Germanistische Beiträge 28.2011
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The present study makes reference to the scientific achievements of the Romanian Germanist Horst Schuller. As a journalist, university professor and translator, he developed an extensive research work that has brought forth studies of the Romanian-German criticism as well as many studies of intercultural research. In all of his studies of literary criticism dealing with intercultural themes, Schuller holds the opinion of a bilateral exchange between the ethnic groups of a multi-ethnic state as Romania is. He regards interculturality as a plea for tolerance and communication, i.e. living-with-one-another – not living side by side or living past one another.
The paper attempts at outlining some aspects of experienced intercultural phenomena in Transsylvania starting with the late 50ies and deals with the question of cultural and linguistic choice of an individual born into a multilinguistic and multicultural family. The close connection between mother tongue and identity is analysed under the particular circumstances of the author’s biographical background. The paper should be read as an autobiographical statement which the author considers necessary for the understanding of her legitimate status within present day German literature written in Romania.
The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the situation of language teaching in the German-speaking schools in Transylvania during their historic evolution. The paper gives information especially on the qualifications of the teachers, on teaching methodology and language classes. The focus of the analysis are the teaching materials used, illustrated by means of a comparative approach based on two class books. The paper also emphasizes the importance of school for the continuity of this group.
This review presents Delia Cotârlea’s monography Schreiben unter der Diktatur. Die Lyrik von Anemone Latzina / Writing under Dictatorship The Poetry of Anemone Latzina. In her study, the Romanian Germanist analyses the poetry and the translation work of the Romanian-born German author Annemone Latzina. Delia Cotârlea’s monography comprises a lot of new information, picked up from unpublished diaries, from chronicles published in the print media etc.
The paper focuses on the way Romanians perceive their co-nationals of German origin and analyses the building up of auto-stereotypes and foreign-stereotypes. Starting point of the essay and corpus is an online-petition to back up the German Mayor of Sibiu as the Prime Minister of Romania in the autumn of 2009, a proposal made by a coalition of several political parties. The arguments of the petitioners for their support are being interpreted by using instruments and principles of imagology. The patterns of perception discovered show the interesting ways Romanians relate to their own ethnicity and their perceptions of ethnic minorities.
The following essay is based on the narrative Die schiefe Fassade der Kindheit. Erfundene Familienkunde written by Eginald Schlattner. The action takes place in Transylvania, a region where several nations live together. The key concepts are identity and alterity, because only by analysing the other one can find and understand one’s own identify. The traits of the communities living together are portraited by Aunt Maly, a strong supporter of the German traditions and by Grisi, the grandmother, who presents the mentality of her people as opposed to the Romanian people. The story also reveals the conflicts between these two ethnical groups. Nevertheless life in Transylvania can be seen as an example of how people belonging to different cultures can peacefully live together.
The article focuses on Herta Müller and Mircea Cãrtãrescu, two authors from the same generation, who in their respective novels Herztier and Orbitor gave different accounts on the situation in Romania during the 70s, the 80s, of the terror during the Ceaușescu-dictatorship, and on the December revolution. Multiple factors allow a parallelized and comparative description of these two novels: biographical and work-immanently factors. A similarly described world, marked by Kafkaesque elements – Romania amid the dictatorship of Ceauºescu, as well as similarly handling elements of oppression, fear, humiliation, forms of survival, description of the totalitarian state representatives, accurate highlights of the December revolution connect the two autobiographical novels. While the reader can sense in Müllers book the fear and the terror very deeply, as the death and the emigration are solely alternatives for the protagonists, Cãrtãrescu’s universe has signs of grotesqueness and ridiculousness. Cãrtãrescu doesn’t accentuate the terror, the hopelessness, the fear, but mocks the reality, and he laughs at Ceausescu’s stupidity. The author satisfies his desire of revenge for his stolen youth in the communist period.
Das Märchen Savia aus dem Band Das verlorene Land der Roma-Schriftstellerin Luminiţa Cioabă stellt den Versuch dar, den bei vielen Roma-Gemeinschaften eingetretenen Identitätsverlust durch Integration in die Lebenswelt des rumänischen Umfeldes auf dichterische Weise zu erklären. Die Untersuchung dieser Problematik im Rahmen einer literaturwissenschaftlichen Tagung beruht auf dem Verständnis, dass Literaturwissenschaft gleichermaßen auch kulturwissenschaftliche Aspekte untersucht.
Oscar Walter Cisek evolved as a German speaking author and art critic in the joint domain of two cultures. With his exquisite education and through his temperament doubled by aesthetic expertise Oscar Walter Cisek stood for the great European man, who acted as a go-between sitting astraddle the Eastern and Western parts of our continent. His effort for the publication of the German written monthly review Kulturnachrichten aus Rumänien (Cultural News from Romania) represents a unique event in the German culture from Romania. Unfortunately this periodical appeared only between 1925-1928 and rather at odd intervals but it had a decisive contribution to the promotion of the Romanian cultural heritage abroad. Beside the literary references current issues in the field of fine arts were also offered, which were partially identical to Cisek’s essays published in the Romanian press. Cisek undertakes a unique attempt among the German writers from Romania by making Romanian culture known to the Transylvanian Saxons by means of several essays published in the Kronstädter Zeitung (The Brasov Newspaper).