Copyright (c) 2013 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman Recent documents in Beret Norman en-us Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:55:06 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/11 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/11 Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:30:25 PST This article examines intentional ambiguities of identity in four of Antje Rávic Strubel's novels: Offene Blende (2011, Open Shutter), Snowed Under (2008 Unter Schnee, 2011), Tupolev 134 (2004, Tupolev 134), and Kältere Schichten der Luft (2007, Colder Layers of Air). Strubel's characters fight prescribed roles, travel in search of exits and loopholes, and take on different identities. Strubel plays with uncertainties in these characters to expose fractures in societal norms and traditions and to disrupt society's habitual ways of thinking about identity. Using these various ambiguities, she intentionally disrupts the realistic parameters she has set for her texts.

]]> Beret Norman http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/10 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/10 Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:30:23 PST The novels of Antje Rávic Strubel, one of Germany's most prolific and acclaimed writers, explore ideas about post-Wende identity and agency, from the legacy of the Stasi to the social challenges posed by incestuous or homosexual relationships. Meanwhile, her to nonfiction "user manuals" to Sweden and Potsdam/Brandenburg offer affectionate yet critical insights into her Scandinavian Sehnsuchtsland (land of longing), her place of birth, and her current residence. Strubel's many prizes and achievements include the Klagenfurt Ernst Willner Prize, received for her debut novel Offene Blende in 2001, and a recent long-listing for the German Book Prize for her latest novel, Sturz der Tage in die Nacht (2011).

]]> Beret Norman et al. http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/9 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/9 Tue, 06 Nov 2012 10:03:19 PST Norman discusses the novel’s image of a Klapperstein (rattle stone) as a metaphor for the narrator, in whom fossils of the GDR exist.

]]> Beret Norman http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/7 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/7 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:51:58 PST Beret Norman http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/6 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/6 Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:15:29 PDT All of Austrian filmmaker Barbara Albert’s three feature films, Nordrand (Northern Skirts) (1999), Böse Zellen (Free Radicals) (2003) and Fallen (Falling) (2006), portray human relationships in flux and depict people reacting to changes in the world. These films critique society obliquely as they present damaged figures in their attempts to shape a meaningful existence. Albert always manages to keep the viewer floating on the side of this latter point—that of looking for a meaningful existence, even though the social setting often appears so meaningless and commercialized. In Böse Zellen the building and opening of a new shopping mall play a role in bringing together the many characters’ lives. This film from 2003 and its mall’s offering of a carousel of consumer fantasy masks a sense of alienation in contemporary society; this alienation appears in all of Albert’s films, but it provides specific anti-consumerist ideas in Böse Zellen—a film that successfully empties the promise of consumer happiness.

]]> Beret Norman http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/4 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/4 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:42:22 PDT Beret Norman Publications http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/3 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/3 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:40:16 PDT Beret Norman Publications http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/2 http://works.bepress.com/beret_norman/2 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:38:13 PDT Beret Norman Publications