buesch-2000FocusSample-001.tif 10 c u s on LITERATUR Edi to rs Tonya Hampton Dav id Prickett Technical Advisors Michael Shaughnessy Barbel Such Published by the German Graduate Student Governance Associat ion of the Univers ity of Cincinnati /oem 1m U/emflfr i~ publishL"{1 annually by the German GradU:'Ile Student GOvernance Association of the University of Ci ncin n:ui. Edito r 'Io nya ( lampton llook Review Editor David PI'ickeli l cchn ical Adv isors Michael Shaughnessy Hiirbcl Such Copy Ed itors SusaUlie Lenne David (>rickell Monika I lohbein-Decgen Silke Scllade Subscriptions and Mnilings l auya (lamplOn SUBM ISSIONS r"OClfs Oil Li/emtur welcomcs article submissions f tQm 10-25 pages on topi cs related LO German Studics. Submissions are accepted continuously, bu t cont ributors must be students a t tbe time of submission. M,m USCI iPlS must be submiued in triplicate to the C(liLOr and shou ld be preparcd accordill!!, to the guidelines of the latest MLA Handbook. A sel f-addressed postcard should accolnp:l ny tiLe manuscript for ack uow!edgrncnl of its receipt. BOOK REV IEWS U nsolicited book reviews of 2-5 pages w ill be considered for publicl.lion, yet /Vem 011 UrerttluI' pre fen: to work with an estab! islloo pool of reviewers. illlercswd persons arc encollrnged to inform the Book RL'View EdilOr. SUBSCRIPTIONS Annual subscriptions are $ 15,00 for individuals and $22.00 for institutions; individuals and institutions overseas add $5.00 for additional poStage. CONTACT ADDRESS Send subscription fees and correspondence to ruws 011 Litera/m', PO Box 2 10372, Universily of Cincinnat i, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221 .0372. l ei: (513) 556·2755 Fax: (5 13) 556· 1991 Email: foctLso rrJit@houmil,(."Om. h U p : 1111 cas www.mcm.uc.cdu /ge rm:m / foclls. htm COVER: "T he Book Fool" from Sebastian Brant's Ship of /voles, Lon clort, 1570, Cou rtesy of thc Archives and Rare Books Departmem, University of C incinnati Libmries. Cover design by Ciana Morrell. We resclve the right to make any nccessary editing changes without the ex­ press written consent of the authon:. Member S Cou nci l of Editors of i.earn(."{1 Journals ISSN 1076-5697 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ' I'he sevelllh volume of FuClls 011 Literatur was made possible only with t he continuecl commitmen t of Dr. Judith Trent, Associale Vice President fo r Research and Advanced Studies, as wel l as the OAAO. We are deep ly indebted to them for their ongoing support. We also wish to thank the U niversi ty of C incinnati Gmduale Student Govcr­ nance Associat io n for supporting lhe publicatio n of our journ al. De part ment H e ad P l'Ofessor Sara Priedric hsmcyer, o u r Fac u lty Adv isor Professo r Ri c h ard Schad e, :\Ild other facu lt y members of the Department of Germani c Lan guagcs and Literatures deserve o u r Si llCCl'C gratitude for helping in so m:lIly ways to keep Focus in operati on, Many graduatc students volu11lcercd their time to help with this volume. We would especial ly like to tha llk Barbel Such, Mike Rice, Jeff Packer and Monika I lohbein-Ocegen for their continued assistance. Spccialthanks to all members of our boa.rd o f reviewers and advisors. Anicles for this issue were refereed by the following profes. SOl'S: Sara f-ricdrichsmeycr (U of Cillcil lllati), Katimrina Gerstcnbcrger (U of Cincinnati) , Jerry G len n (U of C incin nati) , and Richard Schade (U o f Cincinnati). Focus on Literatur Volume 7 2000 Contents from the edilo r articles Kafbeske Elemcll lc in Jakov Linds Erzald ung fin Seele aus !-Iolz: Ein Vergleich in Bczug auf Darstcllungcn des Grotcs ken u nd de l" Scxualit at ANNA-KAII..!N AXELSSON Socialism :lnd Adventure, Polit ics and Entertainment: Martine Monad's Novels in the GDR INA P l'ITZNER "Like a Stolle Throw n into Water:" ' j'he -Iestimony o f Magnus H irsch feld D AVID PRICK-Err Codes of Die Marquise von 0. .. : Modes of Significatio n in Kleist's Novella and Rohmer' s Film J OANNA K EDZIERSKI'. STIMMEL book rev iews v, 19 39 49 Plinio Bachmann, Hg. Die Schweiz erzdhlt. Junge Erzahler 69 Peter Bichsel. Chert/bin Hammer und Cherubin Hammer 72 Vol ker Braun. 7imlll!l/s Peter I l:mdkc. Die Fahre im Einba flm oder Dfls Sllick ZUm Film von Krieg Bernd I Hippauf und Rol f M . Baumer, 1-1 1', . Signalealls der Bleecker Slreel. Deulsche Texte ails New }"(n .. k Alina Maria Jo kl . Die Reise nacb Lmulon. \Viederbegegmmgen Rafik Sch:llni. SieiJen Doppelganger inte r vicws Um :liles, W;lS in der Zei l ist,:m Sprachcrscheinunl',cn wahrzlIllcll lllCIl , aufz.unchmcn, £:1.1 verarbeiten . INTERVIEW MI T MrCl lAEL SPEIER Am An f:mg cines Neubcl',inllS INTERVIEW MIT GUY ST ER N contributo rs all i i OU nCClllcnls 79 82 84 89 10 1 107 108 v, From the Editor foctlS on Lilemlttr has entered its seventh year of publicatio n . Since iLS inceptioll , FocltS, OTIC of two German graduate slUdent puhlic;lli oJls in the U.S., has provided a forum for graduate students to publish their work. The YC;II" 20Cl0 is ,Ill important year for o ll r departmenl. It marks the centenary or the Graduate Program of the Department o f Germanic Lan guages :lild Literatures al lhc U uivcrsilY of C incinnati , as well as a new beginn ing for Fows. Fows wi ll still include book rev iews and interviews in each issue - the format will 1I0t change. What will then be different? The con tent and the t itle of the journal itselL H enn:lll J. Dc VI"ic..<; , J. G regory Redding and David N. Coury eSl:lblishcd the journal ill 1994 as a "'bi/ingult! journal dC:llin g wilh Itterary lopics within Germ:m Studies," \'(Iith our nex t volume, we wi il widen ou r focus to include pape rs 0 11 a/l topics within Germ:m SLUdies, As of volume 8, Foclls on Literatlfr will be known as rvCIIs 011 GcmulII Studies. Previously published hi-annually, the journal will now appear annually, David Prickelt will oversee the publication of Focus on German StIIt/ies 8 (2001), as well as the new Focus on German Studies Society. Two points of the Focus on Ge rm an Studies Society's missio n statement arc Uto develop a network o f f.,mdu­ ate students and gmduate advi sors" and "to cooperate with other instillilions and organi zations which share its interests and goals." III fo llowing this new path . we believe we will achieve these goal s, Consider jo ining th e r ocus on German Studies Society, For informatio n, see our website: hUp: / / lI caswww. lnclll .lIc.cdu /gennall/ focu s, llt lll Our annual gmduate student conference wi ll continue in full fo rce each October, The sixth an nual Graduate Conference wi ll be held on October 12 and 13,200 1. Our 2000 co nference was a great success, made possible by the enthusiastic participation of swdellls fro m the U n ited Sta tes, Canada. and Euro pe, A s a lways, we encourage graduate sllldems to alteud our annual conference and to publish papers and book reviews. In this issue of Focwotl LiteralltT, we present four papers, which Vll represent a wide mnge of topics. In th e first article, Allna-Kilrin Axclssoll discusses Jakov Liml's Slory, "Eine Secle aus I-I oh,," and the rcprescl1tiltio n of the gn:'>lesquc tllerei ll . 1I IIIer 311 il lysis, Axdsson sllows the similarities between Li nd 's story alld the pOl'lrnyal of the grotesque in Kafka's wo rks. In th e second article, Ina Pfitzner exa mincs the po pularity of Martine Monod's works in the CD R o f the 19505 and 19605. A French noveli st, MOllopropriate to th e ideo logical climate of the G DR at that time, meeting t he reqllirements for "acceptable" ente rtainment. Pfitzner examines the relationship between socialism and advcl1 ture, polit. ics, and enterta illlnenl. [n the next articl e, David Pr ickett presc lI1s the life's work of Magnus Il irschfeld. 'rh is paper was given as a lecture illlrodliCi ll j:; the ex hibit "The Fi rst Institute for Sexua l Science (1919-1933)," which was 011 loa n in 1999 to th e Uni vers ity of C incinnati fro m th e Magnus­ I I irschfelcl-Gesellschaft c. V. ill Hedi n. Prickett examincs I I i rsch reid's writings as an effort to remove the stigma of homoscxual ity present in Wei mar Ge rman society and to gai n acceptance of it as a nalll rai conditio n. Finally, Joal1l1a Ked;rien;ka Stimmel exa mines Die Marquise V(m 0. .. in the fo rm of two genres: Kleist's Novell a and Rohmer's film. Stimmel ana lY7-cs the "bizarreness" of the novel la and the futilit y of :I one-di mensional classification of the work - a futility which is emphasi:t.ed in Rohmer's film ada ptation. She poi nts out the aspects of "m odern ity" in each and u ltimately the l imits of interpretation . In ou r book review secti on wc offer the reader a v:lried selec­ tion of boo ks. including the btest drama by Peter Handke, a recent collection of poetry by Volke r I~raun, :1n exotic adve nture 1I0vel by Rafik Schallli and Peter Bichsel's 1999 release, a largely amobiographi­ cal til le of two men fated to share the same obscure name bu t end up wit h very different destini es. We also incl ude rev iews of Anna Maria Jo kl 's latest work and t wo collections of stories: one with its focus 011 New York, the o ther, Swit:t..erbnd , rinally, in this issue we preselll twO illlerviews, both held during ti le ApriI 2000jahrIJll"dcr/1tJelldcn conference, which celebmted the IOOth ye ar of the Department o f Germanic Languages and Litcr.l tul'CS at the University of C inci nn ati. Tile fi rs t is is with Michael Speier, G uest Professor in Cinci nnati from 1999-2000; t he second is with Guy Stern , a beloved alld intcgral pan of ollr department'S VI U hisrory. With the many changes oudined above, r look forward to a future which, I trust, will offer increased opportunity for interaction and productivity among graduate students in German . 1 encourage our readers to submit articles, book reviews and interviews which challenge the conventional definitions of Germanistik. O nce again, thank you for your support of Focus, in the past and in the future. Tonya Hampton Kafkaeske Elemente in Jakov Linds Erzahlung Eine Seele aus H olz: Ein Vergleich in Bezug auf Darstellungen des Grotesken und der Sexualitat Anna-Karin Axelsson Einige Jahre nach clem H olocaust Wllchs bei manchell, die den Ho­ locaust iiberlebt hatten, das Bediirfnis, ihre Erfah ru ngen und Leiden in Woner umzusetzen . Fiirdie meisten wares eine notwendige T herap ie, um mit ihrem Leben weiter.lIl kommen, fi.ir viele aber auch ein Bediirfnis, der Welt zu zeigen , was wirklich passiert war, damit es auch nicht vergessen werden konnte. Oer H olocaust als literarisches MQ[iv war sehr umstritten. Man fragte slch, ob es fiir Kunst und Literatur angebrach t oder iiberhaupt mogli ch sei, sich mit dieser barbarischen Vergewaltigu ng cler Mensch lichkeit zu befassen. Versuche zur O arstellung des N icht-Darstellbaren wurden unter anderem von Adorno abgelehnt, der 1949 nOlierre, class es barbarisch sei, nach Auschwitz Gedichte zu schreiben. Siebzehn Jahre sp:iter wurde jedoch cliese Aussage von Adorno selbst revidiert: "Das perennierende Leiden hat soviel Recht auf Ausd ruck wie der Gemarterte zu hriillen; daru m mag falsch gewesen sein, nach Auschwitz lieRe kei n Gedicln mehr sieh schreiben" (Adorno, 353) . Peter Stenberg weist darauf hin , dass die ersten literarischen Auseioandersetzungen mit clem Holocaust vor allem die Tendenz zeigten, die llnbegrei fliche Bruralirat auf eine so realistische Weise wie moglich darzustellen. Die Auto ren fiihlten die Notwendigkeit, den H olocaust als ein beinahe hei liges Thema zu behandeln , "nO[ to be violated lightly by such porentially blasp hemous lilerary devices as satire, irony, t ravesty, or black humor, which had often been used in fictional aCCOunts of destruct ive even lS in Jewish history"{Stenberg, 642). Focus on LiUrtlC/fr Volume 7 (2CXX»