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Cultural versus linguistic competence? Bilingualism, language in exile, and the future of German Studies

Article Abstract:

Foreign language departments must resist the pressure of colleges and universities to deteriorate the ability of students to acquire intercultural competence. Many culture studies programs are being forced to choose between viewing themselves as globalized efforts or limited to the study of a single nation's linguistic tradition. Neither is appropriate, since true bilingual education creates intercultural literacy. Following either path may lead to the loss of German Studies as a means for appreciating linguistic nationalism.

Study and teaching, Bilingualism, Biculturalism

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DuBois and Wagner: race, nation, and culture between the United States and Germany

Article Abstract:

Wilhelmine Germany and German culture greatly influenced author and activist, W.E.B. DuBois. His early addresses and essays incorporated discussions of German politics and consciousness in considerations of race relations in the US. DuBois' 'The Souls of Black Folk' used elements of German composer Richard Wagner's 'Lohengrin' to illustrate racial tensions and called attention to emancipatory aspects within the opera.

Influence, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Race relations, Wagner, Richard, Du Bois, W.E.B., Lohengrin (Opera)

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An imagined community: Germany according to Goldhagen

Article Abstract:

The complexity of the Holocaust is reduced to simplistic individuality in Jonah Goldhagen's book 'Hitler's Willing Executioners.' He assigns personal culpability through an unsupported assumption of anti-Semitism originating from patristic Christianity. This reduces the events of the Holocaust and ignores non-individualized acts such as death camps and killing fields.

Portrayals, Antisemitism, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (Book), Goldhagen, Jonah

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