are two of the world’s most popular and financially most successful video games of the past decade.
Throughout her analysis, the author extracts all genre defining elements, which could be success factors in the esports world in general, for any genre. The author rejects the existing genre term and takes the reader on a journey in coining a new one. Esports (Electronic Sports - or the competitive culture which built around these games in the past 20 years) plays an important role for the two games’ popularity, wherefore a whole chapter was dedicated to the history and outline of the global esports world. Another chapter gives a very recent and comprehensible overview for the two games’ opportunities and risks for mental health and wellbeing
Clone Families and Zombie Children: The Demise of the Nuclear Family in Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Narratives
No full textAlthough dystopian and postapocalyptic narratives tend to be discussed primarily in terms of their exploration of society, they also prove to be an interesting, so far largely underestimated, context for examining cultural responses to fluctuating discourses on the family. Due to their characteristic range of themes and premises, both dystopian and postapocalyptic narratives may challenge notions of what “normal” family life looks like and what “family” means in the face of changing social realities, legal frameworks and reproductive technologies. The article discusses (re-)interpretations of what families may mean in a number of British and American dystopian and postapocalyptic novels (in particular recent ones) as well as in the successful TV series The Walking Dead
Who’s afraid of...? : Facets of Fear in Anglophone Literature and Film
No full textFear in its many facets appears to constitute an intriguing and compelling subject matter for writers and screenwriters alike. The contributions address fictional representations and explorations of fear in different genres and different periods of literary and cultural history. The topics include representations of political violence and political fear in English Renaissance culture and literature; dramatic representations of fear and anxiety in English Romanticism; the dramatic monologue as an expression of fears in Victorian society; cultural constructions of fear and empathy in George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda (1876) and Jonathan Nasaw’s Fear Itself (2003); facets of children’s fears in twentieth- and twenty-first-century stream-of-consciousness fiction; the representation of fear in war movies; the cultural function of horror film remakes; the expulsion of fear in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go and fear and nostalgia in Mohsin Hamid’s post-9/11 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist
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