Browsing by Author "Carstensen, Thorsten"

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    Alfred Kantorowicz: Writing and Exile
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Carstensen, Thorsten
    My research project seeks to reconstruct the life and work of the German-Jewish journalist-cum-academic Alfred Kantorowicz (1899-1979), a major figure in twentieth-century intellectual history whose writings are mostly forgotten today. I have embarked on a book-length study that re-examines Kantorowicz in the context of what could be called his nearly lifelong status as an émigré. Based on his unpublished papers, which are housed at the Hamburg State and University Library, my book traces Kantorowicz’ evolution from one of the foremost cultural critics of the Weimar Republic to his prominent role in the German-speaking exile community in New York during World War II to his wanderings in the intellectual minefield between West-German reconstruction and GDR Communism after 1945. Alfred Kantorowicz thus emerges as the tragic representative of the ideological struggles that shaped the twentieth century and continue to frame German’s position in the world today. Alfred Kantorowicz’s biography demonstrates the experience of exile in the twentieth century in a exemplary manner. After working as a cultural correspondent for well-known liberal German newspapers such as the Vossische Zeitung throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Kantorowicz left Germany when the Nazi party rose to power in 1933. He spent the next thirteen years in exile, publishing frantically, deepening friendships with fellow emigrants, and promoting anti-fascist German culture abroad. First, he settled in Paris, where he established the “Library of the Burned Books.” In 1937, he enlisted as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. After the fall of France in 1940 and a brief period of incarceration, he managed to escape. Finally, he obtained an American visa and secured passage on a boat out of Marseille; in June 1941, he arrived in the United States. For the next five and a half years, Kantorowicz lived in New York, where he once again worked as a journalist while dedicating himself to the plight of German writers under the Nazis. Upon his return to East Germany in 1947, Kantorowicz initially became a respected figure in intellectual circles. He founded Ost und West (1947-1949), a journal devoted to reconciling the ideological differences between West and East Germany, served as the editor of Heinrich Mann’s collected works, and was eventually appointed Professor of German Literature at Berlin’s Humboldt University in 1950. Soon enough, however, his skepticism regarding the Socialist Party began to affect his tenure at Humboldt. In 1957, unwilling to succumb to the regime’s idea of conformity, Kantorowicz defected to West Germany, where he, his precarious position as a renegade Communist notwithstanding, carved out a niche for himself as a scholar of German exile literature, an academic field virtually uncharted at the time. Conceived as both an intellectual biography and a comprehensive study of Kantorowicz’ writings on the nexus of exile and literature, my book focuses primarily on the time between his departure for New York in 1941 and his death in 1979. Currently, I am researching the unpublished lectures he gave during his tenure at Humboldt University in the 1950s. Here, my interest lies in how Kantorowicz approaches German writers such as Goethe, Keller, and Rilke by subjecting their texts to the state-mandated practice of Marxist literary criticism. I will submit an early version of this chapter to one of the leading German Studies journals this summer.
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    Colliding Worlds: The Disintegration of America in the Cinema of the Coen Brothers
    (Cambridge, 2019-05) Carstensen, Thorsten; World Languages and Cultures, School of Liberal Arts
    In the cinema of Joel and Ethan Coen, contemporary America is depicted as an incoherent space in which traditional beliefs constantly collide with the new world order. Shaped by the erosion of commonly accepted values and the ubiquitous presence of the media and advertisements, this hybrid America is a world of commerce, consumption, and economic plight. While its cities are plagued by segregation, outbursts of casual violence undermine the myth of an unspoiled life in the countryside. Illustrating postmodern culture's preference for the periphery versus the center, the movies of the Coen brothers find a glimmer of morality remaining on the margin of society. Unimposing and compassionate characters such as the pregnant small-town detective in Fargo or the naive yet brilliant protagonist of The Hudsucker Proxy personify an idealistic, innocent America that is about to be displaced by selfish greed. Focusing on Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and The Man Who Wasn't There, my essay argues that the Coens’ visual playfulness, and their tendency to mine various cinematic genres, serve to emphasize their scathing critique of the American victory narrative.
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    German Literature and Architecture, 1850-2015
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Carstensen, Thorsten
    Architecture is omnipresent in the European and American literatures of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ever since the publication of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s pamphlet “Von deutscher Baukunst” [On German Architecture] in 1772, modern German literature in particular has been preoccupied with reflecting and responding to the history of building and dwelling. The proliferation of architectural images in German literature often coincides with historical change and upheaval, be it the quest for national identity after the failed German revolution of 1848, colonial aspirations around 1900, rapid urbanization during the Weimar Republic, or the calls for total mobilization in the early 1930s. Scholars, however, have yet to properly address the productive dialogue between German literature and architecture. Most critics focus their discussions on the interrelatedness of identity, narrative, and space. Moreover, studies of textual representations of interiors, facades, or entire cityscapes are often limited to the use of architecture as metaphor. I propose to pursue a broader agenda by reconstructing the architectural knowledge of modern German literature. Situated at the nexus of literary imagination and socio-political events, my current research project argues that literary texts can be seen as built environments interacting with real-world architecture. Literature serves as a cultural archive, capturing architectural traditions, commenting on contemporary fashions, and projecting visions of how we want to live. My in-depth study of the architectural context of modern literature follows four distinctive lines of inquiry: First, what happens when a literary text attempts to produce meaning by incorporating architecture? Second, can we surmise a connection between a text’s architectural references and its implied political agenda? Third, how are literary representations of architecture related to critiques of modernity? And, finally, how does literature reflect socio-political processes such as gentrification and urban sprawl?
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    HBO and the Holocaust: Conspiracy, the historical film, and public history at Wannsee
    (2016-12) Johnson, Nicholas K.; Haberski, Raymond J.; Carstensen, Thorsten; Cramer, Kevin
    In 2001, Home Box Office aired Conspiracy, a dramatization of the infamous Wannsee Conference organized by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. The Conference took place in Berlin on 20 January 1942 and was intended to coordinate the Final Solution by asserting the dominance of Heydrich and the SS over other governmental departments. The surviving Wannsee Protocol stands as one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the Third Reich’s genocidal intent and emblematic of its shift from mass shootings in the occupied East to industrial-scale murder. Conspiracy, written by Loring Mandel and directed by Frank Pierson, is an unusual historical film because it reenacts the Wannsee Conference in real time, devoid of the usual clichés prevalent throughout Holocaust films. It also engages with historiographical arguments and makes a few of its own. This thesis argues that dramatic film has been relatively ignored by the public history field and uses Conspiracy as a case study for how dramatic film and television can be used to further the goals of public history, especially that of making complex and difficult histories accessible to wide audiences. Grounded in a thorough reading of script drafts, production notes, HBO meeting minutes, and correspondence, this thesis examines Conspiracy from the vantage point of scholarship in public history, film studies, and Holocaust studies. It details the film’s production history, the sources used for the film, the claims it makes, and advocates for dramatic film as a powerful public history outlet. Ultimately, this thesis argues that Conspiracy is exactly the type of historical film that historians should be making themselves.
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    Learning from John Ford. History, geography, and epic storytelling in the works of Peter Handke
    (Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, 2021) Carstensen, Thorsten; World Languages and Cultures, School of Liberal Arts
    Historical images originally meant for one national audience can nevertheless influence audiences worldwide. In this contribution, the transatlantic transfer of historical images at the microlevel is analyzed. The author explores how John Ford’s depiction of the American West profoundly influenced Austrian writer Peter Handke, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature. Handke’s work is full of direct and indirect references to John Ford’s life and work. Ford was a pioneer of the Western genre and greatly contributed to cementing the West as the American epic myth. Handke’s ideas about America and the West, as well as many aspects of his artistic life, can be directly traced to the cinema of John Ford, which is characterized by everyday people, the epic landscapes of Monument Valley, and the bonds that hold communities together. For Handke, John Ford served as his teacher; watching Ford’s films was an educational experience about both American history and life itself. Ford’s depictions of the American West imbued Handke with a “prosthetic memory” of the American West without having experienced it firsthand. By examining John Ford’s reception at the microlevel, the author illustrates the power historical images can have over diverse audiences. (DIPF/Orig.)
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    Two Rode Together: Peter Handke Und Das Kino John Fords
    (OpenEdition, 2021) Carstensen, Thorsten; World Languages and Cultures, School of Liberal Arts
    Peter Handke hat das Kino stets als Leitmedium verstanden, dem es in seinen besten Momenten gelingt, den menschlichen Alltag mit epischer Wahrhaftigkeit festzuhalten. Zu den Filmen, die Handke besonders schätzt, da sie dem Publikum universelle Geschichten präsentieren, zählen die klassischen Western John Fords. Seitdem Handke ihn im Roman Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied (1972) zum Lehrmeister erhob, nimmt der Hollywood-Regisseur einen festen Platz in jener eklektischen Riege der „Künstler-Vorfahren“ ein, deren Werke sich im Laufe der Jahrzehnte zu einem konstruktiven Bildungsprogramm gefügt haben: In der fortlaufenden Interaktion mit der epischen Tradition übt Handke die eigenen Wahrnehmungs- und Erzählverfahren ein. Das Kino John Fords erweist sich dabei als reicher Bilderfundus, der dem Schreiben des österreichischen Autors bis heute neue Impulse verleiht.