Search results for ""Author Sarah Colvin""

First specialized study of Meinhof and the RAF in English, focusing on their use of language to justify extreme violence. In 1970 Ulrike Meinhof abandoned a career as a political journalist to join the Red Army Faction; captured as a terrorist along with other members of the group in 1972, she died an unexplained death in a high-security prison in 1976. A charismatic spokesperson for the RAF, she has often come near to being idealized as a freedom fighter, despite her use of extreme violence. In an effort to understand how terrorism takes root, Sarah Colvin seeks a dispassionate view of Meinhof and a period when West Germany was declaring its own "war on terror." Ulrike Meinhof always remained a writer, and this book focuses on the role of language in her development and that of the RAF: how Meinhof came to justify violence to the point of murder, creating an identity for the RAF as resistance fighters in an imagined state of war that was reinforced by the state's adoption of what Andreas Musolff has called "war terminology."But its all-powerful identity as a fighting group eroded the RAF's empathy with other human beings -- even those it once claimed to be "fighting for." It became a closed unit, self-justifying and immobilized by its own convictionthat everything it did must be right. This is the first specialized study of Meinhof and the RAF in English -- which is remarkable given the current interest in the topic in both Europe and the U.S. Sarah Colvin is Professor and Eudo C. Mason Chair of the German Department at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Read more less

As Nelson Mandela said, ‘a nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.’ Shadowland tells the sometimes inspiring, often painful stories of Germany’s prisoners, and thereby shines new light on Germany itself. The story begins at the end of the Second World War, in a defeated country on the edge of collapse, in which orphaned and lost children are forced to live rough, scavenging and stealing to stay alive, often laying the foundations of a ‘criminal career’. While East Germany developed detention facilities for its secret police, West Germany passed prison reform laws, which erected, in the words of a prisoner, ‘little asbestos walls in Hell’. Shadowland is Germany as seen through the lives, experiences, triumphs and tragedies of its lowest citizens.

Read more less

Volume focusing on a multitude of incarnations and meanings of "masculinity" in German culture from medieval times to the present. Intended to encourage and disseminate lively and open discussion of themes pertinent to German Studies, viewed from all angles -- literary, artistic, musical, theoretical -- Edinburgh German Yearbook takes particular interest in cultural problems and issues arising out of politics and history. Each year, EGYB invites scholarly contributions on a topic of current challenge to German Studies. No other yearbook covers the entire field of GermanStudies while addressing a focused theme in each issue; by doing so, EGYB aims to encourage real debate around the issues at hand. Volume 2 examines the meanings and significance of "masculinity" in German culture, from medieval mystics to the cultural impact of young male immigrants living in Germany today. Other topics include medieval masculinity, the heroic Germanic ideal in the 16th and 17th centuries, masculinity in fairy tales, Jewishness andthe masculine, toys for boys in Wilhelmine Germany, the science of sexology, and the masculine as it appears in photography, fashion, army magazines, terrorism, and prison culture. Contributors: Peter Davies, Cordula Politis, Theresia Heimerl, Franziska Ziep, Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly, Hanne Boenisch, Antje Roeben, Laura Martin, Kristiane Gerhardt, Michael Gratzke, Martin Lücke, Stephanie Catani, Bryan Ganaway, Jason Lieblang, David James Prickett, Katie Sutton, Elisabeth Krimmer, Franz Bokel, Andrew Bickford, Ingrid Sharp, Clare Bielby, Sarah Colvin, Elke Gilson, Frauke Matthes. Sarah Colvin is Professor and Eudo C. Mason Chair of German, and Peter Davies is Senior Lecturer in German, both at the University of Edinburgh.

Read more less

Explores both constants and changes in representations of warlike and violent women in German culture over the past six centuries. Warlike women are a recurring phenomenon in German literature and culture since 1500. Amazons, terrorists, warrior women -- this volume of essays by leading scholars from the UK and Germany analyzes ideas and portrayals of these figures in the visual arts, society, media, and scholarship, always against the backdrop of Germany's development as a culture and as a nation. The contributors look for patterns in the historical portrayal of warlike women, askingthe questions: What cultural signals are sent when women are shown occupying men's spaces by dressing as warriors or in men's clothing? What can legitimize the woman who bears arms? From what is the erotic potential of images linking women and violence derived? Have recent feminist thought and political developments changed representations of warlike women? Contributors: Bettina Brandt, Sarah Colvin, Mererid Puw Davies, Peter Davies, ChristineEifler, Ute Frevert, Kathrin Hoffmann-Curtius, Ritchie Robertson, Daria Santini, Ruth Seifert, Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly. Sarah Colvin is Eudo C. Mason Chair of German at the University of Edinburgh. Helen Watanabe-O'Kellyis Professor of German at Oxford University and Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford.

Read more less