Abstract
Starting with Rolf Tarot’s article on the edition of early modern texts in the volume
Texte und Varianten
(
Texts and Variants
, 1971) and the subsequent process of reaching an understanding ...about the practical handling of texts from the period between 1500 and 1750, an overview of the evolution of this discussion from the 1970s to the present is given. On the one hand, the medial development from the conventional transcription to the reprint and the availability of digitized texts is retraced. On the other hand, the influence of the availability of scans on the research process is discussed, as well as the challenges this poses for current editorial projects of early modern texts. These lie less in the area of textual constitution, but rather in the commentary-based analysis and reconstruction of historical textual networks.
At the end of October this year, philologist, historian of religion and translator Marju Lepajõe (28 October 1962 – 4 July 2019) would have turned 60. Thinking of Marju with gratitude, we publish her ...presentation "The birth of evening philology" on this occasion.
This study is a short history of the Academic teaching of Romanian language and literature in Berlin since the foundation of the Romance Languages Studies. Romanian appears for the first time as an ...academic curricula at the beginning of the 20th century at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University which after WW II was called Humboldt-University and remained in the eastern sphere after the division of the city of Berlin in east and west. In 1949 the Freie University of Berlin will be established in the western part of the city with support of the US-Government. From this moment on, we have two academic institutes for Romance languages in Berlin offering Romanian Studies, one in the Eastern and one in the Western part of the city. This paper highlights the personalities and their activities in the development of the curricula of these studies in the historical context from the social and political standpoint. We give an outline of how the Romanian teaching developed after the Fall of Berlin Wall and at what point we are now today.Hariton Tiktin was the first scholar to found the department of Romanian language at the Berlin University. Despite his valuable contribution through his comprehensive dictionary, his academic personality has gone forgotten. Tiktin was followed in the 1930s by Ernst Gamillscheg, an Austrian with strong sympathies for the upcoming national-socialist and fascist politics. Retrospectively his academic role in the two decades has been subject to controversy. The second half of this period is also marked by the Romanian linguist Sextil Pucariu, that was active in Berlin as an academic scholar, being a guest lecturer at the University and as a founder of the Romanian Cultural Institute. The Ending of the War was characterized by a denazification of the academic world, and shows that the measures have never been consistent. The case Bucur is just a tragic academic anecdote. The Afterwar finds the Cold War represented by two competing Universities, and each of them had a Romanian department. On one hand in the western Free University Romanian was focused on Eastern European Studies and in the context of the Romance Philology as well, on the other hand in the Humboldt University the emphasis was on Language Studies and Translation. With the Fall of the Berlin Wall there is a slow change in the curricula reducing Romanian Studies in both Universities to the point that Romanian has been given up in the Free University. The Romanian Studies are still vivid at the Humboldt University but not as independent subject. It is part of different Bachelor and Master-Studies and is open to a wide variety of study subjects and also to all German students from other Universities of the region. At the End of the Essay there is a short analysis of the students interested in the subject, which leads to some conclusions about the future development of the Studies.
This article explores the American television series Zoo (CBS, 2015–2017). The show’s convoluted narrative revolves around mutations that are put into motion by genetic engineering. These mutations ...first affect animals and later humans The article argues that the biotechnological control of life, which takes center stage narratively, is mirrored in the television show’s use of digital visual effects to create animals. More importantly, Zoo suggests that this control of life is nothing but an illusion, as the mutation quickly gets out of hand and leads to unexpected consequences. Thus, the television series reflects the Anthropocene condition, which is characterized by the emergence of humankind as a planetary force; however, the planetary effects of anthropogenic activities have been largely unwanted. While Zoo seems to expose these processes of our age, the article also stresses that as a television show, Zoo must reach a broad audience. Thus, the critique of human fantasies of planetary control are, somewhat paradoxically, accompanied by an anthropocentrism which arguably undermines the show’s ecological subtexts.
Podcasting is an increasingly popular audio-only, on-demand narrative form that draws millions of listeners, both within the U.S. and worldwide. While podcast scholars are excited about podcasts’ ...potential to create content that finds no place in the mainstream media, they have not yet investigated how contemporary fictional podcasts can create societal critiques. This paper investigates the political potential of critical news platform The Intercept’s special feature audio play Evening at the Talk House (2018) by analyzing its content, form, and funding model. I will argue that Evening at the Talk House effectively uses the affordances of both the podcast and the dystopian narrative mode to expose the U.S. empire for American citizens by collapsing the distinction between the ‘good’ and safe homeland and the evil ‘other’ abroad. Evening at the Talk House, thus, raises questions about the complicity of regular citizens in enabling ‘murder programs’ (e.g. drone strikes, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) as citizens actively take part in and become the victims of imperial violence. However, consistent with The Intercept’s daily reporting, Talk House fails to address a major motivation of the U.S. empire: establishing and maintaining global capitalism. This neglect can be explained by considering how the platform was established, as tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar provided its funding.
This paper looks at British home décor to analyse its distinct features from the perspective of a specific national identity. It also examines the impact of the upper class’ taste dictating the norms ...for the rest of society despite having a different cultural capital. The BBC programme, The Great Interior Design Challenge, is examined as a good example of the British tendency to seek advice from authorities in a field who are the arbiters of taste. The specific competitive scheme and aim of this TV programme present a telling body of information to examine which features are favoured among the winners and which are condemned in failed projects. As a result, the programme captures and reflects the preferred national British taste. The concepts and prescriptions of cultural capital as well as media and authorities as the source of taste are visible in this society. The members of the lower social classes, being instructed by the professionals, strive to follow the upper-class’ taste. However, their choices are determined by the education they received and people by whom they are surrounded. The upper classes are more accustomed to art due to their families’ art collections and art education, so their taste is more sophisticated and informed. Moreover, the study of the programme pays attention to the presence of certain distinctive national features of British society visible in its home décor.
This paper deals with an edition of a newly identified fragment of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī in Old Uyghur from Turfan, which is preserved in the collection of Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Museum of ...Asian Art) in Berlin. The fragment basically represents the dhāraṇī part of the Uṣṇīṣavijayā Dhāraṇī in Old Uyghur script. The fragment is compared with the parallel Old Uyghur fragments that also include the dhāraṇī section and are preserved in the Berlin Turfan collection. The transcription and transliteration of the work is given. Its versions in other languages are compared to explore differences between the texts. Finally, a reconstructed text is presented.
The article aims to highlight the most important rhetorical strategies used by some avant-garde poets to write about the social problems of the Second Polish Republic. The author shows that the ...references to religious language appearing at the turn of the 1920s in the works of avant-garde poets served the purposes of persuasion: to evoke emotions (such as ira, timor, despectio), to visually comment on the socio-political situation after the May events and the economic crisis, and finally to express anxiety over the specter of imminent crisis. When discussing selected works by Julian Przyboś, Anatol Stern, Bruno Jasieński, and Jalu Kurek, the author focuses on rhetorical means and figures taken from religious discourse by constructivist poets and former futurists. This article contributes to the post-secular considerations and rhetorical analyses of contemporary Polish poetry, shedding new light on the influence of biblicisms and religious language on the socially engaged avant-garde poetry.
PDF