Sophie Discovers Amerika

Cultural and literary historians investigate the unique literary bridge between German-speaking women and the "New World," examining novels, films, travel literature, poetry, erotica, and photography.

Cultural and literary historians investigate the unique literary bridge between German-speaking women and the "New World," examining novels, films, travel literature, poetry, erotica, and photography. In a 1798 novel by Sophie von La Roche, a European woman swims across a cold North American lake seeking help from the local indigenous tribe to deliver a baby. In a 2008 San Francisco travel guide, Milena Moser, the self-proclaimed "Patron Saint of Desperate Swiss Housewives," ponders the guilty pleasures of a media-saturated world. Wildly disparate, these two texts reveal the historical arc of a much larger literary constellation: the literature of German-speaking women who interact with the New World. In this volume, cultural historians from around the world investigate this unique literary bridge between two hemispheres, focusing on New-World texts written by female authors from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. Encompassing a broad range of genres including novels, films, travel literature, poetry, erotica, and even photography, the essays include women's experiences across both American continents. Many of the primary literary texts discussed in this volume are available in the online collections of Sophie: A Digital Library of Works by German-Speaking Women (http: //sophie.byu.edu/). Contributors: Christiane Arndt, Karin Baumgartner, Ute Bettray, Ulrike Brisson, Carola Daffner, Denise M. Della Rossa, Linda Dietrick, Silke R. Falkner, Maureen O. Gallagher, Nicole Grewling, Monika Hohbein-Deegen, Gabi Kathöfer, Thomas W. Kniesche, Julie Koser, Judith E. Martin, Sarah C. Reed, Christine Rinne, Tom Spencer, Florentine Strzelczyk, David Tingey, Petra Watzke, Chantal Wright. Rob McFarland and Michelle Stott James are both Associate Professors of German at Brigham Young University.

"Sheldon has lots of fun with mutual stereotypes and prejudices, not only about nationality but also about race and class...Hilarious." — Booklist The summer her mother announces that they won’t be taking their usual holiday in France, sixteen-year-old Sophie Pitt-Turnbull is aghast — so much so that when Mummy’s old art-school chum in New York suggests they trade daughters for the summer, Sophie feels her prayers have been answered. Unfortunately, there are a few details Mummy neglects to tell her. . . . Get ready for a comical case of culture clash as an uptight British teen finds herself deep in the heart of working-class Brooklyn — and finally dares to have an adventure worth writing home about.

Things turn out rather different from what she expected when teenage Brit Sophie Pitt-Turnbull takes a trip across the pond in this droll new novel by the author of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.

In March 2015, the eleventh edition of The Child and the Book Conference was organized at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. The conference was related to the theme of fracture and disruption in children’s and young adult literature. This publication provides not only a synthesis of the main reflections, but also a starting point for understanding the issues of fracture and disruption within children’s and young adult literature. The volume gathers texts from consolidated figures within the field of research in Children’s Literature, as well as contributions from junior researchers, creating bridges and dialogue between both generations and critical and theoretical approaches. It includes chapters on violence, war, sexuality and politics, discussion around formal-stylistic perspectives, analysis of fringe works and hybrid literary forms as well as the issue of audience and the crossover universe. Special reference should be given to the inclusion of contributions from lesser-known countries and literatures such as Brazil, Italy, Norway, Poland, and Portugal. The volume will be of interest to children’s literature specialists, graduate and post-graduate students, librarians, and mediators of reading.

The Dictionary of Greek and Latin Authors and Texts gives a clear overview of authors and Major Works of Greek and Latin literature, and their history in written tradition, from Late Antiquity until present: papyri, manuscripts, Scholia, early and contemporary authoritative editions, translations and comments.

Reveals Ann Tizia Leitich, American correspondent for Austrian newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s, as an important cultural mediator between the two countries.

Gender, Collaboration, and Authorship in German Culture challenges a model of literary production that persists in literary studies: the so-called Geniekult or the idea of the solitary male author as genius that emerged around 1800 in German lands. A closer look at creative practices during this time indicates that collaborative creative endeavors, specifically joint ventures between women and men, were an important mode of literary production during this era. This volume surveys a variety of such collaborations and proves that male and female spheres of creation were not as distinct as has been previously thought. It demonstrates that the model of the male genius that dominated literary studies for centuries was not inevitable, that viable alternatives to it existed. Finally, it demands that we rethink definitions of an author and a literary work in ways that account for the complex modes of creation from which they arose.