Studia Germanica Posnaniensia, vol. 20 (1993)
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Item Deutsche Literatur im polnischen Literaturunterricht(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Orłowski, HubertAlthough the presence of German language literature in handbooks and readers used in teaching literature in high schools and technical schools has undergone the evolution within the last fifty years, it has not changed so much as not being able to determine several relevant characteristics of its presence. (The above mentioned applies also to the reading list.) There are three features which seem to be especially distinctive for establishing the place of German language literature in teaching: 1. the German literature emerges everywhere where it is an argument for the existence of the world literature (Goethe, Schiller); 2. writers whose works influenced the Polish literature, and who made friends with Polish writers are eagerly referred to during the lectures on history of literature; 3. Those writers whose works preserve the essential cultural and philosophical issues (Kafka, Thomas Mann, Brecht), occupy a prominent place in a projected picture of the world Jilerature. The polilical, social and ideological changes taking place in Poland nowadays, have also flourished with rather essential changes in the programme of teaching literature. However, it has not been so essential as to make noticeable changes in the adopting of German literature.Item Mutter Erde. Über ein Motivgeflecht in der "Ästhetik des Widerstands" von Peter Weiss(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Langer, RenateThis paper is an attempt to explain the ambivalent role of the mother in Peter Weiss's oeuvre. In his autobiographical novel Abschied von den Eltern he describes the "mythological years" of his childhood with a frightening mother and a warm-hearted nanny. Traces of these two unintegrable motherly objects can be found in most of Weiss's works. The mother's realm is the house whereas the nanny allows the child to discover the outside world. His first "exile" is the garden, where a sensual contact with nature is possible. The Earth becomes a place of refuge for Weiss's figures. But she is also men's grave: "Desire to return into the mother's womb = desire to die". Being the goddess of life and of death, the Earth herself is ambivalent. „Die Ästhetik des Widerstands” is full of symbols and mythological allusions referring to this. But they are to be seen in a historical and political context. The Earth is a victim of war, wounded by men's violence, and at the same time she represents the Utopian possibility of an existence in which mimetic empathy and sympathy replace aggression and destruction.Item Die Aura der fünfziger Jahre in Rifbjergs Roman Die chronische Unschuld(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Kaszyński, Stefan H.The paper offers a new interpretation of a Scandinavian novel which has become one of the most popular Scandinavian novels in the world. New methods of analysis of literary work have been applied to identify the elements of Klaus Rifbjerg's Chronic innocence (1958) which made that fiction a world success. In addition to the clearly outlined elements of the success strategy, e.g. critique of the middle class educational novel model, creative attitude towards the language, and instrumental approach to the poetics of popular literature, it was the elusive and unique climate of the 1950ties carefully coded in Chronic innocence which granted the novel an everlasting value. Rifbjerg's novel, once interpreted as a protest of a generation against fossilized forms of social behavior and moral norms, today fascinates the reader with its unique climate: the protest which transformed into nostalgia.Item Das Wort als Verwirklichung des chassidischen Mythos in den Erzählungen Martin Bubers(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Dzikowska, KatarzynaDie Erzählungen der Chassidim („The stories of Chassidim“) of Martin Buber open to a reader an approach to a reality, for which a word is the basis of existence. A word becomes a myth, which in its turn determines human existence in an absolute way. It is a living, sacred word; the respect should be given to it, as it comes from God Himself. The Chassidic myth cannot be treated as a phantasy, it belongs totally to the spiritual world of a Jewish people who's history is a word, coming into being between two persons, a history of unceasing dialog between God and man. The French representative of structuralism Roland Barthes elucidates the relation between a word and a myth with semiological categories. As he notices, however, such an analytical treatment of .myth destroys it, e.g. makes it impossible for somebody to experience the reality, hidden in the word. That is why, though Buber's stories fulfill the postulates of Barthes, only the trustful acceptance of a word is a way of getting to know the plenitude of a Chassidic myth.Item Überlegungen zu der artistischen Prosa Gottfried Benns(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Machońko, MariaThe article discusses some problems connected with the plane of meaning of Gottfried Benn's artistic prose. There is an indissoluble connection between the artistic motifs, style, technique of narration and the construction of the reflected world of the analyzed prose. It is emphasized in the article that an attempt to impose his own artistic vision of the world on the reader is the main aim of all Benn's creative manipulations.Item Editionsgeschichtliche Aspekte zu Alfred Döblins Romantetralogie "November 1918"(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Jäkel, SiegfriedStarting from an editorial historical sketch of the edition of revolutionary novel „November 1918“ by Alfred Döblin, the explanation of difficulties which the author had met having tried to publish his work in the unabridged version of the World War, as well as postwar one, was to be found. These difliculties explain also the fact that in Germanistic research on Döblin's work this novel has so far been omitted or very little place was sacrificed to it. The real hero of the novel are the events of the year 1918. They are a surprise for the figures appearing in the novel and they occur above the figures and against their plans. The novel-tetralogy, which consists of almost 2000 pages, is constructed as a mosaic, consisting of many independent stones (novels). Only one figure - Dr. Friedrich Becker, classical philologist, lieutnant from the Ist World War does disappear from the stage of the novel from the beginning to the end. It seems that in his tetralogy Döblin wanted to draw our attention that both idealists and revolutionists are sentenced to defect facing so called „norms“.Item Der Fall Max Halbe(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Załubska, CecyliaBorn in Żulawy near Gdańsk, Max Halbe, a German writer of the turn of the 19th century, was controversial already in his lifetime. He followed the path of an artist whose first work was a success, never matched by his later writings. Often he was forgotten and ignored. Due to his demonstrative aversion to Poles, expressed mainly in his dramas, where it was always the Poles who represented villains, he was much appreciated in the Third Reich. After the Second World War, attempts were made to rehabilitate his good name. Present-day historians of literature have valued him more or less objectively; his contribution to the development of the German naturalism has been acknowledged. However, his anti-Polish attitude has frequently been made no mention of, as has been emphasized in the present article.Item Zum politischen Programm der "Grenzboten" unter G. Freytags und J. Schmidts Redaktion (1847-1870). Mit bibliographischem Anhang der "polnischen Beiträge" für die Jahre 1845-1889(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Papiór, Jan„Die Grenzboten“ magazine (founded by Ignaz Kuranda in Brussels in 1848) was one of the longest-appearing magazines of the German-speaking territory. While edited by Gustav Freytag and J. Schmidt, the magazine became the exponent of the anti-Polish policy. The political programme was realized not only by means of one-sided selection of the texts, but also by the anti-Austrian editing policy. Apart from literary texts, ,,Die Grenzboten“ contained mostly political and publicistic articles. The editorial board investigated the phenomena of the Polish-German cultural relationships as well as the border events. The enclosed bibliography of the so-called „Polish subjects“ gives an idea of the political programme of the editorial board and of the methods of awakening of the German nationalistic consciousness.Item Das Herrscherlob als Beispiel für die Gelegenheitslyrik des ausgehenden 19. Jhs. in der Provinz Posen(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Wojtczak, MariaIn the years 1871-1918, on the territory of the Duchy of Poznan, there were published over 90 magazines and newspapers. Apart from the current articles also German prose and poetry were printed and they are the point of this article. 80% of poetry published in this press is so called „Heimatdichtung“, the rest is war lyric poetry, including poems worshipping then leaders and rulers of Germany. The typical feature for these poems is the false reality of literary communication which, in a way, reflects the „false historical reality“, that is the German presence in the Duchy of Poznan in 19th century.Item Die Rezeption und der Streit um den Roman "Im Westen nichts Neues" von E.M. Remarque in der literarischen Öffentlichkeit des Vorkriegspolen(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Dziergwa, RomanThe controversy and disputes which appeared in the Polish literary criticism of the 1930s after the publication of the Polish version of Remarque's famous novel „All Quiet on the Western Front“ were based on specified political grounds. The National Democratic press, for instance, was entirely against Remarque's book and would demand to have it banned altogether. The response of the military magazines was more differentiated. The author was reproached with commonplaceness and „Germanic fetor“, however, on the other hand, he was praised for describing the firmness of the German soldiers, the sense of comradeship and the exemplary attitude of the privates towards the officers. The literary critics of the communist orientation, clustered around „Literary Monthly“ (Wat, Zawadzki) emphatically refused to acknowledge the book, which was a consequence of their total rejection of the pacifist literature of that time. This point was argued by the representatives of the liberal and pacifist intellectuals who generally approved of the book, some being even enthusiastic about it (eg. Stempowski). In this way, the polarity of political attitudes of the recipients became more apparent (vide Wat-Słonimski polemics). Thanks to it, Remarque's novel became, in a way, a „gauge“ and, at the same time, a catalyst of the public feeling of the Polish intellectuals in the early 1930s.Item Zur Rezeption der Dramen von Friedrich Schiller auf der polnischen Bühne im Großherzogtum Posen (1815-1871) und in der Provinz Posen (1871-1918)(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Czekańska, MałgorzataDuring the Prussian times in Poznan, F. Schiller's dramas were performed both in the German Stadttheater and the Polish Theatre. They were popular among Poles because of three reasons: 1) The audience mostly consisted of the graduates of German schools, so there were no language problems; 2) performer's benefits were extremely attractive with most popular actors, who often chose F. Schiller's tragedies to show their acting abilities; 3) the independent ideas of Schiller's tragedies compensated for the lack of forbidden Polish literature.Item Friedrich Schlegels Gedanken über Polen(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 1993) Grzywacz, MałgorzataFrederick Schlegel's, the leading thinker's of German Romanticism, interest in Poland, dates back to 1794, when he favourably estimated the „Kosciuszko“ Insurrection. In actuality, the interest in Polish affairs was the cause of his conversion into Catholicism in 1808. Jn Poles he saw a Catholic nation belonging to a Christian community. The opinion of history of the Polish nation included in „The Lectures about modem history“ (Vienna 1811), seems interesting. He considers Louis d'Anjou to be the greatest Polish King, whose biggest contributions to Polish history were his uncanny abilities as a lawgiver. This perspective probably results from his dealings with Hungary and its history, as well as sheer ignorance of Poland and Poles. His opinion of Polish language and literature as exemplified during his „Lectures on the History of Literature Past and Present“ (Vienna 1812) is similar to his previous opinion. This ignorance does not diminish his sympathy for Poland, as one can see by boiling through his private memoirs (the so-called Fragments) which were published posthumously.