Bücher von Bettina Siebert

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Rostock (Anglistik/ Amerikanistik), course: Early American Literature, US History and Its Aftermath, language: English, abstract: Breaking with the tradition of examining "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne for traces of (proto-)feminism, the paper approaches the idea of gender in analyzing the interplay of the time periods underlying the literary work - the 19th century as the time of writing and Puritan times as the setting of the plot. In the 200 years between the two moments, ideas of gender have changed with commencing ideas of female empowerment in Hawthorne's time. Looking at the shifting understanding of gender, the construction of femininity and masculinity is analyzed with a focus on the two protagonists - Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Overall, the gender relations between the two main characters change into opposite directions. Thus, Hawthorne's writing destabilizes conventional Puritan ideas of pre-ascribed spheres and gender roles. It has become an academic tradition over the past decades to scrutinize historical literary pieces for traces of feminism. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" has been a prime object of interest for several scholars in this pursuit. The story of Hester Prynne who is outlawed by Puritan society after having committed adultery represents an early work to have a protagonist who breaks with the law of her time. This might be the reason why in an earlier tradition the novel has been read with Arthur Dimmesdale, the young reverend and Hester's lover, as the central figure. Approaches involving feminism and gender studies challenged this reading. Their focus however primarilyseems to be the tracing of feminist attitudes in Hawthorne's writing. In this approach the historical perspective of the literary work is often read from a contemporary angle creating a hybrid reading that involves three time frames, namely the Puritan time of theplot, the 19th century setting of the novel's writing and the contemporary moment of thenovel's reading.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Rostock (Anglistik/ Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: Andrea Levy¿s novel "Fruit of the Lemon" confronts issues of migration, racism, belonging, and identification in Britain by following the coming-of-age of a young British woman with Afro-Caribbean roots. Issues concerning identity formation are at the centre of the term paper. The backgrounds of individual and cultural identity formation are reviewed critically focusing on theories by Stuart Hall and others. Identity is understood to be a construct that is changeable and situational thus becoming fluent in response to varying social situations. Conflicts of identity arise within individual identity through the friction between self-understanding and public representation. The paper proposes that the main character and narrator of the story experiences processes of identity formation which enable her to find her place in British society and confront racism. This identity formation is triggered by conflicts created by racist confrontations that lead to the destabilization of the character. The protagonist¿s (re)discovery of her ancestral cultural heritage provide her with a base for forming a multi-facetted identity which enhances her self-understanding and self-esteem.