Browsing by Author "Layne, Priscilla"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Disruptive Organizers: Wild children in German realism (1850-1900)
    (2020-05) Reif, Margaret
    This dissertation explores the intersection of childhood and wildness within the literary movement of German realism. The latter half of the nineteenth century saw the introduction of mandatory education and the consolidation of the middle-class family, both of which established childhood as a distinct phase. The literary movement of German realism emerged at the same time, with a focus on representing ordinary life and experiences with a particular concentration on bourgeois values and norms.. But many children in the works of this movement prove more fantastical than realistic, more extraordinary than ordinary, and more deviant than safely bourgeois. This study therefore examines how representations of wild children interact with the aesthetics of the average within German realism. Ultimately, this dissertation has two main points: First, depictions of wild children should not be read solely as a means of celebrating the average, middle class reality of the nineteenth-century through a strategy of the literary containment of wild children. Rather, the wild child initiates a redemptive transformation of reality and is a means for introducing that which would otherwise escape representation in realist prose fiction. Second, the frequent appearance of wild children within the literary movement of German realism serves as a rhetorical strategy to depict a changing nineteenth-century reality with regard to education, family, gender, nation and art, as well as a means to question the success of these structures. In order to make these arguments, this dissertation engages with four types of wild children: literary descendants of Goethe’s Mignon, fairytale children, differently abled children associated with the figure of Kaspar Hauser, and criminal children. It also considers the intersection of gender and wildness and the ways in which the language of wildness, culture and civilization have been used in Western literary traditions, particularly in a late-nineteenth-century German context.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Love, Power, and the Sovereign in Female Courtly Biographies of the Habsburg Empire. Venus and her Scepter: Tu Felix Austria
    (2021-04) Kleinhans-Junghahn, Edana
    Before the Austrian Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) cast her spell over the world in the nineteenth century, a company of early modern female sovereigns of the Habsburg Dynasty fascinated their subjects with tales of love, scandal, glory, and power. In their own courtly biographies, the Empress Maria Theresia (1717-1780), and her ancestors Kunigunde of Austria (1465-1520), Margaretha of Savoy (1480-1530), and Johanna of Castile (1479-1555) were commemorated in works which asserted a bold commentary on the inherent essentiality of female power and the ascendancy of the Habsburgs in Europe. Venus and Her Scepter examines portrayals of Habsburg noblewomen between 1500-1800 as heroines of love, marriage, war, and diplomacy and offers one of the first comprehensive investigations of the female courtly biography as a literary and cultural phenomenon. Focusing on the unique ability of this divergent tradition to fuse fiction and historical narratives together, and to envision a world wherein the heroic female sovereign is an active participant in mending broken hearts, restoring reputations, avoiding bloodshed, resolving treaties, and defeating imperial enemies, this study details how the female courtly biography came to the aid of the Habsburgs during key moments of political crisis when the Dynasty stood to lose it all and helped to make a case for a mythology of power through women. Delving into the rich late medieval and early modern holdings of Austrian and German archives and libraries, and reflecting on the role of original manuscripts, lost documents, newspapers, and forgotten scholarship, Venus and Her Scepter sheds light on these sources and their connection with female patronage and authorship. In the process, this study reveals the female courtly biography’s surprisingly positive assessment of women as vital representatives of imperial government and explores how their reigns generated a legacy of Habsburg culture framed by the female perspective.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The Colors of My Skin: The Making of Black German Identity
    (2023) Lhamsuren, Undraa
    To those belonging to the majority white culture in Germany, the concept of someone being both Black and German can seem a contradiction in terms. Due to the way German citizenship laws have historically been tied to blood, and German blood associated with whiteness, Black Germans have always had a hard time being recognized as full-fledged German citizens despite having a German birthplace, citizenship, and socialization. Specifically, this misrecognition as foreigners, i.e., as non-Germans, leads to Black Germans being discriminated against, underrepresented, misrepresented, systematically excluded, and simply ignored in the country they call home. Devoting each chapter to examples of a particular literary genre such as life writing, poems, a play, and a novel, this dissertation explores the ways Black German authors push back against the exclusionary tendencies and practices that they face in the majority culture, fight for equality and recognition of their history and presence and define themselves on their own terms as both Black and German. In my analysis, I use the analytical term melodrama, or the family melodrama in particular which I define as an expressive mode that looks at how racial tensions are expressed in the domestic space. Family melodrama is also a useful analytic tool as it portrays clear moral categories of good vs. evil and focuses on a central character who has been victimized in some way. I demonstrate how employing melodrama allows Black German authors not only to critique racism but also evoke sympathy as well as offer hope for a minority group such as themselves.