BBG aims at offering a platform for the discussion of linguistic, literary, translatological, and didactic subject matters in German studies. The annual thematic issues may also include other articles on different topics under Varia.
Editura Universității din București - Bucharest University Press
Bukarest durch die Augen eines Fremden. Stadtbilder anhand des Romans Die sieben Leben des Felix Kannmacher von Jan Koneffke
Jan Koneffke’s 2011 novel closely follows the path of a German fugitive that fate has sent to the capital of Romania in the 1930s. The way young Felix Kannmacher perceives his new environment, his new home defines who he is and who he will become. At first, he is frightened, insecure and feels lost in a hostile space. He is overwhelmed by sensations and does not know how to master this new location. But little by little, through the aid of experience – and not always the best one – he manages to domesticate his surroundings and be reborn. The article focuses on Felix’ (the novel’s first person narrator) view on the city of Bucharest. His ever-changing relationship with this space makes the novel so special and so fruitful for and worthy of literary analysis.
Copyright (c) 2022 Bukarester Beiträge zur Germanistik
Die Bühne in August Strindbergs Nach Damaskus – Grenze zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit
To Damascus (Till Damaskus) is considered August Strindberg's first dream play, a trilogy in which the dream presents the inner world of the characters and their development. In the drama occur psychological processes and experiences, which move away from the real-life frame and at the same time, a firm connection between the real and in this sense dreamlike setting is established. Through these characteristics of the drama and in particular through the representation of the play, Strindberg sets the foundation for a modern theater technique. He experiments with an inner stage to show what happens deep inside the human being. He succeeds in this by splitting the general stage – a concrete part in which the piece is played, and a part of the inner stage, the subconscious of the characters, which is considered a dream world – by applying stage transformations, change of plan, change of location and time, or applying the concept of play within a play. The present paper deals with the analysis of the dream world on stage in To Damascus and with the methods, by which it is built, for example, stage directions, simplified decor, light design, sound and shadows. It is a fact that any symbol, motive, any relationship or textual information serve to present the inner world of the characters on stage. Starting from this point, I will explore which is the technical role of the dream in Strindberg`s dream play, from a scenic perspective, and how its scenic representation leads to the fact that the viewers see a symbolic world, where time and space no longer exist, in which one cannot find a concrete border between dream and reality.
„Mit den Gespenstern sprechen“: Die multidimensionale und multitemporale erzählende Rede als „Mut- und Schmerzprobe“ in Christa Wolfs Erzählung Leibhaftig
Christa Wolf has always considered literature as an ideology-critical medium for questioning Culture of Remembrance and memory myths. To do this, you need to talk to the ghosts. This is achieved by creating texts that experiment with the limits of language. The present study assumes that the novel Leibhaftig is the author's most honest and at the same time most successful attempt in this direction, a narrative experiment that aims to "transcend the boundaries of the sayable". The narrative is a multi-perspective polyvocal literary network. Playfully, the author experiments in two directions: with different temporal perspectives and with different forms of narrator and narrative perspective. The narrative structure is multitemporal. The level of an extradiegetic-homodiegetic narrative instance in the present is interwoven with memories from some sixty years in the past as well as from the whole history of humanity. Furthermore, the story is told in two narrative voices, both in first and third-person point of view, with the change often occurring in mid-sentence. The result is an open text that is not afraid of leaving the wound open, of settling accounts with one's own as well as with the collective phantoms.
Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl von Judith Kerr: Geschichte mit den Augen eines Kindes betrachte
The novel Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl was published 1971 in Great Britain, translated into german by Annemarie Böll in 1973 and the author Judith Kerr has been awarded just one year later with the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. The story about nine year old Anna, who has to escape in 1933 together with her family from Nazi Germany and relocate to Switzerland and later on to France was influenced by Judith Kerrs biography. The book finds itself nowadays in the requierd reading lists at many German schools an has been regarded as Judith Kerrs most famous novel. It is actually part of a trilogy in which the writer expresses her own experiences while reflecting in her writing the spirit of the 1930s an 1940s. Judith Kerr presents the perspective of a child and therefore the political aspects are not at the center of the story, quite the opposite, they move to the background, while the focus is being placed on the main characters personal perception of exile and a life dominated by fear and insecurities. This perspective makes the storyline in my opinion even more revealing and touching at the same time. In the following article I aim to analyse the literary manner in which Judith Kerr transforms the story of her familiy into the story of a whole generation and by doing that she earns her place amongst the authors who contributed to the process of reconstruction of collective memory.
„Pssst. Gebrauche deine Augen, Einstein”. Keine Rückbindungen an ein Wunderland im Roman Wunderzeit von Cătălin Dorian Florescu
The novel Wunderzeit is based on true events. Cătălin Dorian Florescu fictionalizes aspects of his own family history. The story is told from the perspective of a fictional teenager Alin who looks back at his own childhood. The first two chapters of the novel are centered on the perception of colors and are packed with rich imagery around three prevalent colors: yellow, red and black. These colors draw the reader’s attention to symbolic objects from the past: yellow was the shield on the road to freedom. Vivid red was the color of fresh and tasty tomatoes on the screen of a Grundig-TV. Red was the color of angry faces; red was the color of wounden faces. The scary flag of tyranny was red. Full of darkness is the experience of Alin and his friend on a black roof. As the story begins to develop, the narrator Alin leads us to believe that the earlier days of his life have been full of wonderful magical twists. In fact no altered perception in a traditional, romantic, dreamy sort of way is allowed. Homeland was no wonderland. Alin is not a victim of distorted sensory perceptions during trauma and stress. Habitualized coolness and good humour are his secret weapons against collective insanity.
„Bilderkampfgebiet“ – Visuelle Repräsentationen von Krieg und Terror in Kathrin Rögglas really ground zero und Sabine Grubers Daldossi oder Das Leben des Augenblicks
When photography becomes a topic in literature, the question of how the processes of visual perception are translated into language automatically gains in importance. To this end, two literary works will be examined below that deal with war, terror, and their aftermath, staging the intermedial relationship between image and text in completely different ways: Kathrin Rögglas's narrative essay "really ground zero," published in 2001, which seeks to capture photographically and literarily the events and media discourse in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and Sabine Gruber's novel Daldossi oder "Das Leben des Augenblicks," published in 2016, which explores the moral and aesthetic possibilities and limits of war photography. The aim is to examine the functionalization behind the access to visual material, but also the risks that the integration of visual discourses entails for the medium of literature.
Bedrohte Wörter. Ursachen des Wortuntergangs
Archaisms and obsolete words exhibit certain lexical, morphological and pragmatic properties that have been widely debated in both canonical and recent studies. However, exhaustive research on the subject remains a desideratum, hence the need for an overview that may point out possible missing links and solutions. And this is the aim and purpose of my paper. In the light of the conference`s theme I shall firstly describe the alternative perspectives on the problematic, thus encompassing an outline of theories on language change, since these theories represent the methodological base of grasping the phenomena, with the purpose to foreground, from my point of view, a suitable framework. The further heading offers an insight into how lexicography is the diachronical resource of codifying, ergo understanding such occurences. This section also offers a selection on converse views on the nature and properties of obsolete words. Accordingly to my past research on the subject, I shall then suggest two hypotheses to highlight aspects on the subject that to my knowledge have not been approached in literature.
Das Auge in der Hand. Lessings brave Enkelkinder oder Über die Grenzen des taktilen Diskurses
The comparative paper attempts to answer the question of the largely lacking tactile discourse in world literature in such a way that anthropological and cultural-historical aspects are considered at the same time. These explain not so much the already indisputable primacy of the eye in literature, but rather its consequences for the reduced literary productivity of the near sense. Referring to texts by Rilke, Jandl, Celan or Henry Bachau, one can verify that the blindness motif contributes to a somewhat credible, yet still rudimental emergence of a tactile discourse. However, these are but mere exceptions in the vast realm of world literature, just like Goethe's synaesthetic exercises in the fifth Roman Elegy are: no poetics of hands, but rather an accidental encounter of erotic gesture and lyrical reasoning.
Das Department für Germanische Sprachen und Literaturen an der Fremdsprachenfakultät der Universität Bukarest veranstaltete am 10. bzw. am 11. November 2023 die wissenschaftliche Jahrestagung „Translation und Rezeption. Translatologische, linguistische und literarische Streifzüge“. Zu diesem Anlass kamen Germanisten aus dem In- und Ausland zu Wort, deren Forschungstätigkeit an Translation knüpft. Die präsentierten Beiträge lieferten einen umfassenden Einblick in den aktuellen Stand der Forschung im Bereich Dolmetschen und Übersetzen und dienten durch die vielfältige, ja zum Teil interdisziplinäre Thematik und Analysekriterien, gleichzeitig neue Forschungsperspektiven zu eröffnen.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bukarester Beiträge zur Germanistik
DRAGANOVICI, MIHAI und VICTORIA WAGNER. 2022. Translatorii ororilor naziste. Procesele de la Nürnberg și începuturile interpretării simultane. București: Editura Universității din București. 178 p.
Das Buch geht auf eine exemplarische Zusammenarbeit an einer Abschlussarbeit zurück, die später zu einer Publikation reift. Mihai Draganovici, Dozent und Leiter der Übersetzerabteilung der Fremdsprachenfakultät an der Universität Bukarest, betreute vor Jahren eine Abschlussarbeit über einen Wendepunkt in der Geschichte des Dolmetschens, aus der zusammen mit der damaligen Studentin, die heute als sehr erfolgreiche freiberufliche Dolmetscherin tätig ist, ein interessantes Buch über die Anfangsgeschichte des Simultandolmetschens entsteht.
SPRACHLICHE BESONDERHEITEN IM HERMANN HESSES ROMAN UNTERM RAD (1906) AM BEISPIEL DER RUMÄNISCHEN ÜBERSETZUNG
This article aims to highlight some linguistic particularities in the novel "Unterm Rad" (1906) by Hermann Hesse, which are also reflected in the Romanian translation. These are, first and foremost, enumerations of compound adjectives. These constructions are sometimes difficult to translate, mainly because they are not typical in Romanian. Another feature is the repetition of the conjunction "und" in the descriptions. The author's intention is to investigate whether these linguistic peculiarities also occur in other novels by Hermann Hesse. Since these novels (Peter Camenzind, Demian, Der Steppenwolf) have also been translated into Romanian, the author investigates which translation methods other translators chose.
linguistic particularities of Hermann Hesse
DIE ÜBERSETZUNGEN DER WERKE VON ERICH MARIA REMARQUE INS RUMÄNISCHE – EIN ÜBERBLICK
All of Erich Maria Remarque's works have been translated and republished in Romanian, the first translations were published in the late 1920s and the most recent republication of an older translation dates back to 2024. However, there is a very unequal relationship in this country between the number of translations, or rather the numerous editions of these translations, and the literary-critical or literary-scientific analyses of Remarque. In the first part of this article, I would like to provide an overview of Remarque translations in Romania, whereby I intend to show the extent to which there are also reviews or other academic or non-academic commentaries and opinions on these texts. In the second part, I would like to present the perspective of a passionate Remarque translator, because there is hardly anyone who has dealt more intensively with Remarque's texts in recent decades than Sanda Munteanu, with whom I conducted an interview in 2020. In doing so, I am not undertaking an exhaustive analysis of Remarque's reception in Romania, but rather trying to demonstrate that the interest of publishers and readers in Erich Maria Remarque in Romania has hardly diminished after so many decades.
Literary Translations from German to Romanian
AM ANFANG STEHT DER ÜBERSETZUNGSAUFTRAG. MÖGLICHKEITEN FÜR PRAXISBEZOGENE SEMINARE IN DER PHILOLOGISCHEN AUSBILDUNG ANHAND EINES KONKRETEN BEISPIELS
One of the most common expectations of students relates to the practical relevance of the courses they are offered as part of their German studies program. On the one hand, they are willing and happy to acquire academic information and develop their linguistic skills, on the other hand, they want practice-oriented recommendations for their professional careers. Since many graduates must act as translators from time to time in their careers, it is also advisable for philological degree programs to work minimally on the theoretical aspects of translation studies by using a simple example to illustrate in a practical way how an exemplary translation process can take place. The emphasis is placed on the relevant steps of a translation process and the resulting translation strategies. A practical course with advanced students is used to show what such an approach could be like, which not only meets the wishes of the students, but also promotes the visibility of the institution, thus uncovering potential opportunities for the future. In this way, a minimal component of theory can be taught and consolidated in a practice-orientated way with the aim of making translation work more competent and qualitative in practice.
KINDER- UND JUGENDLITERARISCHES ÜBERSETZEN ALS HERAUSFORDERUNG
Literary translation faces significant challenges. The ‘complications’ in relation to translation increase as soon as the texts to be translated belongs to the children’s and youth literature. With a view to the approaches in translation studies, this article aims to examine whether, in the case of children’s and young adult literature translation, literary translation, which attempts to achieve a complete reproduction of the original text in its aesthetic complexity, is also possible. On the other hand, the model of the implicit translator in children’s and youth literature should be critically reflected and modified. The effectiveness of the model is then tested on two children’s and youth historical narratives. These are The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005) and Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin (2011). The close reading method is used as an analytical method.
„DAS VERZAUBERTE SCHWEIN“ – VOM RUMÄNISCHEN MÄRCHEN ZUM DEUTSCHEN LIBRETTO. MÄRCHENREZEPTION ALS MEDIEN-, GATTUNGS- UND KULTURTRANSFER
The aim of the present work is to examine the reception of fairy tales in the focus of medial and related (genological and cultural) transformation processes using the example of the opiated Romanian folk tale Porcul cel fermecat (The Enchanted Pig). Even if the sole aim is to investigate the textual preparation of the pretext for the purposes of another (literary) genre, namely how certain content is transferred from one textual world to another, the use of intermedial approaches seems indicated here. The following examination is based on the concepts and terminology of literary studies and “libretto studies” on the one hand, and intermedial translation on the other.
(UN)TREUE ZUM ORIGINAL? VOM SCHWEDISCHEN REITER (1936) ZUM CĂLĂREȚUL SUEDEZ (2006)
It is the year 1700. Two men are on the run. One of them is a young nobleman and deserter, the other – a nameless vagabond and petty criminal. People are after them, and time is not on their side. What is the salvation for them both? To quickly become friends and exchange identities. Fear and betrayal, tradition and modernity populate the world of the novel The Swedish Cavalier by Leo Perutz. For the translation into Romanian, the archaic style is a special kind of challenge. This article pursues the following questions: Which translation strategies should be used for conveying the very particular historical tone throughout the translation process? In other words: How can the translation do justice to two languages and two cultures, especially when the action is placed in a timewise far away universe? What gets lost in the process and how does one compensate the losses? Where is the middle ground between fidelity to the original and the liberties of translation? How much scope does the literary translator have? Where does translation It is the year 1700. Two men are on the run. One of them is a young nobleman and deserter, the other – a nameless vagabond and petty criminal. People are after them, and time is not on their side. What is the salvation for them both? To quickly become friends and exchange identities. Fear and betrayal, tradition and modernity populate the world of the novel The Swedish Cavalier by Leo Perutz. For the translation into Romanian, the archaic style is a special kind of challenge. This article pursues the following questions: Which translation strategies should be used for conveying the very particular historical tone throughout the translation process? In other words: How can the translation do justice to two languages and two cultures, especially when the action is placed in a timewise far away universe? What gets lost in the process and how does one compensate the losses? Where is the middle ground between fidelity to the original and the liberties of translation? How much scope does the literary translator have? Where does translation end and where does adaptation begin? The author of this article and translator of the novel from German into Romanian hopes to find answers to these dilemmas.
ASPEKTE ZUR ÜBERSETZUNG DER FERNSEHWERBUNG AUS DEM DEUTSCHEN INS RUMÄNISCHE
In the current globalized society that we live in, many international brands advertise their products or services via television commercials, which still represent the most popular advertisement channel in the 21st century. In doing so, brand companies must translate their commercials into the target language of a specific country. Certain cultural barriers may appear throughout this translation process (based on the Skopos Theory in Translation) between the language of the commercial’s country of origin and the language of the target country, in which the commercial has been translated into. The translator should, therefore, demonstrate great linguistical, pragmalinguistical and stilistic knowledge in that foreign language, in order to avoid such cultural and/ or language barriers, be persuasive and attract potential clients who are willing to buy their product. The purpose of this research is to analyse the extent to which the marketing techniques of the two company brands Red Bull and Merci have been fulfilled through their television commercials, in terms of addressing a key audience, as well as considering both cultural aspects of the country of origin and the target country in its translation process from German into Romanian and thus maintaining the communicative essence of the original advertising text.
ROTE TAGE, WEISSE NÄCHTE, DOSTOJEWSKIJ UND DIE RUSSISCHE REVOLUTION VON 1905 IN ERIC-PAUL STEKELS OPER WEISSE NÄCHTE
Eric-Paul Stekel’s opera Weisse Nächte (1929–1932), loosely based on Dostoevsky’s White Nights (1848), has thus far been overlooked in the context of the reception of the author’s work in the German-speaking world. Despite its limited impact and success, it stands out as a rare document of left-wing ideology in the conservative landscape of musical theatre in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In relocating the story to the first Russian Revolution of 1905, Stekel, along with libretto-authors Wilhelm Stekel and Fritz Oesterreicher, radically politicises the previously innocent novella and transforms it into a glorification of the ideals of the Russian Revolution. This transformation establishes a link between the state-governed appropriation of Dostoevsky within the Soviet Union and the widespread reception of his work in German-speaking countries. This article aims to offer an overview of the reception of Dostoevsky’s work in the German-speaking world in order to contextualise and position Stekel’s opera within the broader landscape of Dostoevsky’s influence during the 1920s German-speaking reception.
HERAUSFORDERUNGEN UND ZIELSETZUNG BEI DER ÜBERSETZUNG DEUTSCHSPRACHIGER PREDIGTEN DER BUKARESTER EVANGELISCHEN KIRCHE A.B. INS RUMÄNISCHE
The Evangelical Church A.C. in Romania is also known colloquially as the German or (Transylvanian-) Saxon Church. Accordingly, church services are also held in German. Because of the decline of the German minority and the decrease in mothertongue language skills, particularly in the southern Part of the Carpathian arch, alternatives are increasingly being sought in order to reorganize the German-language divine service. In Bucharest, a variant was introduced that was much appreciated by the churchgoers, namely the translation of the German-language sermon into Romanian on a fortnightly basis. This article will briefly examine the history of the Evangelical- Lutheran congregation in Bucharest and will then have a closer look at the special aspects of the translation of the German sermons from the translator's perspective.
source-text analysis according to Christiane Nord
FUNKTIONALE ÜBERSETZUNG ODER REPRODUKTION? EINE UNTERSUCHUNG ZUR ÜBERSETZUNG VON NAMEN IN DEN DONALD DUCK COMICS INS DEUTSCHE UND RUMÄNISCHE
This paper examines the challenge of translating culturally specific anthroponyms and toponyms, and the decisions that translators must make in such cases. The paper analyses the methods used in the translation of these terms into German and Romanian, and the procedures employed by translators. Both the anthroponyms and the toponyms in the popular American comic series being studied have a culturally specific reference in the source texts, and thus contribute to the creation of local colour.
DIE ÜBERSETZUNG EINIGER TITEL VON JULIA ROBERTS FILMEN AUS DEM ENGLISCHEN INS DEUTSCHE UND RUMÄNISCHE
Julia Roberts, Hollywood icon and versatile actress, has starred in several movies which have caught the attention of the public worldwide. Her movies are enjoyed all over the world and they have been consequently subtitled/dubbed in other languages. The translation of movie titles has been a well-established subdomain of translation since the 1970s. The question that this article is trying to answer is how the titles of six movies in which Julia Roberts has the leading role have been translated into German and Romanian. Based also on the preferences uttered by some tested persons of various ages who have partaken in a poll, the author of the article aims to conclude how the titles have been translated.
ÜBERSETZUNGEN AUS DER RUMÄNISCHEN BILDUNGSSPRACHE MATHEMATIK. RICHTIG ODER FALSCH?
The present article deals with interferences and transferences as linguistic phenomena underlying certain formulations in a workbook for mathematics. The corpus is based on a textbook written in Romania by a German-speaking primary school teacher, which is used as an aid in mathematics classes at German minority schools in Romania. Even after a first reading of the book, one notices constructions that a Germanspeaking person from Germany or Austria would understand, but would consider unusual. The question arises as to whether these formulations are generally unusual for the text tasks or whether, because they have been translated literally from Rumanian, they are unusual in German. If they are translated and found to be incorrect, they are called interferences; if they are translated and found to be correct, they are called transfers. The focus is on translations from the everyday and technical language of mathematics.
Educational Language and Communication in Mathematics
„WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT” (1971, 2009) VON JUDITH KERR (1923-2019): EINE VERGLEICHENDE UNTERSUCHUNG DER IDIOME UND KULTURSPEZIFIKA IN DEN LITERARISCHEN ÜBERSETZUNGEN DIESES WERKES
Considering the fact that the translation of literary or poetic texts is generally regarded by translation theorists as a difficult, if not impossible task, the aim of this article is to examine some of the problems of equivalence in literary translation. In this paper, practical examples will be used to illustrate the differences between the German translation Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl (1973, 2013) and the Portuguese translation Quando Hitler roubou o coelho cor-de-rosa (1992, 2022) and the original work When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971, 2009) by Judith Kerr (1923-2019), originally published in exile in England in 1971.2 Of particular interest is the way in which the target language is taken into account in the respective translation, not only on a lexical-semantic level, but mainly on a cultural level in relation to food, institutions, writers/novels, conventions and emotions. Finally, it is necessary to verify whether the word choice of the translation into the corresponding target languages, in this case German and Portuguese, is actually the appropriate one in each situation, taking into account the meaning given in the source language in English. The purpose of this paper is merely to illustrate the choices made by each translator. It is by no means intended to categorise a translation as wrong or right, but rather to indicate which translation deviates more or less from the original meaning.
„ALLER AUGEN WAREN AUF IHN GERICHTET“ – EINE ÜBERSETZUNGSBEZOGENE ANALYSE SOMATISCHER AUSDRÜCKE IN JOANNE ROWLINGS HARRY POTTER UND DER STEIN DER WEISEN AUS PERSPEKTIVE DER KOGNITIVEN LINGUISTIK
In this paper, the translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is analysed with respect to the degree of equivalence in translating somatic expressions from the perspective of usage-based Cognitive Linguistics. Thus, it is demonstrated that translations may conceptually diverge from the source text to varying extents, provided that the target language does not encompass these cultural linguistic frame conditions. Cognitive Linguistics provides an appropriate theoretical and methodological framework for addressing phraseology-related issues in both language and translation studies. As such, sentence structures will be analysed in terms of Trajector-Landmarke relationships and conceptually-metaphorological considerations of Cognitive Linguistics.
KRITERIEN DER EVALUIERUNG VON ÜBERSETZUNGEN
For to define something as a "translation error" and, if necessary, to sanction it, a reference point is needed. Here the three dimensions of signs in use according to the Organon model of language (BÜHLER 1934) can be usefully applied: referent – symbol – symptom. This means that when analyzing a translation, violations of the idiomatic target linguistic system may first be identified: orthography, syntax, semantics, stylistics, coherence. These five areas can be critically analyzed even without comparing them with the original, and it becomes already clear at this stage whether the text has been fully understood. Once the translation has been assessed on the basis of the five internal linguistic aspects of the text, certain so-called "manipulations" in the target text may be observed as changes to the text in comparison with the original, which can be traced back to a deliberate or unconscious decision by the translator from a text-external perspective. Certain passages might be considered inappropriate for the target recipients. This can hardly be labelled an "error", as there is no reference point for what would be "correct". Such areas of translational deviation from literalness include functional purpose, a particular political ideology, a time-bound interpretation, formal associations of words, or artistic adaptation.
„...dieweil er aber alt und schwach ist”. Alter und Altern in den siebenbürgisch-sächsischen Urkunden aus dem 15.-17. Jahrhundert
The aim of this article is to trace the phenomenon of age and ageing as it is reflected in the German-language documents from Transylvania. Four directions can be recognized. On the one hand, ageing is associated with frailty, weakness and illness, so that the elderly must be supported by family and descendants. On the other hand, old age is associated with experience, wisdom and tradition. Sometimes "old" is only used as an identifier in comparison to other people names. Another aspect is society's disparaging attitude towards older people, which is reflected in the documents in swear words containing the adjective "old".
Copyright (c) 2024 Bukarester Beiträge zur Germanistik
Der Weg zum Erwachsenwerden und die Suche nach Identität in Warten bis der Frieden kommt von Judith Kerr
Warten bis der Frieden kommt is the second part of an autobiographical trilogy in which the author Judith Kerr presents both her own experiences and the historical context of the 1930s and 1940s of the past century in a literary manner. The main character Anna has to flee from Germany together with her family in the year 1933. They first arrive in Switzerland, then in France and finally in England. While in the first book we encounter a very young and partly naive nine-year-old protagonist who tries to understand and interpret the world surrounding her, in the second part we are being presented with Anna as a teenager who spent the last seven years of her life as a refugee in foreign countries. As a consequence we can observe a change of perspective from the point of view of individual and collective memory. In the following article I aim to analyse to what extent the age of the main character influences the literary discourse in regard of the historical narrative.
Literature for children and young adults
„Ich küsse deine Augen, Oma!“ – Wertschätzung im Alter. Ein didaktischer Streifzug aus interkultureller Perspektive
Understanding social reality as well as political developments and contexts is not only an important part of our participatory life, but also one of the main tasks of teachers in language integration work. This fundamentally involves juxtaposing the familiar and the target culture, which often becomes a topic in the classroom. These confrontations are closely accompanied by ideas and feelings of belonging and attachment as well as perceived foreignness and otherness. The relationships between the generations and the connections to one's own family play an important role here, especially as they are characterised by emotionality. The article will therefore analyse how the position of older members of the family and society is presented in the textbooks for integration courses, with respect to both the linguistic and intercultural embedding. Based on the existing offer, ideas for supplementary materials will be developed and presented as examples. Particular attention is paid here to a constructive approach, which primarily looks for connecting. The emphasis is deliberately not placed on the differences, as is the case with the prevailing conception, but a narration of the points of contact is sought.
„Das Kind hat mehr Zeit als wir.“ Zeitwahrnehmung bei Kindern und Erwachsenen in Michael Endes Momo
The concepts of time and time perception are crucial in this article. Moreover, the fact that time is perceived differently from children to adults is exemplified through theory and practice. The main object of analysis is the cult classic fantasy novel Momo by Michael Ende. Published in 1973, the book emphasizes the fact that children and adults have different visions and different usage of time. While children seem to have time in abundance, focusing on play and fun ways to spend it, adults fear they don’t have enough time on their hands. Michael Ende proposes a possible worlds dystopic scenario in which relentless and cunning so-called time-thieves have power over human time. It is only little Momo with her unique, effortless approach to temporality that can save humankind from extinction. Counting on his readership being entertained by his book, Michael Ende’s novel also has the power to make us highly aware of the consequences of poor time management. For this reason, the following article also ponders over the moralizing aspects of this timeless novel.
Die Einstellungen des Alters und des Alterns in den deutschen Werbespots
Depending on the cultural context, age characteristics or specific portrayals of age are presented differently in television advertisements. Advertising agencies often attempt to convey certain cultural images, family values and principles or even illustrate humorous age stereotypes, which can be identified for example in the two analyzed commercials from Bluna and Teekanne, in order to attract the interest and attention of the audience. Since childhood, each person has certain image ideas that have a great influence on them from literature, society, the media, but especially from television. These influence our perception of the natural process of aging, either positively or negatively. However, such age stereotypes are also culture-dependent, because in Asian cultures the portrayal of old age is perceived differently, in the sense of wisdom, spiritual experience, long longevity, and from a state of healthy well-being. In contrast, in European cultures, perceptions of old age differ significantly, with a greater association with severe physical conditions or mental illnesses.