Colloquium Speakers and Presentation Abstracts
Andrea Dortmann teaches German on the college level at New York University where she also directs the German Language Programs (in New York and at NYU in Berlin). She translates primarily scholarly work from English to German. In 2008 she received the NYU “Golden Dozen Teaching Award” for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Email: andrea.dortmann@nyu.edu
“Involving the 5 Cs in Teaching Translation” explores the various ways how a translation course for post-intermediate students of German transitions between culture, communities, communication, connections, and comparisons. While the course is mostly inter-linguistic in nature (German to English), it is also based on a broad inter-semiotic and intra-linguistic notion of translation which allows for a facetted encounter with heterogeneous materials and projects.
Annemarie Fischer is a completing a Ph.D. at Binghamton University, where she also teaches German language and culture. She earned an M.A. in Political Science from Binghamton and an M.A. in German, Journalism and Eastern European Sciences from the University of Leipzig. Her research interests include transnational writing, global media and communication, and popular culture. Her dissertation explores the pathways and dead-ends of global news. Email: afische6@binghamton.edu
“The Cinematic Logo-Code in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009)” examines how Quentin Tarantino’s film explores novel cinematic logo-codes. This international collaboration works through an art of storytelling that transgresses the realms of history and with actors who master a multitude of language codes. The production exceeds the proto-typical “Nazi narrative” and thus creates a novel breed of transnational reels.
Brenda Keiser is an Associate Professor of German in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA. Her research interests include fin-de-siècle Viennese and modern Austrian literature. Email: bkeiser@bloomu.edu
“Transformation and Old Age in Felix Mitterer’s Der Panther”: Felix Mitterer’s play Der Panther addresses what Mitterer considers to be an important topic in contemporary Austrian society: the growth of the elderly population and the multiplicity of problems this demographic change brings with it. In the course of this play, an elderly couple suffering from dementia briefly remembers their life and love. This brings about a transformation in their minds and for a short moment they experience the happiness of being together again.
Cynthia A. Klima is Associate Professor of German, Slavic and Humanities at SUNY-Geneseo, where she also directs the Prague and Vienna Humanities Summer Study Abroad program. She received her Ph.D. in German (with a Slavic minor) in from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has translated German and Czech works into English and has authored many articles on Jewish literature in the Czech lands as well as on Holocaust literature. She teaches German and Russian as well as Central European cultural history and humanities courses. She is currently working on interwar German and Jewish theater in Prague. Email: klima@geneseo.edu
“Questions of Identity and History in Norbert Gstrein’s Novel Das Register” will discuss questions of identity and the meaning of history in Das Register, a work that represents the questions that the younger generation of authors are placing today concerning Austria’s role in history and its role in World War II. It is also a novel that tackles some very complicated psychological and political issues that the nation is currently facing. Where do the country and its citizens fit into the historical context of World War II? What defines “Austrian?” and “How is “Austrian” separate from “German?” These are just some of the questions I will attempt to answer during the course of this paper.
Ingeborg Majer-O'Sickey teaches German Studies at Binghamton University. Areas of scholarship are German film (from Weimar through the New German Cinema) and contemporary feminist film theory. Her publications include Triangulated Visions (with Ingeborg von Zadow) and Riefenstahl Screened. An Anthology of New Criticism (with Neil Christian Pages and Mary Rhiel, 2008), as well as numerous articles on German film (Percy Adlon, R.W. Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, and Tom Tykwer). Email: imos@binghamton.edu
“Topographical and Generational Shifts in Turkish-German Film”: Deniz Göttürk (1999) argues that contemporary Turkish German filmmakers (among these Buket Alakus, Fatih Akın, Thomas Arslan, Aysum Bedemsoy, Seyhan Derin and Ayşe Polat) gave rise to a paradigm shift from an earlier “cinema of duty” to a contemporary cinema that represents the “pleasures of hybridity.” In this presentation, I will argue that a new cinematic grammar–one driven by digital technology – played a decisive role in shifting Turkish German filmmakers’ preoccupation with duty to one concerned with hybridity. I take Fatih Akin’s 2004 Gegen die Wand/Head On as my example and analyze layerings of image with sound (languages, dialects, music) in order to demonstrate that a new cinematic grammar was central in recalibrating Turkish-German cinema from a status as “minority cinema” and “heritage cinema” and into a postnational and transnational cinema that negotiates political and cultural space in an entirely different way.
Kathleen McKenna earned a JD/MSFS degree from Georgetown University. She is currently the chair of the Criminal Justice department at Broome Community College. She has also worked as the College's Affirmative Action Officer. Her passion for German was sparked while living in the Erlangen area from 1989-1992, and has been reignited over the past couple of years while attending German classes at Binghamton University. Email: mckenna_k@sunybroome.edu
“Thirty Years of Rolf Zuckowski’s Children’s Music”: While Zuckowski’s music tends, in general terms, to reinforce children’s self-esteem, he is less effective at teaching them about diversity. While his messages have evolved somewhat over his thirty-year career, his work often reinforces stereotypes. In addition to reinforcing stereotypes directly, this presentation will argue that he does so indirectly by failing to write songs about topics such as religious diversity and diversity in sexual orientation.
Imke Meyer earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She is Professor and Co-Chair of the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Bi-College Department of German, where she teaches courses on German and Austrian literature and film. She has published on authors and filmmakers such as Tieck, Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Andrian, Kafka, Bachmann, Jelinek, Haneke, and Albert. Her new monograph on masculinity and melodrama in the prose fiction of Schnitzler is forthcoming in 2010. Email: ixmeyer@brynmawr.edu
“Impossible Journeys: Werner Herzog’s Stroszek”: Herzog’s Stroszek interrogates German projections of freedom and economic opportunity onto the space that is America. The film grapples with the clash between imaginary maps and real places, between nostalgic image and reality, between the hope for a utopian future and the disillusionment caused by a dystopian present. Stroszek chronicles the failed attempt of its protagonist to gain access to a national space imagined to be Germany’s Other.
Neil Christian Pages teaches at Binghamton University. His research interests include Austrian, German and Scandinavian cultural productions, commemorative practices, translation and the history of criticism. Publications include essays on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Georg Brandes, W.G. Sebald, Adalbert Stifter, on Rachel Whiteread’s Shoah memorial in Vienna and Michael Haneke’s film Caché. He is co-editor (with Mary Rhiel and Ingeborg Majer-O’Sickey) of Riefenstahl Screened: An Anthology of New Criticism. Email: npages@binghamton.edu
“In&Out in GDR Cinema: Gerhard Klein’s Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser (1957) and Heiner Carow’s Coming Out (1989)” examines the manner in which these two films, immensely popular at the time of their premieres and enjoying a kind of cult status today, work to construct and deconstruct images of “outsiders” within a paradigm that makes normative claims to universality. Reading how their images function simultaneously as a means of incorporation into Socialist conceptions of the individual and as expressions of a desire for an identity outside of that framework, I will argue that there is something a little bit queer about the strategies of representation in both films, something that fails to make the transition from “ich” to “wir” and back again.
Sarah Schackert is the DAAD Language Assistant in the German Studies Program at Binghamton University where she teaches beginning and intermediate German courses. She completed her M.A. in German Literature, German as a Foreign Language, Education and Ethics from the Philipps-Universität in Marburg. She is now also at work on a doctoral dissertation that examines the psychological and social dimensions of female aggression and violence. Email: sschacke@binghamton.edu
“Liebeskonzepte in Feridun Zaimoglus Roman Liebesbrand”:
Der Roman Liebesbrand (2008) stellt einen Übergang im Werk des deutsch-türkischen Autors Feridun Zaimoglu dar: Weg von der rauen Sprache und den gesellschafts- und kulturkritischen Inhalten des Frühwerks, hin zur Suche nach Erfüllung und Erlösung und den Schwierigkeiten des Zueinanderfindens in der Tradition der deutschen Romantik.
Gerd K. Schneider is Professor emeritus of German at Syracuse University, where he currently teaches a course on German culture. In addition to his many professional and service positions, he has served on the executive committees of the AATG, NYSAFLT and ACTFL. Publications include works on Nietzsche, Schnitzler, Turrini, Mitgutsch. Stefan Zweig, Wellershoff, Dorst and Dürrenmatt. His recently completed book, Die Facetten des Alters. Annotierte interdisziplinäre Bibliografie zur modernen Gerontologie im deutschenSsptachraum mit Textauszügen. Unter Berücksichtigung der amerikanischen Forschung, will be published this year by Praesens Verlag in Vienna. Email: gkschnei@syr.edu
“Demografische Transformation: Von der Alterspyramide zum Alterspilz – Bevölkerungsschwammerl in Deutschland und Österreich” explores the research and implications of demographic changes in Germany and Austria.
Karl Ivan Solibakke is Associate Professor in Modern German Literature and Culture at Syracuse University, where he is completing two volumes on cultural memory in visual and textual media. In addition to his monograph on Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard, he has also edited volumes and published articles on Benjamin, Jelinek, Heine, Uwe Johnson, Goethe, Schiller, Kafka, and Gustav Mahler. General Manager of the International Walter Benjamin Society from 2002 to 2009, he is co-editor of the society's publication series, Benjamin Blätter. Recently, Solibakke was appointed Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in Syracuse. Email: ksolibak@syr.edu
“Medien und moderne Erinnerungskulturen: Das kulturelle Gedächtnis in Heinrich Heines Lutetia”: Heinrich Heine hat das Buch Lutetia zwischen 1852 und 1854 aus den Korrespondenzen zusammengestellt, die er zehn Jahre früher für die Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung konzipiert hatte. In ihnen ist das kulturelle Gedächtnis einer neuen sozialen Ordnung beschrieben, in der unter den Bedingungen der freien Marktwirtschaft die Dynamik der Ökonomie die politische Herrschaft längst ausgehebelt hat. Zu seinem Entsetzen erkennt Heine, daß eine Kultur, die einzig die Vermehrung des Kapitals als ihr oberstes Prinzip anerkennt, nicht eine vorübergehende Erscheinung der Restaurationsepoche ist, sondern daß sie den Übergang zur gesellschaftlichen Moderne verwirklicht.
Oliver C. Speck teaches Film Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of World Studies. His 2010 book, Funny Frames: The Filmic Concepts of Michael Haneke, explores how a political thinking manifests itself in the oeuvre of the Austrian director, suggesting that the constant shifting of frames of reference in his films is needed to open up ethical perspectives. Currently, Dr. Speck is also co-editing a volume on New Austrian Film (with Robert von Dassanowsky), scheduled to appear in 2010. Email: ocspeck@vcu.edu
“Fassbinder’s Failings”: Fassbinder understands that a character’s struggle against the very forces that shape his identity must necessarily lead to self-destruction, because such biopolitical forces are bound to the body. His characters struggle against the essentializing forces of identity politics, forces that directly link bodies to politics, gender identity being only one facet in the whole array of (social) identity-conflicts. For example, the becoming-woman of Erwin/Elvira in A Year With Thirteen Moons is always blocked by sexual and racial politics. But what could be done against the reifying forces of post-modernity?
Karina von Tippelskirch teaches German Studies at Syracuse University. She studied German and Yiddish language and literature and Cultural Anthropology in Marburg and Frankfurt am Main. Her fields of specialization include exile literature, German-Jewish and Yiddish literature and transnational literatures. Email: kvontipp@syr.edu
“Dorothy Thompson and her Central European Friends: Exile as Transition” presents Dorothy Thompson’s work and life in the light of transnationalism: how the friendships she forged in Europe worked in both ways: changing first herself, later her friends in exile, and further on how these transitions had an immense impact on European wartime and post-war politics.
Susan Wagner comes to Binghamton from the University of Leipzig, where she is pursuing a degree in Deutsch als Fremdsprache, English and African Studies. She is writing her master’s thesis on drama pedagogy in German-language teaching. At Binghamton University she is teaching courses in German Conversation, working with the German Club and developing a theatre workshop based on her Master’s Thesis project. Email: swagner@binghamton.edu
“The ‘Germanness’ of ‘Tokio Hotel’” explores the global appeal and the local “Germanness” of this teen pop boy band phenomenon, which is now enjoying international success with its German lyrics and its emulation of recognizable appropriation of Manga cult, Street Culture, and Brit Pop. The presentation will show how this pop-culture phenomenon can be integrated into the DaF/German language classroom.
Hülya Yilmaz teaches and conducts research at the Pennsylvania State University on Turkish-German literature, Islam in Germany, Islamic mysticism in German literature and culture and gender and identity in German mainstream and migrant writings. She is currently preparing an essay on Orhan Pamuk for publication and will present a paper, “Alternative Turkish Contexts in Contemporary German Literature and Film,” at The New Europe at the Crossroads international conference in summer. Email: HNU1@psu.edu
“The Imagined Exile: Orhan Pamuk in His Novel Snow” aims to examine the author’s endeavor in this work “to test the lines that mark off that ‘other’ and in so doing alter the boundaries of [his] own identities (Pamuk, “In Kars and Frankfurt”). Edward Said’s theory on metaphorical exile and Michael Bakhtin’ theory on novel, specifically on polyphony and intertextuality, serve as the theoretical framework for this investigation into Pamuk’s writing.
Harald Zils (Dr. phil. Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg) teaches German Studies at Binghamton University, one of two DAAD-Lektoren in the United States. His research interests include anthropological perspectives on literature, the German essay during the Kaiserreich and aesthetic theories of production and reception. He is a founding editor of Neues Curriculum, a journal for best practices in higher education German studies. His Tradition und Autonomie. Innovativer Konservatismus bei Rudolf Borchardt, Harold Bloom und Botho Strauß appeared in 2009. Email: hzils@binghamton.edu
“After the Camp: Edmund Goldenberg‘s Journey”: Before Edmund Goldenberg became a family physician in Binghamton, he was a prisoner in the Ebensee concentration camp, and later an inhabitant of the overcrowded refugee camp that was established there. For years he had been spared from death by providing medical services to those who were ordered to die. This paper examines the prose sketches Goldenberg wrote in the years between 1947 and 1949, just before he came to the United States. These texts are emblematic for a mind trying to re-establish its life.
Keynote Speaker and Workshop Leader: Claus Altmayer, University of Leipzig KEYNOTE |  |
“Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung im Kontext von Deutsch als Fremdsprache und German Studies. Thematische, theoretische und forschungspraktische Übergänge”
Der Vortrag soll – ausgehend von den fachlichen Diskursen und den praktischen Herausforderungen des Faches Deutsch als Fremdsprache – die begrifflich-theoretischen und forschungspraktischen Konzepte einer spezifisch kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschung (und Lehre) vor- und zur Diskussion stellen, wie sie in den letzten Jahren vor allem am Herder-Institut der Universität Leipzig entwickelt worden sind. Dabei wird es zum einen um die Frage gehen, in welchem Sinn sich heute überhaupt noch sinnvoll von ‚Kultur’ bzw. ‚Kulturen’ sprechen lässt, ohne damit in die essentialistischen und stereotypischen Kategorien nationaler bzw. ethnischer ‚Zugehörigkeit’ zurückzufallen, zum anderen aber wird auch und insbesondere die Frage zu diskutieren sein, wie sich ein alternativer Begriff von ‚Kultur’ als sprachgebundener Deutungsressource und der damit eng verbundene kulturwissenschaftliche Terminus des ‚kulturellen Deutungsmusters’ im Hinblick auf die praxisbezogenen Aufgaben von Forschung und Lehre präzisieren und konkretisieren lässt. Dies wird anhand von Beispielen aus deutschsprachigen Diskursen (z.B. zum Thema West vs. Ost) zu illustrieren sein, die auch den Anschluss an die fachlichen Diskurse innerhalb der
German Studies in den USA ermöglichen sollen.
WORKSHOP
Saturday, April 10, 2010
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Ossis’ vs. ‚Wessis’: Kulturelle Deutungsmuster im Ost-West-Diskurs (“Ossis” vs. “Wessis”: Cultural Patterns of Meaning in East-West Discourse in Germany)
‚Kulturelle Deutungsmuster’ ist der Kernbegriff kulturwissenschaftlicher Forschung und Lehre im Kontext des Faches Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Gemeint sind damit implizite Muster, die unserem Wissen zugrunde liegen und in denen typische Zusammenhänge eines Realitätsbereiches repräsentiert sind. Die Aufgabe der Kulturwissenschaft besteht demnach vor allem darin, diese kulturellen Deutungsmuster explizit und sichtbar und für die Angehörigen anderer Kommunikationsgemeinschaften nachvollziehbar zu machen. Was dies konkret heißt, wie solche Muster im Alltag, d.h. in alltäglichen Texten und Diskursen funktionieren und wie sie sichtbar und nachvollziehbar gemacht werden können, soll in diesem Workshop anhand von konkreten Textbeispielen veranschaulicht werden. Thematisch wird sich der Workshop auf die nach wie vor aktuelle Auseinandersetzung zwischen West- und Ostdeutschland, insbesondere auf die diskursive Konstruktion einer spezifisch ostdeutschen Identität und die dabei verwendeten kulturellen Deutungsmuster bzw. Topoi konzentrieren. – Claus Altmayer
For questions, please contact Neil Christian Pages or Harald Zils.