Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Catastrophe and Catharsis
Perspectives on Disaster and Redemption in German Culture and Beyond
-
Edited by:
Katharina Gerstenberger
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2015
About this book
Essays examining representations of disaster in German and international contexts, exploring the nexus between disruption and recovery through narrative from the eighteenth century to the present.
Destroying human habitat and taking human lives, disasters, be they natural, man-made, or a combination, threaten large populations, even entire nations and societies. They also disrupt the existing order and cause discontinuity in our sense of self and our perceptions of the world. To restore order, not only must human beings be rescued and affected areas rebuilt, but the reality of the catastrophe must also be transformed into narrative. The essays in this collection examine representations of disaster in literature, film, and mass media in German and international contexts, exploring the nexus between disruption and recovery through narrative from the eighteenth century to the present. Topics include the Lisbon earthquake, the Paris Commune, the Hamburg and Dresden fire-bombings in the Second World War, nuclear disasters in Alexander Kluge's films, the filmic aesthetics of catastrophe, Yoko Tawada's lectures on the Fukushima disaster and Christa Wolf's novel Störfall in light of that same disaster, Joseph Haslinger and the tsunami of 2004, traditions regarding avalanche disaster in the Tyrol, and the problems and implications of defining disaster.
Contributors: Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, Yasemin Dayioglu-Yücel, Janine Hartman, Jan Hinrichsen, Claudia Jerzak, Lars Koch, Franz Mauelshagen, Tanja Nusser, Torsten Pflugmacher, Christoph Weber.
Katharina Gerstenberger is Professor and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah. Tanja Nusser is DAAD Visiting Associate Professor of German at the University of Cincinnati.
Destroying human habitat and taking human lives, disasters, be they natural, man-made, or a combination, threaten large populations, even entire nations and societies. They also disrupt the existing order and cause discontinuity in our sense of self and our perceptions of the world. To restore order, not only must human beings be rescued and affected areas rebuilt, but the reality of the catastrophe must also be transformed into narrative. The essays in this collection examine representations of disaster in literature, film, and mass media in German and international contexts, exploring the nexus between disruption and recovery through narrative from the eighteenth century to the present. Topics include the Lisbon earthquake, the Paris Commune, the Hamburg and Dresden fire-bombings in the Second World War, nuclear disasters in Alexander Kluge's films, the filmic aesthetics of catastrophe, Yoko Tawada's lectures on the Fukushima disaster and Christa Wolf's novel Störfall in light of that same disaster, Joseph Haslinger and the tsunami of 2004, traditions regarding avalanche disaster in the Tyrol, and the problems and implications of defining disaster.
Contributors: Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, Yasemin Dayioglu-Yücel, Janine Hartman, Jan Hinrichsen, Claudia Jerzak, Lars Koch, Franz Mauelshagen, Tanja Nusser, Torsten Pflugmacher, Christoph Weber.
Katharina Gerstenberger is Professor and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah. Tanja Nusser is DAAD Visiting Associate Professor of German at the University of Cincinnati.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Katharina Gerstenberger
Katharina Gerstenberger is associate professor of German at the University of Cincinatti.
---
Contributor: Tanja Nusser
TANJA NUSSER is Associate Professor of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati.
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
v -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgments
vii -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1: Tableaux of Terror: The Staging of the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 as Cathartic Spectacle
17 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2: The French Burn Paris, 1871
35 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3: Memory Politics: The Bombing of Hamburg and Dresden
53 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4: Observing the Observation of Nuclear Disasters in Alexander Kluge
73 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5: Rereading Christa Wolf’s Störfall following the 2011 Fukushima Catastrophe
90 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6: Narrating the Untellable: Yoko Tawada and Haruki Murakami as Transnational Translators of Catastrophe
106 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7: Beautiful Destructions: The Filmic Aesthetics of Spectacular Catastrophes
124 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
8: Constellations of Primal Fear in Josef Haslinger’s Phi Phi Island
138 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
9: Avalanche Catastrophes and Disaster Traditions: Anthropological Perspectives on Coping Strategies in Galtür, Tyrol
155 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
10: Defining Catastrophes
172 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Bibliography
191 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes on the Contributors
217 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
221
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 30, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781782046783
Original publisher:
Camden House
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781782046783
Keywords for this book
Catastrophe; Catharsis; Disaster; Redemption; German culture; Perspectives; Eighteenth century; Narrative; Literature; Historical events
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
