Tom Bibliographic, Class, Gender, German Outside Germany, Post-1945, Primary, Race/Ethnicity

TESTER FOR JOSH Thomae, Jackie. Brüder (Berlin, 2019)

Please give a short description of the item: what's useful or interesting about it? Thomae's novel is great for anyone teaching courses on masculinity, contemporary depictions of the GDR, German depictions of Britain, and Black German identities. Her two protagonists, one in Berlin and one in London, are the brothers of the title. Their stories … Continue reading TESTER FOR JOSH Thomae, Jackie. Brüder (Berlin, 2019)

Tom Bibliographic, Class, Gender, German Outside Germany, Post-1945, Primary, Race/Ethnicity

Thomae, Jackie. Brüder (Berlin, 2019)

Thomae's novel is great for anyone teaching courses on masculinity, contemporary depictions of the GDR, German depictions of Britain, and Black German identities. Her two protagonists, one in Berlin and one in London, are the brothers of the title. Their stories never intersect, and the narrative twists and turns through a broad range of genres … Continue reading Thomae, Jackie. Brüder (Berlin, 2019)

Tom 1900-1945, Bibliographic, Class, German Outside Germany, Post-1945, Race/Ethnicity, Secondary

Zhang, Chunjie. Composing Modernist Connections in China and Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019).

This edited collection draws links and conversations between Western European art (German, Irish, Austrian) and Chinese modernism. It casts its definition of modernism widely, including modernist Chinese films in divided Germany alongside earlier literary work, and drawing out the web of connections between China and Europe while avoiding cultural hierarchies.

Nicola Bibliographic, Class, Gender, Post-1945, Primary, Queer

Heger, Heinz, Die Männer mit dem rosa Winkel. Der Bericht eines Homosexuellen über seine KZ-Haft von 1939-1945 (Merlin, 1979)

Peter Davies, University of Edinburgh: "I teach a course on Holocaust testimony, touching amongst other things on issues of gender, sexuality, and different victim groups. This text is an early and iconic account from the perspective of an Austrian male homosexual. We look at questions of identity and sexual violence, and at the difficulty of … Continue reading Heger, Heinz, Die Männer mit dem rosa Winkel. Der Bericht eines Homosexuellen über seine KZ-Haft von 1939-1945 (Merlin, 1979)

Tom 1900-1945, Bibliographic, Class, Gender, Primary, Queer

Keun, Irmgard. Das kunstseidene Mädchen (1932; repr. Munich: DTV, 1995)

Keun's Berlin novel is one of the best for exploring gender, sexuality and social change in Berlin of the 1920s and early 1930s. Her protagonist's first-person narration draws on modernism and the inner monologue and investigates her unsettled relationship to herself and to the promise of the city. The novel explores the precarity of many … Continue reading Keun, Irmgard. Das kunstseidene Mädchen (1932; repr. Munich: DTV, 1995)

Tom Bibliographic, Class, Gender, Post-1945, Primary, Queer, Race/Ethnicity, Religion

Zaimoglu, Feridun. German Amok (Frankfurt: Fischer, 2002)

Zaimoglu is perhaps better known for his debut work Kanak Sprak (1995) and the Kanak Attack movement that it inspired. German Amok continues Zaimoglu's interest in masculinity and in the relationship between subcultures and the mainstream in contemporary German society. It follows an artist narrator through his sardonic and scathing critique of the German arts scene, even as … Continue reading Zaimoglu, Feridun. German Amok (Frankfurt: Fischer, 2002)

rich.mcclelland 18th Century, Bibliographic, Class, Gender, Primary

von la Roche, Sophie, Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771)

The first novel to be published by a woman in German, la Roche’s tale centres on the seduction and destruction (to borrow Ellen Pilsworth’s phrase!) of the eponymous protagonist. Told through letters, this novel follows the fate of Sophie as she journeys from her family home to England, where she falls under the spell of … Continue reading von la Roche, Sophie, Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim (1771)

Nicola Bibliographic, Class, Gender, Jewishness, Post-1945, Race/Ethnicity, Secondary

Gelbin, Cathy, Kader Konuk and Peggy Piesche (eds.). Aufbrüche. Kulturelle Produktionen von Migrantinnen, Schwarzen und jüdischen Frauen in Deutschland (Königstein: Ulrike Helmer, 1999).

An edited collection which can be seen as a milestone in diversifying and decolonising the curriculum in German Studies. Cathy Gelbin, one of the co-editors of the book describes it as follows: "This interdisciplinary anthology is regarded by US and German critics as an essential source text on minoritised women in the German-speaking context. Based … Continue reading Gelbin, Cathy, Kader Konuk and Peggy Piesche (eds.). Aufbrüche. Kulturelle Produktionen von Migrantinnen, Schwarzen und jüdischen Frauen in Deutschland (Königstein: Ulrike Helmer, 1999).

Nicola Bibliographic, Class, Jewishness, Post-1945, Race/Ethnicity, Secondary

Steyerl, Hito and Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez (eds.) Spricht die Subalterne deutsch? Migration und postkoloniale Kritik. Münster: Unrast, 2003.

A fiercely intellectual collection exploring the connections between colonialism and contemporary migration in the German context, as well as the issues with transferring postcolonial thought uncritically into the German context. Several essays engage with English-language postcolonial criticism which had recently emerged from Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, while others provide critical genealogies of … Continue reading Steyerl, Hito and Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez (eds.) Spricht die Subalterne deutsch? Migration und postkoloniale Kritik. Münster: Unrast, 2003.