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Department Newsletter
Autumn 1997

Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
The Ohio State University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Letter from the Chair, Bernd Fischer

In many ways, the academic year 1996-97 was a year of transition, reflection, and new beginnings. For the first time in its history, the Department offered a full set of courses in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies on the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Department's graduate program has been renamed Germanic Languages and Literatures to reflect the additional MA and Ph.D. degrees in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies. An undergraduate major in Yiddish is also in the works.

For the German program we have gained the University's approval to offer two new undergraduate majors: "Language and Culture" and "Literature and Culture." An interdisciplinary German Studies major is also being developed. One important step in designing such a major--as well as the College's new interdisciplinary minor in film studies--has already been taken with the approval of two new courses on German film, which John Davidson submitted last Spring just before he left for his Fulbright year in Berlin.

While John will be back this autumn, we had to wave good-bye to Anna Grotans, who packed for her Fulbright year in Munich, and to Gregor Hens, who left for Hamburg where he serves as director of the IU-Purdue-OSU Study Abroad Program. We have, however, found worthy temporary replacements in Carlson Arnett and Andrew Spencer, who will join the Department as Visiting Assistant Professors; and Aija Bjornson will take on a full teaching load as Senior Lecturer. In addition, we welcome Trude Ehlert from the Universitt Wrzburg as Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor in the autumn and Jutta Osinski from the Universitt Marburg as Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor in winter/spring. For Spring Quarter 1998 we have also invited Hannelore Scholz from the Humboldt Universitt Berlin.

In spring 1997 we had the pleasure of hosting Robert Holub from the University of California at Berkeley as Distinguished Visitor. He offered a compact seminar on German Realism and gave the opening speech at our spring conference on the First Women's Movement in Germany. The conference's principal organizer was Barbara Becker-Cantarino, who also organized a lecture series on the same topic in autumn 1996 and winter 1997. Both events were supported by the College of Humanities and the DAAD. In addition to another stimulating lecture series that the lecture committee will, no doubt, put together for 1997-98, we have three conferences scheduled for the coming academic year. A conference on "Ashkenaz: Theory and Nation" is currently being organized by David Miller and Neil Jacobs for May 1998 in cooperation with the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. In April 1998, the Department will host the Annual Conference of the Society for Germanic Philology. Principal organizers are our three linguists: Neil Jacobs, Anna Grotans, and Gregor Hens. In February 1998, the Department's graduate students will host a graduate student conference on Studying and Teaching the Holocaust.

One of last year's highlights was the opening of our Max Kade German House. We were particularly honored to welcome Dr. Erich Markel, the president of the Max Kade Foundation, as the key-note speaker of the opening ceremony. The Max Kade German House provides residency for nine undergraduate students and one graduate student director. While in the house, students speak German. The wonderful facilities on the first floor allow for lectures, film, video, and German television evenings as well as parties and other formal and informal gatherings. During its first year the German House hosted a wide variety of events including Wednesday's Kaffee Stunde, scholarly lectures, art exhibitions, informal presentations by members of Columbus' German community, and professional meetings. We are indeed very grateful for Dr. Markel's and the Max Kade-Foundation's ongoing support of our program. The Max Kade-Foundation has not only sponsored the German House and supported our annual Distinguished Visitor Program, but beginning this summer it also offers travel grants to many of our undergraduate students who participate in our summer program in Dresden.

Another highlight was the Spring Quarter production of Nestroy's Der Talisman, which was perfectly executed by our undergraduate and graduate students and professionally directed by one of our graduate students, Nikhil Sathe. I am simply amazed by the wealth of talent among our student population--a vivid reminder of the responsibility we all have in making certain that these talents can fully develop in our programs.

Probably the most challenging and time-consuming activity in 1996/97 was a self study review, mandated by the University at ten year intervals. I am very thankful for all the extra hours that members of the faculty, the office associates, and students--in particular the members of the self-study review committee--put into completing the elaborate report in a timely and responsible manner. The reactions of the outside-review committee were, by and large, quite favorable, and the tedious exercise may well have been worth it. We have already received authorization to fill a new tenure track line this coming autumn, and the negotiations for a definite time-table for our Ohio Eminent Scholar position have also made significant progress. A third position may very well be in the stars for next autumn or shortly thereafter.

The self study process confirmed and strengthened some of our strategies for refocussing and improving our undergraduate program. Before the self study review, we had already decided that Kathy Corl would be temporarily released from her duties as TA Coordinator in 1997-98 so that she can put all her energies into redesigning our aging German 101-104 Individualized Instruction Program for a CD-Rom based environment. I hope that similar initiatives can soon be undertaken for advanced German language and culture courses as well as for some of the other languages taught in the Department. Another direction of our program development that was significantly confirmed by the self study report concerns our effort to integrate language and content (culture and literature) instruction in more effective ways. The goal is to provide successful learning experiences simultaneously in both areas and to design language and content blocks for each level of instruction that build upon each other. This requires a careful selection of textbooks and other teaching materials that can be used to structure courses in a realistic and meaningful progression. It also suggests the appointment of an upper-level undergraduate course coordinator whose duties will include monitoring courses and keeping abreast of developments in relevant areas of teaching materials, pedagogy, and instructional technology.

There is a lot more that could be mentioned, but I invite you instead to read what others have to say about the past year and current undertakings on the following pages that, once again, have been compiled by Helen Fehervary. You may also want to visit our web site at http://www.germanic.ohio-state.edu

Bernd Fischer

A View of "The First Women's Movement"

--Carol Ludtke Prigan

On 9 and 10 May, 1997, scholars and students from around the country met to exchange ideas regarding The First Women's Movement in Germany. Beginning with the keynote address by Robert Holub of the University of California at Berkeley entitled "The Academic Woman" and ending with a buffet supper at the home of conference organizer Barbara Becker-Cantarino, the conference proved to be a success with a healthy exchange of opinions taking place throughout. Generously sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), The College of Humanities at The Ohio State University, and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the conference presented several viewpoints regarding The First Women's Movement.

At Friday night's opening address at the Faculty Club, Professor Holub presented many humorous anecdotes regarding the unacceptance of women as students and scholars in the university system of the late nineteenth century in Germany. While certainly funny today, such opinions held by respected professors and teachers in their day spelled disaster for many women wishing to pursue a university career. Many, like the subject of my own talk, Rosa Luxemburg, were forced to leave their homes and attend universities elsewhere, such as in Switzerland. Professor Holub's lecture set the stage well for the next day's presentations and discussions.

While the topic of Friday night's lecture concerning the plight of academic women in the late nineteenth century, Saturday morning's program saw a change in venue to the Mershon Center and looked back to the roots of The First Women's Movement with presentations by Professors Karin Wurst and Sara Friedrichsmeyer and then to historical considerations of women's roles in nineteenth-century society by Professors Ruth-Ellen Joeres and Volker Berghahn. Gender roles in theater, historical novels, the workplace, education, and imperial Germany were the focus of these talks. The role of education and women's contributions in the workplace and arts stood out as key subjects in the morning sessions.

The afternoon's sessions were divided between presentations regarding late-nineteenth century figures in The First Women's Movement and a Graduate Student Research Forum in which students presented their research on such varied topics as Ebner-Eschenbach's Bozena and Bertha Pappenheim's Kmpfe. Professor Elke Frederiksen discussed Gabriele Reuter's early writings in which the author weaves autobiographical information from her childhood in various colonies. My contribution to the conference examined Rosa Luxemburg as a Marxist feminist in theory and practice. The students' presentations rounded out the afternoon and gave us a glimpse of what we can expect from them in the future.

Although the conference was brief, many participants with whom I spoke felt the presentations were intellectually stimulating and discussions very productive; in short, time well spent. As a presenter and participant I was grateful to have the opportunity to listen to other scholars present their opinions and ideas and also to give my own on a topic I am fond of. Many thanks go to Barbara Becker-Cantarino for organizing the conference as well as to Sabine Scheele, her graduate assistant. We look forward to the next conference!

The Opening and Dedication of the Max Kade German House

On October 11, 1996, the faculty, students, and friends of OSU's Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures gathered to welcome Dr. Erich H. Markel, Director of the Max Kade Institute, President Gordon Gee, and Dean Kermit Hall to the dedication of the Max Kade German House. After brief dedicatory remarks from our guests (including some in German from President Gee) and the unveiling of a commemorative brass plaque, all the assembled were invited to take a tour of the renovated Victorian house. Accompanied by the strains of a classical string quartet composed of OSU undergraduates, and fortified by delicacies brought in from local pastry shops, our guests surveyed the beautiful interior of the house, with its dark wood staircase, shining hardwood floors, cozy fireplaces and grand mirrors. The grant of $240,000 from the Max Kade Institute made the renovation possible, including modernization in the form of a television, soon-to-be-purchased VCR, and network hookups for student computers. After the dedicatory ceremony and reception, the College of Humanities hosted an elegant dinner at the Honors House for Dr. Markel, honored guests, and the nine resident students of the Max Kade House. Toasts and brief speeches were offered by the dean, a few of the guests, and all of the students. The entire occasion was a festive beginning for the new German House, which promises to be both a unique residential opportunity for students seriously interested in improving their German, and a splendid site for the department's cultural gatherings.

Eight undergraduates and two graduate teaching assistants resided in the House during its first year, 1996-1997. Rene Jenkins served as resident adviser and very ably handled the organization of life in the house and the occasional questions or problems that emerged as the house and our use of it evolved. The undergraduates living in the house reported a love of the beauty and homey atmosphere of the German House, as well as a strong sense of community and easy access to things German, which had attracted them to the House in the first place. Several of them are going on for a year in the Hamburg program after their year in the Max Kade German House.

The department made use of the house for the first Kaffeestunde of each month, our annual holiday gathering, lectures and/or visits from local community leaders (including Jutta Neckermann and Frank Wobst), scholarly lectures, undergraduate advisory meetings, and study abroad meetings. The beautiful setting and cozy dimensions of the House make it a welcome alternative to Cunz Hall, and the House in its first year has already begun to provide an effective site for relations between our department and the wider Germanic cultural community in Ohio.

Dutch and Jewish in Utrecht

Professor Harry Vredeveld has taught the Dutch language courses in the department. Now, for the first time, the department offered a summer program in The Netherlands. This special program "Dutch and Jewish in Utrecht" was offered during Summer Quarter 1997 in conjunction with the Ohio State Office of International Education and the James Boswell Instituut of Utrecht University. The three-week program (July 14 - August 1) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, was organized by Associate Professor Neil Jacobs of GLL and Mss. Agaath Pescher ter Meer and Hilda Zwitsers of the James Boswell Instituut. The program consisted of two components: a course on the Dutch language, and a course (taught in English) on Netherlandic Jewry. The Jewish course included lectures by Professor Jacobs and a number of prominent Dutch scholars, as well as field trips to various sites of Jewish interest across the Netherlands (old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam; the Sephardic cemetery at Ouderkerk a/d/Amstel; the site of the former concentration camp at Kamp Westerbork). Seven OSU students took part in the program. We look forward to an expanded program on Dutch language and Dutch Jewry next summer.

Departmental Lectures 1996-97

Professor Dagmar Schifferli (University of Zrich): "Anna Pestalozzi-Schulthess und ihre Zeit," October 1996.

Professor Deborah Judith Vitor-Englnder (Technical University of Darmstadt): "Warfare among Critics: Alfred Kerr and Karl Kraus in Berlin and Vienna 1926-28. The Conflict and its Background," October 1996.

Professor Annamaria Orla-Bukowska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow): "Frysztak: Polish Town, Jewish Shtetl," October 1996.

Stefan Schrder: "Das Feld und Common Alphabet. Zwei Arbeiten von Stefan Schrder 1994-1996. Ein Dia-Vortrag," December 1996.

Professor Bernd Fischer (The Ohio State University): "Untenable Identities: National Intentionalities in German Literature before 1815," May 1997.

Professor Robert Holub (University of California, Berkeley): "The Academic Woman," May 1997.

Professor Robert Holub (University of California, Berkeley): "Heine's Conversion," May 1997.

GERMAN STUDIES LECTURE SERIES:
CO-SPONSORED BY THE DAAD AND TO BE CONTINUED IN 1997-98

Professor Renate Mhrmann (University of Kln, and Visiting Professor at Washington University): "Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst...Kontroversen feministischer Filmtheorie in Deutschland," February 1997.

Professor Lynne Tatlock (Washington University, St. Louis): "Recollections of a Small-Town Girl: Regional Identity, Nation, and the Flux of History in Luise Mlbach's 'Erinnerungen aus der Jugend' (1870)," March 1997.

Graduate Student Workshop

(RE)presenting the Holocaust:
An Interdisciplinary Workshop and Colloquium for Graduate Students
February 15-16, 1998

Federal Government Supports Graduate Studies in Yiddish at Ohio State

Among the more prestigious graduate fellowships in foreign languages and cultures are the FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) fellowships sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education. FLAS fellowships are awarded to graduate students as the result of competitions administered by the various area studies centers at Ohio State.

The ultimate aim of the FLAS fellowships is to train graduate students who are true experts in their area of specialization. Ohio State graduate students--both students of the Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies Program and students in other departments who wish to draw upon original Yiddish language sources and knowledge of Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies generally--are eligible to compete for these fellowships. And,indeed, students of Yiddish have been remarkably successful in the relevant FLAS competitions (those sponsored by the Center for Slavic and East European Studies and the Center for West European Studies).

FLAS fellows in Yiddish for academic year 1997-98 include:
Colleen Heather McCallum, graduate student in Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies with research interests in linguistics and cultural studies;
Robert Fuhrmann, graduate student in German and Yiddish and Ashkenazic Studies with research interests in autobiography and personal narrative;
Lawrence Bell, graduate student in history with research interests in Argentine Jewish immigration and cultural adaptation; and
Mary McCune, graduate student in history and women's studies with research interests in American women's immigrant narrative.

Recipients of FLAS fellowships for summer study abroad include:
Jason Payne, who earned an M.A. in Yiddish with a thesis on an important early work of Sholem-Aleykhem;
Lisa Jenschke, who received a dual M.A. in German and Yiddish with a thesis on spirituality in the works of Else Lasker-Schler and Malke Kheyfets-Tuzman;
and academic-year FLAS recipients Colleen Heather McCallum and Robert Fuhrmann.

In all, FLAS fellowship support for graduate study of Yiddish during the summer of 1997 and the current academic year totals nearly $65,000. We are grateful to the Department of Education for this unprecedented level of support, to the Centers for Slavic and East European Studies and West European Studies for administering the awards, and to the Graduate School for waiving tuition for FLAS fellows. And we are understandably proud of our graduate students, who fared so well in a field of exceptionally strong candidates.

Graduate students interested in applying for FLAS fellowships in Yiddish(summer 1998, academic year 1998-99) are invited to consult with Professor David Neal Miller or Professor Neil G. Jacobs prior to preparing their applications.

News from the Faculty

Barbara Becker-Cantarino published reprint editions with an introduction of Anna Louisa Karsch. Auserlesene Gedichte (1764). Frankfurt: Verlag Petra Wald, 1996; Anna Louisa Karsch. Neue Gedichte (1772). Frankfurt: Verlag Petra Wald, 1996; and Anna Louisa Karsch. Gedichte (1792). Frankfurt: Verlag Petra Wald, 1996.
She published the entries "Anna Ovena Hoyers (1584-1655)", "Martin Opitz (1597-1639)," and "Sibylle Schwarz (1621-1638)," in: Dictionary of Literary Biography. German Writers of the Baroque 1580-1720. Ed. James Hardin. Detroit, Washington, D.C., London: Bruccoli Clark Layman and Gale Publishers, 1996. Pp. 181-84; 256-68; 312-15; and the articles: "Die 'andere Akademie': Juden, Frauen und Berliner literarische Gesellschaften 1770- 1806." Die Europische Akademiebewegung. Ed. Klaus Garber. Tbingen: Niemeyer, 1996. Pp. 1478-1505; "'Erwhlung des besseren Theils': Zur Problematik von Selbstbild und Fremdbild in Anna Maria Schurmans Eukleria (1673)." Autobiographien von Frauen. Beitrge zu ihrer Geschichte. Ed. Magdalene Heuser. Tbingen: Niemeyer, 1996. Pp. 24-48; "Rebecca Claudius. Zur sozialgeschichtlichen Realitt des 'Bauermdchen.'" In: Matthias Claudius Symposium. Ed. Jrg-Ulrich Fechner. Tbingen: Niemeyer, 1996. Pp. 55-72; "Feminismus und deutsche Romantik. berlegungen am Beispiel der Lucinde und ihrer Interpretationen." Romantische Salons. Ed. Hartmut Schultz. Berlin: E. Schmidt, 1997. Pp. 25-45; and "Die Hure Babylon. Zur Mythisierung von Gewalt in Dblins Berlin Alexanderplatz," Methodisch reflektiertes Interpretieren, ed. Hans-Peter Ecker, Passau 1977, Pp. 81-92.
She presented "O Komdiantinnen, ich htte euch doch kennen sollen! Weiblichkeitsentwrfe und Frauenfiguren im Werk Lessings," University of Kansas, Lawrence, 23 Oct. 1996; "Actresses: Art and Life at the Weimar Theatre," German Studies Symposium: Classical Weimar Culture at Davidson College, Feb. 1997; and "Autorinnen, Leserinnen und Editionen," Ringvorlesung: Die Funktion von Editionen in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, Free University of Berlin, June 1997. She chaired the panel "Jews, Women, and Salons in Berlin around 1800" at the German Studies Association Meeting, Seattle, Sept. 1996, and served as faculty lecturer and alumni host for an OSU alumni tour to Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, May 23-June 5, 1997.

She organized the conference "The First Women's Movement: Concepts and Conflicts in German Literature and Culture" at Ohio State University, May 9-10, 1997, and was a co-organizer of the 10. Jahrestreffen des Wolfenbtteler Arbeitskreises fr Barockforschung: Knste und Natur in Diskursen der Frhen Neuzeit, July 30-Aug. 2, 1997. She received the Distinguished Lecturer Award from Ohio State University for 1997.

Hugo Bekker continues his work on Paul Celan.

Marilyn Blackwell published Gender and Representation in the Films of Ingmar Bergman, March 1997; and "Disavowal and the Movement Beyond Gender in Ingmar Bergman's The Silence," Scandinavica. She lectured on Bergman and Feminism, University of British Columbia, Feb. 1997; and presented "Strindberg and Lacan's Law of the Father," Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies, Apr. 1997.

Kathryn A. Corl published with Linda Harlow, Jan Macian, and Donna Saunders "Collaborative Partnerships for Articulation: Asking the Right Questions" Foreign Language Annals, 29 (2), 1996, 111-124; presented "Teacher Performance Assessment: Problems, Principles, and Solutions," American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Philadelphia, PA, Nov., 1996, and together with Diane Birckbichler "Computer-Adaptive Testing; Ohio State's MultiCAT Project" Northeast Conference, New York, April, 1997; and is co-principal investigator with Diane W. Birckbichler, OSU Foreign Language Center, of a 3-year project, "Articulation and Authentic Assessment: A Multimedia Computer-Adaptive Proficiency Test." The project, now in its second year, is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.. She continued her work on the AATG National Testing Commission and the AATG/Goethe/Institut Distance Learning Project "Going the Distance," and served as a member of the AATG's Task Force on Testing and Assessments.

John E. Davidson published "'In der Fhrer's Face': Undermining Reflections in and on Beruf Neonazi," Arachne 3.2 (1996): 67-96; and "Hegemony and Cinematic Strategy," Perspectives on German Cinema. Eds. Terri Ginsberg and Kristin Thompson (New York: G.K. Hall/Macmillan, 1996): 48-71. He presented "'Alles Nietzsche oder was?' oder, Die mrderische Frage, wer wen zitiert," Humboldt University, Berlin, Apr. 1997; and "Der Film im Nationalsozialismus," Kennedy Haus, Kiel, May 1997. He spent 1996-97 in Berlin on a Fulbright Research Grant.

Helen Fehervary published "The Literature of the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1990," in The Cambridge History of German Literature, ed. Helen Watanabe O'Kelly (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 393-439; "Die Seelenlandschaft der Netty Reiling, die Stimmen der Jeanne d'Arc und der Chiliasmus des Kommunarden Lszl Radvnyi," in Argonautenschiff: Jahrbuch der Anna-Seghers-Gesellschaft, 5 (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1996), 118-136; and "Der 'gotische' Realismus der Anna Seghers und das Moment der 'Erlsung' in Heiner Mllers 'Die Umsiedlerin,'" in Argonautenschiff 5, 87-105. She presented the response to Jost Hermand's "Looking Back at Heiner Mller" at the Twenty-Eighth Wisconsin Workshop "Contentious Memories: Looking Back at the GDR," University of Wisconsin, Madison, Nov. 14-16, 1996; and was awarded an International Research and Exchanges Board Travel Grant for research in Budapest at the Hungarian Academy of the Sciences, Georg Lukcs Archive, Szchnyi Library, and Petfi Literary Museum in May, 1997.

Helen Fehervary has been named General Editor of the new Critical Edition of Anna Seghers' Collected Works in 16-20 volumes to be published in the course of the next decade by Aufbau Verlag in Berlin.

Bernd Fischer was appointed Co-Editor of the German Quarterly. He presented: "Achim von Arnim's Wintergarten als zeitpolitisches Programm," Kolloquium der Internationalen Arnim-Gesellschaft, Schlo Wiepersdorf, Germany, 4 Jul. 1997; "Tolerance as Prejudice: A Dilemma of the Enlightenment's Universalist Discovery of Particularism," Formes et Dynamiques de l'Exclusion-Colloque International, UNESCO, Paris, France, 24 June 1997; "National Intentionalities in German Literature before 1815," Inaugural Lecture, College of Humanities, OSU, Columbus, 13 May 1997; "Arminius Debates Arminius: Ulrich von Hutten's Mythohistorical Construction of German Identity," Modern Language Association, Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 27 Dec. 1996; "Untenable Identities: Nationhood in German Literature and Thought," University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2 Dec. 1996; "Deutschland ist (nicht), wo die deutsche Literatur ist: Strukturen nationaler Literaturgeschichtsschreibung," German Studies Association, Annual Conference, Seattle, 12 Oct. 1996; also served as commentator on the panel "Narrative Strategies in Nineteenth Century Texts" on 11 Oct. 1996.

Anna Grotans published "Notker's Nova rhetorica in Fifteenth-Century Bavaria," Oxford German Studies 25 (1996): 46-89. She reviewed Martin Irvine's Making of Textual Culture, in Arbitrium; Ursula Schaefer's Schriftlichkeit im frhen Mittelalter, in JEGP; and Notker der Deutsche, De interpretatione, Evelyn S. Firchow, ed., in German Quarterly. She presented "Deutschunterricht in Notkers St. Gallen," Theodisca Colloquium, Munich 1997; and "Medieval Punctuation," Manuscripta Conference, St. Louis University, Oct. 1996. She was awarded a Fulbright Junior Scholar Award to spend the 1997/98 academic year at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the University of Munich working on her book, Reading in Medieval St. Gall. She received a DAAD Study Visit Grant and NEH Summer Stipend.

Gregor Hens published "Zehn Jahre Auslschung," Festschrift fr Bertold Htten, Eds. Joseph Bhmer et al. (Goch: Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck, 1997). He reviewed Renate Bartsch, Situations, Tense, and Aspect (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995), for the American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures; and Hammer's German Grammar and Usage, 2nd ed. Rev. by Martin Durrell. (Chicago: NTC Publishing Group, 1995) for the Modern Language Journal. He presented "Constructional Mimicry" in the Linguistics Speaker Series at Ohio State, and "Absolute Prosa: Der Roman Holzfllen von Thomas Bernhard" at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (The Netherlands), where he was a visiting scholar during the Winter Quarter. He chaired a panel on German syntax at the third Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, in Apr. 1997 and served as co-editor of the Society for Germanic Philology Newsletter. In 1996 he served as resident director of the Ohio State Summer Program in Dresden.

Dagmar Lorenz published Keepers of the Motherland: German Texts by Jewish Women Writers (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997); "Austrian Authors and the Dilemma of National and Regional Identity at the End of the Twentieth Century," Modern Austrian Literature 29 (1996): 13-29; "Die schne Jdin in Stifters Abdias und Grillparzers Die Jdin von Toledo," Jahrbuch der Grillparzer-Gesellschaft, 3. Folge, vol. 19 (1996): 125-139; "From the Shadows into Silence: What Remains of the World of Milena Jesenska. Nadja Seelich's Film Sie sa im Glashaus und warf mit Steinen in Context." Out from the Shadows. Essays on Contemporary Austrian Women Writers and Filmmakers. Ed. Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger (Riverside: Ariadne Press, 1997): 277-292; "The Pluralist Paradigm: The Anti-Idealism of Austrian Literature." Geschichte der sterreichischen Literatur I, Ed. Donald G. Daviau and Herbert Arlt. sterreichische und Internationale Literaturprozesse. St. Ingbert: Rhrig Universittsverlag, 1996: 66-76; 'Anti-Semitism in the Tradition of German Discourse: The Path to the Holocaust." New Perspectives on the Holocaust. A Guide for Teachers and Scholars, Ed. Rochelle L. Millen (New York and London: New York University Press, 1996): 70-90; "Austrian Literature": (28-31); "Bachmann, Ingeborg": (37-39); "Jewish Woman, Beautiful": (264-266); "Wild Woman." The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature. Ed. Friederike Eigler and Susanne Kord (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997): (561-562); "Doderer, Heimito von": (346-347); "Roth, Joseph": (1036-37); "Professor Bernhardi. Play by Arthur Schnitzler, 1912." Reference Guide to World Literature (London: St. James Press, 1996): (1098-1099).

She reviewed Hanswurst und der Staat. Eine kleine Geschichte der Komik von Mozart bis Thomas Bernhard, by Gerhard Scheit. Modern Austrian Literature 30/2 (1997): 144-5; Wiener Moderne, by Dagmar Lorenz. Modern Austrian Literature 30/1 (1997): 131-133; Im Visier des FBI. Deutsche Schriftsteller in den Akten amerikanischer Geheimdienste, by Alexander Stephan. Michigan Germanic Studies 20/1 (1997): 81-83; Das Feld des Vergessens. Jdischer Widerstand und deutsche "Vergangenheitsbewltigung," by Ingrid Strobl. Seminar 32/3 (1996): 355-6; Treibgut. Das vergessene Werk George Saikos, by Renate Posthofen. Modern Austrian Literature 29/2 (1996): 158-160; Auf da sie entsteigen der Dunkelheit. Die literarische Bewltigung von KZ-Erfahrung, by Andrea Reiter. Seminar 32/2 (1996): 178-180; Modern Language Review 92/1 (1997): 250-1; Brcken ber dem Abgrund. Auseinandersetzungen mit jdischer Leidenserfahrung. Antisemitismus und Exil, Ed. Amy Colin and Elisabeth Strenger. Modern Austrian Literature 29/1 (1996): 131-133; Gertrud Kolmar - Leben und Werk, by Johanna Woltmann. Seminar 32/1 (1996): 85-87. She presented "Man and Animal. The Discourse of Exclusion and Genocide and Some of Its Critics: Kafka, Kolmar, Canetti." "Dans Les Societs Contemporaines: Injustice et Discrimination. Formes et Dynamiques de l'exclusion." Colloque International, UNESCO, Paris, June 1997; "Das Wien der Zwischenkriegszeit aus der Perspektive zweier jdischer Autoren: Veza und Elias Canetti." Arbeitsgemeinschaft Geschichte und Kultur der Juden. Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, June 1997; "Separate Reality, Separate Nations? Austria in the Works of Jewish and non-Jewish Authors." Twelfth Annual Symposium on Austrian Literature and Culture. "Austria in Literature." University of California, Riverside, Apr. 1997; "Aufklrung versus Haskole" (together with Neil Jacobs). Midwest Jewish Studies Association, Annual Meeting. Chicago, Oct. 1996; "Fremde Heimat: Die Zweite Republik aus der Perspektive sterreichischer Autorinnen (Aichinger, Bachmann, Haushofer und Frischmuth." Twentieth Annual Conference, German Studies Association. Seattle, Oct. 1996.

Carol Ludtke Prigan reviewed Jurek Becker, Ende des Grenwahns, World Literature Today, Winter 1997; Nadine Gordimer, Writing and Being, World Literature Today, Winter 1996; and Brigitte Burmeister, Unter dem Namen Norma, World Literature Today, Winter 1996. She presented "Rosa Luxemburg, Marxism, and Feminism," The First Women's Movement, Ohio State University, May 1997.

Linda Haverty Rugg translated Room Service: Tales of Eastern Europe, a collection of essays by Swedish journalist and literary writer Richard Swartz.

Gregory Wolf presented "'Cowardice, or the Devil Made Him Do It': Suicide in the Cultural Context of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Group for Early Modern Culture Studies Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Sept. 1996; and "Lessing's Reception of Shaftesbury and his Rejection of Enthusiasm," Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Apr. 1997. He organized "Germany in Black and White," a photography exhibit by Dan Maynor in the Max Kade German House. He accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor at Michigan State University for the 1997-98 academic year

Graduate Student News

DEGREES AWARDED:

M.A.: Andrea Herzog, Yogini Joglekar, Andrea Lese

Ph.D: Ester Riehl, "Die fhige Hausfrau erhlt den Staat: Family, Nation, and State in Nineteenth-Century German and Austrian Literature"

HONORS AND AWARDS:
OSU Presidential Fellowship: Elizabeth Lntz
OSU Graduate School Alumni Research Award: Elizabeth Lntz
Graduate Student Departmental Research Paper Award: Folke-Christine Mller-Sahling, Jennifer William
Honorable Mention: Barbara Schnig
Graduate Student Departmental Service Award: Elizabeth Lntz

Goethe Institut's Zentrale Mittelstufenprfung: Rachel Lindsay, Jennifer William

Study Abroad Awards, 1997-98:
Cindy Chalupa (Freie Universitt Berlin Fellowship)
Robert Fuhrmann (FLAS Fellowship); (Melton Center Travel Grant)
Renee Jenkins (Universitt Bonn Exchange Program)
Andrea Lese (Universitt Bonn Exchange Program)
Rachel Lindsay (Universitt Humboldt Exchange Program)
Elizabeth Lntz (FLAS Fellowship)

PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS:
Stephen Benner presented "Amalia's Silence: Sex, Power and Textuality in Kafka's Schlo" at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference.

Sai Bhatawadekar presented "The Interpretation of Franz Kafka's novel Der Proze by Orson Welles in his film The Trial" at the Graduate Forum of the Department.
David Connolly published "Using Walter Benjamin's Notion of Aura to Understand Modern Popular Music," Issues of Performance in Politics and the Arts, Berkeley: Berkeley Academic Press, 1997; and wrote a booknote for the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences on Wilhelm Scherer, Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, Amsterdam Classics in Linguistics, v. 16, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1995. He presented "The Swords of Beowulf and the Semiosis of Not-so-lethal Weapons" at the 1997 Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University.

Robert Fuhrmann published "Lowe-Porter, Helen Tracy," American National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997. He presented "German Images, Polish Words," Images of Germany: Perceptions and Conceptions, McGill University, Montreal; "What Muir did to Kafka: A Christian Trial," Power and Translation Conference, University of Warwick, England; "Metamorphosizing Kafka: Willa and Edwin Muir," Midwestern Graduate Seminar in German Studies, Chicago; and "Masculine Form/Feminine Writing: The Autobiography of Fanny Lewald," Memory, History and Critique: European Culture at the Millenium, ISSEI Conference, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Aug. 1996; and participated in the Central European University's seminar in Jewish Studies in Budapest.

Stephanie Libbon presented "Conceptualizing Sexual Freedom in Frank Wedekind's Lulu-Plays" at the First German Women's Movement: Concepts and Conflicts in German Literature and Culture, The Ohio State Univesity, May 1997.

Elizabeth Lntz presented "Women in Conflict: Bertha Pappenheim's Kmpfe," The First German Women's Movement: Concepts and Conflicts in German Literature and Culture, The Ohio State University, May 1997; "Aras ren's Eine Verspte Abrechnung oder Der Aufstieg der Gndogdus: A Turkish-German Odyssey," Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville; and "Stereotyped Jewish Speech in a Nazi Propaganda Film: Veit Harlan's Jud S," Holocaust Studies Conference, Middle Tennessee State University. She chaired a panel entitled "Turkish German Novelists," Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville, KY; and was a commentator at the Holocaust Studies Conference, Middle Tennessee State University. She received Fritz Halber's Fellowship in German-Jewish History and Culture from the Leo Baeck Institute; and was initiated into the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.

Folke-Christine Mller-Sahling published "'Tierischer Ernst': Zu Erich Frieds Sprichwrtlicher Lyrik," PROVERBIUM. Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship, v. 13, 1996. She presented "Saliha Scheinhardts Die Stadt und das Mdchen: Eine Herausforderung an die Migrantenliteratur oder die Begnstigung nationaler Klischeevorstellungen?" Twentieth Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville, KY and at the OSU Departmental Graduate Student Presentation Series, May 1997. She taught with Professor Haas in Austria this summer at AIMS, the Austrian Institute for Musical Studies in Graz.

Ester Riehl presented "Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's Bozena: A Czech Maid and the Future of Austria" at the Austrian Studies Symposium, University of California, Riverside; and "Motherhood and Morality in Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach's Bozena" First German Women's Movement: Concepts and Conflicts in German Literature and Culture, The Ohio State University, May 1997.

Undergraduate Student News

Graduates in 1996-97:
Steven Barnhart, Stephanie Bourgeois-Fend, John Frenz, Mary Grantham, Elliot Hunter, Melissa Keeley, Melissa Mason, Jodie Mowrey, Jamie O'Brien, Richard Parks, Biff Prater, Jennifer Rekas, Melinda Snyder, Brian Tremont

Dean's List:
Katie Baltes, Emily Black, Gretchen Freemen, Sarah Parrot

Dieter Cunz Award:
Sarah Parrot

Ilsedore Edse Scholarship Award:
David Kleinberg, Melinda Snyder

Werner Haas Undergraduate Essay Award:
Karen Logue

Diane M. Cummins Scholarship:
Joshua Cabes, Dawn Polasky

Goethe Institut's Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache:
David Kleinberg, Ethan Morss, Melinda Snyder

Goethe Institut's Zentrale Mittelstufenprfung:
Peter Gephardt

Dresden Travel Grants:
Christopher Bush, Jessica Crouch, Sarah Freeman, Rebecca Hendrickson, Sean Martin, Rebecca Mayne, Jodie Mowrey, Robert Rauch, Dagfinn Senturia

Annual Department Theatrical Production

--Jennifer William

On May 16-17, undergraduate and graduate students displayed their combined efforts with three performances of Johann Nepomuk Nestroy's play "Der Talisman," a Viennese satire which originally premiered in 1840. This successful production was the result of several months of planning, role memorization, rehearsals, and teamwork by the students. The extracurricular interaction provided an enjoyable learning experience, while at the same time promoting camaraderie among students. The play also linked campus and community, as the audiences for each performance consisted not only of faculty members and students from various disciplines, but also of Columbus residents not affiliated with the university.

The leading role, that of the red-haired apprentice Titus Feuerfuchs, was played by graduate student Nikhil Sathe, who also directed the production. In the play, Titus faces discrimination stemming from a folk prejudice against those with the misfortune of being born with red hair. After his humorous schemes involving wigs of different colors eventually fail, Titus gives up his attempts to climb the social ladder and resolves to marry the fiery-haired and likewise ridiculed Salome, a role played by Karen Logue.

Such prejudice against the differing minority was common in rural areas during Nestroy's time and unfortunately still exists in the world today, in many forms and with many targets. It was with this premise in mind that a contemporary dimension was bestowed upon this production of "Der Talisman." Three scenes were inserted from other literary works which highlight the theme of unwarranted discrimination: from the Enlightenment era, the ring parable in G.E. Lessing's "Nathan der Weise"; a courtroom scene from Peter Weiss's "Die Ermittlung," detailing atrocities against Jews from the point of view of a Holocaust survivor; and finally, an excerpt from Robert Schneider's "Dreck," which calls attention to the problem of xenophobia in Europe today. The characters who drifted into the play for these additional scenes, at some junctures even interacting with the "Talisman" characters, served as reminders of the prevalence of prejudice and its potentially devastating consequences.

German Club

The German Club is a member-oriented society whose main interests are to offer a socially enjoyable, yet educational opportunity to speak German and to learn more about German history, culture, and life. The membership is diverse, consisting of graduate and undergraduate students studying German, native German speakers, and other individuals from the community interested in German. One does not need to speak German to attend, but German conversation is encouraged in this informal setting. Stammtisch is held on Thursdays at 9:00p.m. at Larry's on High Street. Current information and meeting times can be found on the German Club page.

Kaffeestunde

Hosted by both faculty members and graduate students, Kaffeestunde is an opportunity to practice German conversation with students and faculty, while enjoying coffee, tea, and refreshments provided by the department.

Alumnae/i News

Tom Baginski (Ph.D. 1990) was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and granted tenure at the University of Charleston, S.C. He reviewed Jrg Matthias Roche and Mark Joel Webber, Fr- und Wider-Sprche (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995) in Modern Language Journal, 80.3 (1996): 420-21; and presented "Gino Chiellino's Essayistic Writing and His Lyric Poetry," German Studies Association Conference, Seattle, Oct. 1996.

Kathleen Bunten (Ph.D. 1978), is Features and Picture Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly magazine, published by Jane's Information Group, part of International Thomson. She is responsible for writing and editing features, covering Eastern Europe, and developing the magazine's photographic coverage, particularly digital imaging. Travel last year took her to Bosnia, where she reported on international peacekeeping forces; to the Persian Gulf for a joint US-British naval exercise; and to St. Petersburg and Moscow for briefings by Russian surface ship and submarine design bureaux. She also translated Kohl: Genius of the Present: A Biography of Helmut Kohl, by Karl Hugo Pruys, published 1996 by edition q, inc.

Garry Fourman (M.A. 1982), is Chair of the Foreign Language Department at Columbus State University.

Dave Limburg (Ph.D. 1992), Assistant Professor at Guilford College, reviewed Lernen leichter machen. Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Ute Rampillon. Modern Language Journal, Spring 1997: 132-3. He was faculty leader for the Guilford College semester abroad program in Munich, Fall 1996; and passed his four-year review, the second of three evaluation years in the tenure process.

Egon Schwarz (M.A. 1951), Professor at Washington University, St. Louis, reviewed the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Foreign Scholars. He published "Eine kleine Phnomerrologie des Lesens" in Wespurnest Nr. 104; "Ein Erfahrungsbericht" in "Forschungsinstitut fr Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften" University of Siegen; and book reviews in the Neue Zricher Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He lectured at the University of rebro, Sweden on Austrian Emigration; the University of Tbingen on Thomas Mann; the Department of Culture of the City of Augsburg on Hermann Hesse; the National Library, Buenos Aires on German Exiles; the Austrian Society for Literature on Thomas Mann, Hofmannthal and Roth; the University of Siegen on Thomas Mann; Washington University on Johann Nestroy. He read from his autobiography in the cities of Siegen, Wrzburg, rebro and Vienna.

Amy Kepple Strawser (Ph.D. 1991), Visiting Assistant Professor at Denison University (Fall 1996) and Ohio Wesleyan University and Ohio Dominican College (Spring 1997), published the following entries in The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature, Ed. Friederike Eigler and Susanne Kord (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997): "Ballad," "Figurengedichte," "Gedankenlyrik," "Hermetic Poetry," "Political Poetry/Songs," "Prose Poetry."

Karin Wurst (Ph.D. 1984), Associate Professor at Michigan State University, edited and introduced Eleonore Thon's "Adelheit von Rastenberg." Texts and Translation Series. New York: MLA, 1996. She published "Brgerliches Trauerspiel"; and "Epistolary Culture/Epistolary Novel" in The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature. Eds. Friederike Eigler and Susanne Kord (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997); "Spurensicherung: Elise Brgers Einakter Die Antike Statue aus Florenz (1814) als Beispiel dramatischer Experimente an der Jahrhundertwende" Goethe Yearbook VIII (1996): 210-237; "Negotiations of Containment: The "Trivial" Tradition and Elise Brgers's 'Adelheit, Grfinn von Teck' (1799)" Thalia's Daughters. German Women Dramatists From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Eds. Susan Cocalis, Ferrel Rose (Tbingen: Franke, 1996): 35-51; "Der gekreuzigte Prometheus. J.M.R. Lenz: Wirkungsgeschichte in Literaturwissenschaft und Kritik" Ich aber werde dunkel sein. Ein Buch zur Ausstellung J.M.R. Lenz Hrsg. Ulrich Kauffmann et al. (Jena: Bussert, 1996): 109-116. She reviewed Volker Demuth, Realitt als Geschichte. Biographie, Historie und Dichtung bei J.M.R. Lenz. Monatshefte 89.1 (1997): 93-95; Daniel Wilson and Robert Holub, Impure Reason. Dialectic of Enlightenment in Germany, Colloquia Germanica 29.2 (1996): 165-167; Gnther Sae, Liebe und Ehe, Colloquia Germanica 29.1 (1996): 63-64. She presented "The Foremothers of the First Feminist Movement," Ohio State University, May 1997; and "Fashion and the Fashion Journal in Late Eighteenth-Century Culture: Bertuch's Journal des Luxus und der Moden" Midwest Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies, Indianapolis, Oct. 1996; "Elise Brger and the Gothic Imagination" German Studies Association, Seattle, Oct. 1996.

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