In her article, Christa Bürger interprets the subtitle of Friederike Helene Ungers novel as a protest against the appropriation of a woman’s history, which reduced her life to an embodiment of an ideal of resignation. “The confession, written by herself” takes on the role of a manifesto; it evokes a vision of female alliance, i.e., of a life that is self-determined and situated far from the predominating gender arrangements, and of a language that, through art, is capable of creating a vision of love beyond desire. The article is related to a project of critical literary studies, developed in cooperation with Peter Bürger since the 1970s, examining the displaced tradition of women’s writing.

The subject of this paper are the impressions and judgements made by 19th century female travellers regarding music heard abroad and regarded as alien. There is a wellfounded rationale for this slightly untypical scholarly interest – although descriptions of music are rare in the literature, singing and playing an instrument were a part of girls’ education; therefore, literary critics would be inclined to accept accounts of this particular field. Moreover, public opinion did not only concede to female authors’ spontaneous and emotional judgements, but actually demanded a flair of irrationality as an ingredient of female characteristics. Cultural research may therefore have a promising new field ahead.
It is striking that the sensation of alterity is not restricted to the experience of the exotic, but can occur the moment the traveller is confronted with music of another denomination or another European country. In the writings of Friederike Brun, Ida Hahn-Hahn or Louise Mühlbach, which are the main sources for this paper, we are faced with rather derogatory and highly individual judgements. Strange was not understood as unusual, which should be treated with caution and observation, but was seen as negative and tied to negative associations. Alternatively, or as a consequence, it could be regarded as backward. Since women were careful not to refer to academic sources, Louise Mühlbach fictionalized her knowledge of Egyptian instruments, professional female singers or song texts as drawn from experience, although it can be proven to have been acquired by reading. German female writers were eager to offer to the public the very spontaneous judgements and ‘unvarnished’ descriptions they expected. This resulted in blunders that were already heavily criticized by some scholars of the time and may sound embarrassing to us, but was – also – due to the generally prevailing gender-specific determinations.

Folman’s and Polonsky’s Graphic Diary based on the Diary of Anne Frank is the first adaptation authorised by the Anne Frank Fund. The rationale for the genre choice was the intention of instigating a discussion among young people about the story of Anne Frank by means of employing a medium more compatible with contemporary trends in the reception of literary works. Due to the diary‘s relevance for the examination of the devastating events of the Second World War and the difficulties inherent in adapting this multifaceted source of high literacy value, the article addresses strategies of adaptation as well as similarities and differences to the original text. The graphic diary is characterized by abbreviations, which facilitate a better understanding of the core plot, an exaggerated and sometimes comical depiction of characters as well as intra- and intermedial references. These transport multi-layered contents in terms of historicization and figure representation. A focus on the empathic portrayal of emotions, together with a graphic design that supports the content, makes accessing the subject matter easier for young recipients. Thus, the Graphic Diary also offers opportunities for use in schools and universities, where the original diary is part of the literacy canon. Here it can be used to enrich the original diary by, for example, creating new possibilities for interpretation.

This article presents a philological analysis of the transformations and liminal phenomena found in the second chapter of Yoko Tawada’s Etüden im Schnee [Études in the Snow]. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the multidimensional implications of Etüden im Schnee in an intertextual in-between space, which makes possible the constitution of non-normative possibilities of existence between the inner and the outer, and the human and the animal, worlds. The analysis is based on poststructural and postcolonial research methods.

This article examines the relevance of Michael Köhlmeier’s novel Das Mädchen mit dem Fingerhut (2016; Girl with Thimble) to literary didactics. The novel focuses on issues such as escape, alienation, linguistic deprivation, and the integration of children and young people into new environments. Narrative representations within German literature of migration and of the issue of escape from the experience of alienation have significant didactic and educational potential. Literature that addresses the theme of escape creates an opportunity for students not only to develop skills in literary analysis, but also to acquire intercultural competence and to become more sensitive to the complex issues of the contemporary world. Addressing social aspects of escape, the author of this article analyses Köhlmeier’s novel from the perspectives of literary studies and literary didactics. Two theoretical models have been used as prisms through which to justify the usefulness of this novel in a literary studies classroom: Byram`s model for describing intercultural competencies and Spinner’s model of intercultural competence.

The word Fräulein in Goethes Faust and many other early modern high German words of the 16th century such as Elend and Gelobtes Land bring to view, that the traditional theory of semantic shift is far too simple with the opposition of an old meaning, that is no longer used today, and a new meaning, that is usual nowadays. Instead of this theory of lexical language change the thesis of a „diachronic polysemy“ is set up and verified: the semantic features contained by lexical items often are arranged into new structures throughout history, backgrounding and foregrounding complete meanings. The frequency of use can switch: main meanings can become secondary meanings and the other way around. In the process separate features can fade or disappear and other ones can be added. If reading texts containing words the meanings of which have become rare it is helpful for the reader to have semantic sensibility and language awareness in the three variants: polysemous awareness, morphological awareness and collocative awareness. Teaching language at school the development of these abilities should be supported and energetically advanced.

This article investigates the challenges inherent within the content (structure), word chunks, and grammar in the written part of the German language university entrance exam (Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang, DSH) taken by prospective students whose native languages are not German. The author analyses samples supplied by two groups of candidates: test takers who have attended a DSH preparatory
course and test takers who have not. The results of her analysis allow her to develop suggestions for modifications to the content format of the DSH preparatory course.

This paper addresses the existing concepts in didactics and asks if they can be transferred to a new and hybrid learning experience. Considering that the construction of knowledge is based on a technique that is universal to human anthropology, there is an essential social dimension in learning and working together on texts in the digital space. The example for that is the usage of blogs and wikis in German lessons.
The author starts off by explaining the use of Wikipedia to illustrate the idea of collaborative writing. Next, he discusses some consequences of the use of digital platforms in schools and goes on to address the problems of the digital shift in teaching and of hybrid learning from a critical-constructive perspective (kritisch-konstruktive Didaktik), as developed by Wolfgang Klafki. Finally, he submits that the existing concepts in the field of didactics can be transferred to the new social experience of teaching/learning in virtual lessons.

Bartoszewicz, Iwona; Szczęk, Joanna; Tworek, Artur (Hg.): Linguistische Treffen in Wrocław, Vol. 17 (I). Wrocław: Oficyna Wydawnictwo ATUT – Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe, Neisse Verlag 2020, 424 S.