Bücher von Rebecca Steltner

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject German Studies - Comparative Literature, grade: 65 (ca. 2+), University of Cambridge (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages), course: German Autobiography, language: English, abstract: The Poetics of Memory and Fragment in Max Frisch's Montauk and Peter Handke's Wunschloses UnglückNägele warns of the dangers of proclaiming a general trend towards autobiographical fiction in the 60s and 70s and de Man even doubts the existence and status of the genre. Therefore, I want to aim at a simple comparative perspective and just look at the comments Max Frisch and Peter Handke make on memory (and so inevitably also on the self and our perception of self) in Montauk (1975) and Wunschloses Unglück (1974).The extent to which these works really are autobiographical is irrelevant. It is not whether or not a text is autobiographical and what it tells us about the author's life that is interesting. How one author fictionalises a personal event is also obviously impossible for criticism to analyse (and subconscious). What interests me is not how Montauk (M) and Wunschloses Unglück (WU) are two examples of the genre of autobiography but what they disclose about the processes of literary production in general and what this can reveal about our perception and reminiscence of experiences, and how it contributes to the 'invention' of the self.[...]

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Didactics - French - Literature, Works, grade: A, University of Canterbury (School of European Culture and Languages), course: Seminar, language: English, abstract: Gérard de Nerval's Sylvie. Souvenirs du Valois, published in 1853, is an exploration of time and memory, dream and reality. The first person narrator is also the main character, who is indecisive and cannot commit himself to any of the three women in his life: Aurélie, Sylvie and Adrienne.The narrator of Sylvie is unreliable because his perspective is severely distorted. Sometimes his memory fails him and he does not understand his own motives and behaviour, which is both passive and impulsive at the same time. The story he tells us is about himself and only himself, because he has little understanding of the people around him.It is obvious that the narrator of Sylvie is indeed lost in illusions - this is partly symbolised by the colour descriptions and the fact that most of the novella is set at night and in 'a dark forest' - but does that really mean that he actually prefers the state of illusion or reverie to that of clear-headedness and rationality?In order to find an answer, first we have to look at the specific aspects that he is deluded about. This will certainly reveal the narrator's character and we can then go on and with the help of such psychological concepts as the of the ego's mechanisms of defence determine whether it is possible to say, that the narrator of Sylvie positively prefers illusion to reality.[...]

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2003 in the subject Romance Studies - Comparative Studies, grade: 67 Punkte (2+) (B+), University of Canterbury (School of European Culture and Languages), language: English, abstract: To begin with I shall present an overview of some of the most common or most debated interpretations of the two novels and the issues they raise. I also question whether it is legitimate to compare Camus¿ L¿étranger, which is often read alongside his philosophical essay Le Mythe de Sisyph,e to Kafkäs Der Proceß, which might be expressive of a philosophy but whose author only ever expressed himself in literary writing. In the following the novels are then compared simultaneously and their similarities and differences examined from different angles, such as their treatment of their common theme of ¿law, guilt and trial¿ in part two, which I see partly under the aspect of the absurd. The idea of the absurd is also relevant when comparing the two main characters Josef K. and Meursault later on.For the further interpretation of both the characters, but especially to solve the riddles surrounding Meursault¿s nature and the questions of reader¿s sympathy, the narrative perspective is crucial and is examined in part four. Subsequently, the theme of philosophical ideas being expressed in literary form becomes important again as I look at the use of image and symbolism in L¿étranger and Der Proceß as well as at the genres of the French récit and parable and the philosophical and literary implications of the choice of genre, symbolism or narrative perspective.Kafkäs Der Proceß and Camus¿ L¿étranger have one important thing in common and that is that both are extremely rich novels which can be read according to a large number of codes (or preconceptions). Camus himself has praised Der Proceß ¿It is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing¿, (Sisyphus, p. 124). This is certainly a principle that Camus aspires to in his own fiction and successfully as Thody confirms: ¿L¿étranger seems to be inexhaustible in the different ways in which it can be analysed¿3. I hope to be able to do justice to these many angles and show how rich these two novels are.To summarise some of the many interpretations of Kafkäs Der Proceß let me begin with a political reading...