Germanistische Beiträge 30.2012
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- Transylvanian Saxons (2)
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The paper discusses the request of the Jewish Middle/ Middle-East-European immigrants for images, impressions, feelings and memories from their native lands, which Aaron Lebedeff masterfully captured in his American-Jewish musicals. The paper focuses on multiculturalism and multilingualism in overlapping regions of extended cultural areas, particularly in territories along the borders of Middle/Middle-East-European states, which don’t form any abrupt cultural barriers. Using the example of a in our time in Jewish milieus worldwide frequently played quadrilingual song from Aaron Lebedeff about Romania (with the German translation of the complete version from 1925), the paper conveys the role of Yiddish as a major dialect of the German as a worldwide carrier of this language as well.
The meaning of the verb „heischen“ occurs in standard German in special context only, especially in poetic language. In some Rhenish idioms of the German language space this lexeme is documented with the same meaning as in the Transylvanian Saxon idiom. Notable is the meaning “to woo”, “to ask for the bride’s hand” and idioms with a special wording that is specific to the Transylvanian-Saxon idiom only. This case study exemplifies how Transylvanian Saxon, removed from the German language space, is handling the linguistic thesaurus brought over centuries ago via emigration from the old country and how it adds its own meanings through a mixture and balance of language, a phenomenon specific to the colonial idioms.
Julian/Jutta Schutting, as a self-conscious author, understands the literary activity as a common and democratic act of creation, performed both by the writer as well as by the reader, thus revealing and connecting the multitude of associative meanings of the literary artifact. Until 1989, until her transformation, the writing of Jutta Schutting was a “secret therapy for survival,” by means of which the troubled existence was to be overcome through the creative power and the originality of her work. Back then she described her art as a “hybrid life … neither … nor…, both … and …,” an attempt to transform the personal inner conflict into curative fictional models. This “neither … nor … - both … and …” situation illustrates the androgynous attitude towards this kind of fictionalized models, this tonality being also supported at the stylistic level that escapes any formalist framework of the genre literature. “Gralslicht. Ein Theaterlibretto” [“The Grail’s Light. A TheatreLibretto“] was published in 1989 by Residenz-Publishing House and is explicitly “composed” as a modern interpretation of Wagner’s “Parsifal” in the typical manner of Schutting. The language ceases to be referential and becomes almost exclusively self-referential, because the dialogues do not rely on a situation of communication [communication situation], but are to be regarded as an interactive exchange of monologues. The female character “Kundry” is almost completely absent from the stage [at the level of the stage] and becomes evident only in the dramatic game between the two male characters that regard her and her duality as the principle of the eternal feminine. Kundry remains active only at the textual level and becomes a life example and a pretext in the love-chastity debate between Parsifal and Don Giovanni.
The following essay illustrates the extraordinary love story between Clemens Rescher and Rodica Neagoie. These key characters are representative figures for the nation they belong to. Clemens is a Transylvanian Saxon and Rodica a Romanian. Despite all contradictions, they fall in love, spend time together, travel to the Black Sea and plan their future. Even though they are bound to each other by strong feelings, this love cannot overcome all the preset cultural, ethnic and social obstacles. Clemens and Rodica become the victims of the world they live in.
The paper aims at presenting the Boer Wars (1881–1882 and 1899–1902) as they are reflected in „Siebenbürgisch-Deutsches Tageblatt”, the most important daily newspaper of the Transylvanian Saxons. From the beginning of the second conflict, the Saxons felt great sympathy for the Boers, because they considered them relatives due to their Germanic roots. They also drew a parallel between the Boers’ fight for independence and their own fight against the attempt of forced Hungarization by the authorities from Budapest. In the newspaper there were published not only articles about the armed conflicts but also contributions on the way of life and the habits of the Boers. A novel on the topic of the “Jameson Raid” which took place on New Year’s Eve 1895/1896 was also published. During the “Second Boer War” the Saxons created “Associations of Boer Friends” aimed to help their “brothers” from South Africa who lived in great misery.
Margarethe Sindel-Alberti is a rather unknown 20th century writer from Transilvania. Being a member of the German minority it is very unusual for her to write a story about Romanian protagonists. Also unusual is the fact that she writes about a kind of secret initiation of a young girl who is guided by her grandmother how to deal with sexuality. Our analysis makes a referance to the psychoanalytic interpretation of the tale “Little Red Hood” as we find it in the works of Siegmund Freud and to the interpretation as an initiation tale as it is considered by Vladimir Propp. Margarethe Sindel is considered to be outstanding for her geographical space and time writing about a feminist subject and a different culture than her own.
Two Romanian authors, Nora Iuga and Carmen Francesca Banciu have published their impressions about the German capital Berlin. Nora Iuga stayed there twice for a limited period of time (in 2000 and in 2010), whereas Carmen Francesca Banciu decided to live in Berlin after her scholarship there ended in 1991. This is why Carmen Francesca Banciu’s writing changed together with the changing city, which was then under construction not only literally but also in a figurative way integrating new influences due to the opening of Eastern Europe after the end of its isolation during the Cold War. She is one of those new elements which reshape Berlin adding new and different perspectives to its cultural life. Banciu publishes her impressions in Berlin ist mein Paris. Nora Iuga, on the other hand, remains nothing but a visitor. Her ideas about the City and about the Germans in general change a lot during her stays in Berlin. In the end, she leaves for Bucharest with new impressions, which are released in Romania in her book Berlinul meu e un monolog.
This article focuses on the phenomenon of interculturality within the framework of “Poveştile Peleşului”/”Tales of the Pelesh” by Carmen Sylva, the Poet-Queen. Being of German origin and having studied in Germany, but transposed as queen of the Romanian people to a totally different cultural space, Carmen Sylva wants to present the culture of her adoptive country to her home country. She succeeds in doing this through her own works or by translating some Romanian literary works into German, which she propagates in the German language space. Starting from a theoretical basis referring to interculturality, this article refers to the hybrid character of “Poveştile Peleşului”/”Tales of the Pelesh”, to some aspects of presenting alterity, concluding that the author is extremely interested in the culture of the Romanian people, whose language she learned, her ultimate scope being that of bringing the two cultures – the German and the Romanian culture – closer to one another.