Month: November 2012
Peter Handke in America
Friday, December 7th, 6:30 p.m. Deutsches Haus at New York University, 42 Washington Mews New York, NY 10003
Please join the German House in New York City for a discussion with Fatima Naqvi (Rutgers University), Christoph Bartmann (Goethe Institut NYC), Klaus Kastberger (University of Vienna), Heike Polster (University of Memphis), Krishna Winston (Wesleyan University), and Thorsten Carstensen (The Indiana University School of Liberal Arts).
Peter Handke in America is an important theme for understanding the writer’s work. Because of his life-long fascination with America, Handke was among the first German-speaking writers of his generation to present a positive image of the United States against the anti-imperialist aversions of the European 1968-movement. Particularly in his early work, scholars have traced his fascination with writers such as John Ford, Walker Percy (whom he also translated), as well as the blues, New York City, the image of the “Native American” and with the beauty of the American landscape. His 1971 novel Short Letter, Long Farewell makes his fascination with the United States the central motif. Handke also lived in New York (after lengthy travels through Alaska), where in 1979 he wrote his important novel The Long Way Round. In his film Three American LPs, he co-produced with Wim Wenders, many of these themes can also be clearly identified. More information
You can watch some of the discussion on Youtube.
William C. Donahue, “Domesticating the Holocaust: Our Twisted Love Affair with Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader.”
William Donahue, Professor of German and Professor of Literature as well as a member of the Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for European Studies at Duke University, will discuss new research on the reception of the Holocaust for a work in progress and for Holocaust Lite, the recently published German translation of his book Holocaust as Fiction. Bernhard Schlink’s “Nazi” Novels and Their Films. Holocaust in Fiction is “the first scholarly study to probe the ‘Schlink phenomenon’ and to analyze its profound role in coming to terms with the Holocaust. Donahue dissects the seductive, transnational appeal of his work and the ways in which popular culture more generally has contributed to the success of Germany’s normalization campaign” (Todd Samuel Presner).
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 7:30p.m. Downey 113
Sponsored by German Studies and Jewish & Israel Studies
STUDY IN BERLIN
Meet Jochen Wohlfeil, Adjunct Associate Professor of the Practice in German and Resident Director of Duke in Berlin
Jochen Wohlfeil, usually omnipresent in Berlin as Director of Duke University’s academic program there but in residence in Durham this semester, will give a presentation on Duke in Berlin and discuss student life in Germany’s greatest city.
Monday, November 12
4:30p.m – 5:30p.m. in Fisk 210
Hören und Diskutieren
Das German Studies Department lädt ein zu zwei Vorträgen von GRST Majors
Freitag, den 9. November um 14.00 Uhr in Fisk 404
Mari Jarris
“A Contemporary Critique of Metaphysics:
Adorno’s Nietzschean Analysis of Astrology.”
&
Katie Dean
“‘Überfrau’ oder Opfer?
The Liminal Characterization of Women in 19th Century German Drama.”
Die Vorträge sind auf Englisch, die Diskussion auf Deutsch und Englisch.