TP 20.pmd - American Studies at Leipzig

TWIN PEAKS
A NEWSLETTER FOR AMERICAN STUDIES
20th Issue Summer 2006
University of Leipzig
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TWIN PEAKS
Editorial
Dear Readers
The university system will undergo a fundamental transition soon,
and so will Twin Peaks. This copy is the one before the last – with
the current editorial staff. We will have to put Twin Peaks into the
hands of worthy successors after the coming winter semester.
Therefore, we are urgently looking for editorial offspring to keep
this wonderful 10-year-old project running. Please write to:
[email protected] or join our Stammtisch (more on page
17).
Yet, there is no reason to gloom. This issue indulges in literature,
music, and even diplomacy. For the latter check out the interview
with the current U.S. Consul General Leipzig, Mark D. Scheland
(page 12). The music section allows for an amusing glance
backwards, please read a highly interesting report about Western
music in the GDR (page 20). The literature department is filled with
voices of authors: read about American authors Nicole Krauss (page
4) and Dave Eggers (page 30). Writing of another kind can be
found in newspapers. How much those can differ in their reporting
shows a thesis summary which analyzes the coverage of the U.S.
presidential campaign in 2004 (page 33).
We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this issue as
well as our sponsors: the Fachschaftsrat Anglistik/Amerikanistik,
the American Studies Alumni Association (ASAA), and the
Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung.
The Editors
Katja, Kirsten & Stine
Want to look into formerTwin Peaks issues, but didn’t secure a copy?
Check out the American Studies Website.
2
CONTENT
TALKING HEADS
Celebration of the Imagination...........................................................................4
Interview with U.S.-author Nicole Krauss by Stine Eckert & Katja Wenk
French Is For Girls ......................................................................................12
Interview with U.S. Consul General Leipzig, Mark D. Scheland
by Katja Wenk & Stine Eckert
Dave of All Trades.......................................................................................30
Interview with U.S.-author and editor Dave Eggers by Katja Wenk & Stine
Eckert
WANDERING THOUGHTS
Satisfied with the Mundane.........................................................................9
Poem by Jordan Pleasant Mills; Illustration by Rosa Linke
Tolkien in Indien............................................................................................. 10
Ein Kinobesuch in Pondicherry von Elmar Schenkel
LOCAL COLOR
Neue Visumsregelung.................................................................................17
Information des US-Generalkonsulats Leipzig
How Does It Feel to Be an Alumnus?.........................................................18
Ein Erlebnisbericht über die Abschlussfeier der ASAA von Kirsten Jörß
Das Essen war gut..................................................................:....................28
Bericht des Fachschaftsrats Anglistik/ Amerikanistik
von Frank Loddemann
Bachelor- und Mastereinführung – Was bedeutet das für Euch?................29
von Viktor Weiler
ACADEMIC VIEWS
Die Monotonie des yeah, yeah, yeah –
Official Ways of Dealing with Western Popular Music in the GDR ...........20
Essay by Thomas Kolitsch
Newspaper Language – Tabloid versus Quality Paper ..............................33
Summary of master‘s thesis by Kirsten Jörß
CALL FOR EDITORS & STAMMTISCH.......................................................... 17
IMPRINT & CONTACT.......................................................................................39
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TWIN PEAKS
Celebrating the Imagination
Bestselling author Nicole Krauss about phantasy,
surprises and the meaning of literature
Interview and Photograph by Stine Eckert & Katja Wenk
Nicole Krauss, born in 1974, studied
literature at Stanford and Oxford
Universities as well as art history in
London. Her debut as a novel writer came
with Man Walks Into a Room. Last year in
September she read from her second and
most recent book History of Love in a
crowded Haus des Buches in Leipzig. Twin
Peaks interviewed Nicole Krauss prior to
the reading.
Twin Peaks: In the German edition
of your book History of Love I found
the quote „Das Leben ist
wunde_voll“. When was the last
moment that you felt life is wonderful
and painful at the same time?
guess in some ways or others they’ve
all lost something. I suppose that’s the
painful part. If, using your categorization,
the thing about these characters is that
they don’t want to accept that situation.
All of them are searching for ways to
find a way out of living with the past as
a burden. They want somehow to be free
of that in order to be fully present,
because of course when you suffer from
something you’re never really in your
life, you’re always thinking about the
thing that you’re grieving for. So all of
them are trying to find a way to somehow
find a solution to the past in order to
move forward into the future. I think
Nicole Krauss: That’s a daily
experience, I imagine, for most people,
particularly if you’re somebody who’s
sensitive to the world. But I don’t know
if it’s that simple as a fact that life is
wonderful. For me it’s definitely the case
that the book is about people who have
experienced a lot of pain in their lives
and who have suffered in the past. I
4
TALKING HEADS
they do that through hopeful ways. They
find redemption somehow. For a lot of
them that redemption comes in a form
of acts of the imagination. There are
people in the book who bring old friends
back to life simply to keep them
company. Or there are people who
pretend to have written books that they
haven’t really written in order to make
a woman love them. And there’s a
young girl, Alma, who tells her brother
lies about their father who’s died to
create a hero out of him. It’s small little
lies or inventions that make life bearable
because finally everyone in the book is
struggling to survive.
even the story of your life, who you are
to yourself is an act of the imagination.
For me they’re indistinguishable. I don’t
think it’s a choice that you have to live
in the one or the other or you have to
reject the imagination in order to be a
realistic person or vice versa. I think, the
more you have a capacity to imagine,
the more you’re capable of dealing with
life. Of course if it’s taken to an extreme
it can become pathological, but I am not
talking about that extreme. I am talking
about the narrow center where most of
us exist.
TP: In your book there is a secondhand bookstore where the story
“History of Love“ is sold. The shop
clerk is looking for someone who is
the right reader for the book. Who
is the right reader for your book?
TP: In a submission to an online
reading group of W.W. Norton you
wrote you wanted the book to be a
celebration of the imagination. Do
you prefer living in your imagination
or in the so-called real world?
NK: I never think of anyone in particular,
it’s not like I imagine a certain face. But
I always, when I’m writing, imagine a
kind of abstract, perfect, ideal reader.
And all that person would need is just a
kind of understanding. I mean, you write
a book and you send it out into the world.
There’ll be inevitably people who don’t
like it; there will be people who are
ambivalent about it; and there will
hopefully be people who like it. Then
there are a few people for whom,
hopefully, if you’re lucky, that book is
really the book they were looking for that
year or that month. And it effects them
in such a way that this book becomes
fundamental to them. That’s the hope.
It doesn’t happen very often. But in
one’s mind as a writer’s you imagine that
NK: I’d like to do both. I wouldn’t accept
one or the other. But I think that the
imagination is absolutely fundamental to
being able to exist happily in life. Think
about even how you think of yourself as
a person. You tell yourself a story of your
life by all of the memories that you have.
But in fact you’ve only chosen a very,
very select number of memories. And
you don’t remember those things that
happened too exactly as they happened.
It’s not reality, it’s not a documentation.
You’ve taken what’s happened to you
and you’ve married it with your
imagination. And that marriage creates
a memory. And with those memories you
tell yourself the story of your life. So
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TWIN PEAKS
reader.
own copy.” [Laughs.] His birthday was
coming up so I send it to him.
TP: Has it happened to you with your
book? Was there a reader who came
to you saying: “This book has
changed my life”?
TP: You have been writing pieces for
The New Yorker, which has put you
on the list of the best young writers.
Is being on this list an appreciation
by colleagues?
NK: Yes, I have
had that. It is an
NK: I don’t know.
amazing thing. I’ve
I
think
to
me
the
true
happiness
The
New Yorker
had people write
is
one
of the only
me letters and is not so much to get a nice
places
where you
some who after review, which is better than a bad
readings have said review of course, but all of those can publish fiction
and many, many
that to me. I never
things are hard to trust in a way. people will read it
take that for
because it’s a
granted. It always
national magazine
surprises me and I
with
a
very
big
circulation.
One of the
never know what to say after that. I
always feel that I fail to rise to the problems we have in the States is that
occasion to say anything to explain to there aren’t so many big important mass
the reader how much that means to me. circulation places where you can publish
fiction. People aren’t interested in fiction.
If you manage to be lucky enough to be
TP: Who came to you?
published in The New Yorker or taken
NK: One of the best letters that I’ve seriously by this magazine, I guess that’s
received was from an eleven year old a big deal in the States. But of course
boy. He wrote me from somewhere in there are writers I love who – for
the Mid-West in the States. When I got whatever reason – aren’t published
the letter, on the front the handwriting there. It’s a matter of taste of the editor.
was so messy that I thought: ‘Oh God, But again, these things, they can’t be that
somebody psychotic has written to me.’ important. At the end of the day you’re
But inside was this beautiful letter by this alone as a writer. And it doesn’t matter;
boy. It was so clear that he understood it shouldn’t matter what anybody thinks
the book; so clear that it had moved him. of you – as hard as you have to try to.
He said it’s the favorite book that he had
ever read. And for me to reach an eleven
year old boy is so unexpected and so
wonderful. The best part was at the end
of the letter. He said: “I like this book so
much I think I’m gonna go and buy my
TP: Didn’t you have one moment of
bliss because of your book success?
NK: Of course, of course. I would be
stupid if I wouldn’t indulge in a little bit
6
TALKING HEADS
of happiness. Absolutely. But I think my
happiness comes from meeting readers
like that boy or going to readings and
afterwards having conversations with
people. I think to me the true happiness
is not so much to get a nice review, which
is better than a bad review of course,
but all of those things are hard to trust in
a way. Critical success is hard to trust.
Think of how many books that we all
love that are considered classics right
now. When they were published they
were banned by the critics. Nobody read
them; nobody was interested. It’s not
really the case that’s that the best way
to judge how good the work is. But when
you have a reader who has really been
moved by it, I think that’s a good
measure. So for me that’s important and
it makes me happy, yeah.
been around for much longer. Because
as a young writer I tend to be perhaps
falsely nostalgic about how things used
to be like when he was my age. Actually
when he was my age he published. He
was a few years older than me when he
published Portnoy’s Complaint, which
was the book that in some ways really
shot him to fame because it was so
controversial. I always think that in those
times writers were taken seriously. But
he says here in this interview that it’s
been a long time. Well, how long is my
question? [Laughs.] The media is not as
respectful of writers, but maybe that’s
because people are not as interested in
books. On the other hand, more books
are sold now and more literary novels
are sold now than in the time when
Portnoy’s Complaint was published.
Maybe ten times over. All the machinery
TP: In the German daily paper
of the media, how they treat writers or
Frankfurter Rundschau Philip Roth
don’t treat readers aside, still do manage
said in an interview that literature
somehow or the other to get the word
doesn’t play a role in the U.S., that
out and books be sold. Maybe that’s
writers are not
because publishing
that respected
houses
have
anymore and
become
so
big.
You’ve taken what’s happened to
that
the
This is really hard
you and you’ve married it with
situation has
to say. Obviously
your
imagination.And
that
been like that
people
are
marriage creates a memory.
for a long time
reading. But there
because there
is definitely a
are
other
different climate in
means
of
what I imagine
entertainment easier accessible than
there used to be. Maybe that has
books. In how far do you agree with
something to do with popular culture,
him?
with movies and music and television,
which is overwhelming in the United
NK: I agree with him a great deal
States. Children don’t seem to have
although he has more experience. He’s
learnt to read. They don’t have the
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TWIN PEAKS
patience to read anymore. But I still
notice that people are buying books, so
for the time being it’s not an utter
catastrophe.
most that I can say but who knows.
TP: What are you reading right now?
NK: What am I reading right now? Oh,
I am reading the new Coetzee. I bade
for it at the Frankfurt Bookfair, at the
Penguin English publisher’s bookstand.
I’m just about a hundred and fifty pages
in it. He is one of my favorite writers.
TP: Do you feel more respected in
Europe or in Germany when
comparing the situation to the
United States.
NK: It’s very hard for me to tell. But I
do notice one big difference. In
Germany when an author gives a
reading they come and listen very
carefully and for a long time. They ask
very serious questions. In the States
people are not very interested in coming
to hear authors read. They do sometimes
to listen to the big ones. But there’s not
quite the same seriousness surrounding
the idea of coming to meet or listen to
an author. So for American authors
when they come here, I think, it’s
wonderful. It’s quite surprising.
[Laughs.]
TP: He is very fond of your book.
[The German edition features his
quote on the back: „Bezaubernd,
zärtlich und sehr originell.“]
NK: I know. It’s so strange. I wouldn’t
have thought he would be. He is such a
different writer. So somber and subtle,
very cool – a minimalist. But I am not
complaining. Opposites attract.
TP: You said you’re writing another
book right now?
NK: I’m starting one, yeah. The beginning
is always really foggy for me. I am not
one of these writers who sit down and
say ‘Okay, I know exactly what I am
doing, I have a whole blueprint.’ For me,
it’s always scratching around in the sand
trying to find the beginning. That’s what
I am doing now.
TP: Where do you see yourself in ten
or twenty years ahead?
NK: I wish I knew the answer to the
question. [Laughs.] And at the same time
I am glad that I don’t know the answer.
I have been writing now half my life. I
started when I was 14 or 15. I think it’s
pretty certain that I’ll still be writing.
Although everyone likes to imagine that’s
just a choice and if I want I just do
something else. It’s sown into my life,
so I can’t really imagine that. You said
ten more years? I hope I have at least
two or three more books. That’s the
TP: We wish you the best of luck and
thank you for the interview.
Nicole Krauss. Die Geschichte
der Liebe. Rowohlt Verlag.
Hardcover. 352 Seiten. 19,90 Euro.
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WANDERING THOUGHTS
Poem by Jordan Mills Pleasant
Illustration by Rosa Linke
Satisfied with
the Mundane
I await a numbing epoch
Of innocent stupidity
To shock and overcome
My banality, my intellect,
Hackneyed by trivial facts
Which never do me any good.
I’d burn my book stacks and not think
Whether I should or should not do
Whatever might make me guilty.
I’d be free of the obligation.
I wouldn’t even be here now:
This situational debate
Would never be a part of me.
I wouldn’t have the pressing urge
For paltry knowledge,
Or the surge of curiosity
Which leads me into questions
Without resolution about
Impressions I don’t understand,
And books without conclusions.
I also might be dumb enough
To be completely satisfied
With mundane stuff I’m forced to do.
I’ve often tried and always failed;
I want my mind to come derailed.
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TWIN PEAKS
Tolkien in Indien
F
- Ein Kinobesuch in Pondicherry
von Prof. Elmar Schenkel
F
F
F
Keine Angst, es folgt kein Rezeptionsbericht über Tolkien und seine indischen
Leser. Ich möchte nur über ein kleines Erlebnis berichten, das mir auf meiner letzten
Indienreise im Frühjahr 2004 zustieß. Ich verbrachte einige Zeit in der südindischen
Stadt Pondicherry sowie im benachbarten Auroville. Über beiden liegt die Hand
des indischen Philosophen Sri Aurobindo, der hier zusammen mit seiner französischen
Gefährtin, der sogenannten Mother, eine neue Form des Yogas entwickelte, in der
sich östliches und westliches Denken zu einer neuen Synthese zusammenfügen. In
Pondicherry ist der Samadhi der beiden, das heißt der Ort, an dem sie bestattet
wurden und der ein Pilgerziel vieler Tausender Inder und Nicht-Inder geworden
ist. Auroville ist eine Art Zukunftsstadt, die Ende der 60er Jahre gegründet wurde
und in der neue Formen des Zusammenlebens geprobt werden. Hier wohnen etwa
1500 indische und europäisch-amerikanische Menschen, die sich in irgendeiner
Weise von der Lehre Aurobindos und der Mother angezogen fühlen, allerdings in
einer lockeren, nicht-religiösen Atmosphäre. In den Auroville News war denn
eines Tages zu lesen, dass nun der dritte Teil der Tolkien-Verfilmung endlich auch
nach Pondicherry kommen sollte. Bald wurde die Ankündigung gefolgt von
komplizierten Angaben. Die Autorin, eine Französin namens Bhaga, hatte
herausgefunden, dass der Film meist nicht komplett gezeigt wurde, es käme auf die
Uhrzeit an. Die größte Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass er ganz gezeigt würde, bestünde
um 14.30, bei allen anderen Terminen wäre es fragwürdig. Aber selbst für den
Termin um 14.30 lohnte es sich, im Kino vorher anzurufen und wenn nötig, Druck
zu machen.
Wir machten genau dies und befanden uns an einem heißen Märznachmittag
im Innenhof des Kinos. Wir besorgten uns ein Ticket für den großen Saal, andere,
F
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WANDERING THOUGHTS
F
meist Europäer oder Amerikaner, kauften sich eine Karte für klimatisierte Plätze,
für die man jedoch in Kabinen gehen muß; man sitzt in ihnen wie
Konferenzdolmetscher. Der Kartenschalter ist kein Schalter, sondern ein finsterer
Raum, in dem drei Männer zwischen Haufen von Papieren saßen, aus denen sie
immer mal wieder ein Ticket hervorzauberten, allerdings mit einer gewissen
Gleichgültigkeit. Im Hof trafen wir die Französin Bhaga, die sich nun zum fünften
Mal in Indien den dritten Teil anschauen wollte, nachdem sie ihn in Frankreich
schon vier Mal gesehen hatte. Bhaga hat ein großes Projekt. Immer schon war sie
Tolkienfan. Als sie später die Philosophie Aurobindos entdeckte, fielen ihr
erstaunliche Parallelen in der Kosmologie und Psychologie beider auf. Nun arbeitet
sie an einer umfassenden Studie, in der dieser Vergleich Tiefe erhalten soll. Ihr
Ausgangspunkt ist der Körper, die Verkörperung des Geistigen. Darüber hält sie
seit Jahren auch Vorträge.
Das Kino stammt aus den dreißiger Jahren und hat immer noch die Atmosphäre
eines Provisoriums. Die Seitenwände senken sich wie bei einem Zelt. Türen in den
Wänden führen gleich nach draußen – keine dieser labyrinthischen Kinoburgen
wie bei uns. Überall hängen Ventilatoren wie die Propeller von abgestürzten
Flugmaschinen. Das Kino ist nicht gut besucht. Es ist Nachmittag und eingefunden
haben sich vor allem junge Inder (keine Frauen) sowie junge westliche Zuschauer,
männlich und weiblich. Aus irgendeinem Grund fängt die Vorstellung erst um 15.15
Uhr an. Es kommen zwei Commercials, nach denen jeweils ein Zertifikat des
Fabrikanten abgebildet wird, damit man weiß, dass es sich nicht um Fälschungen
handelt. Nun also Tolkien. Der Ton des Films kommt schlecht durch, aber das
macht nichts, denn in dem Film gibt es ja hauptsächlich Gemetzel. Als die monströsen
Elefanten besiegt werden, geht ein zufriedenes Klatschen durch den Saal. Als die
Hobbits am Ende im Bett herumtoben und Liebesszenen gezeigt werden, kommen
Pfiffe – nicht der Ablehnung, sondern der Zustimmung. Eine Viertelstunde vor dem
Ende bröckelt ein Teil der indischen Zuschauer ab, geht hinaus, bleibt dann aber an
den Eingängen stehen und klopft ungeduldig auf die Bänke. Was können Inder an
Tolkiens Mythologie finden? Erkennen sie etwas wieder aus ihren eigenen Mythen?
Tolkiens Kosmos muß hier notwendig ein Fragment bleiben, eine Passage innerhalb
des weitläufigen Labyrinths aus Mythen, das wir den Hinduismus nennen.
F
F
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TWIN PEAKS
French is for Girls
Mark Scheland, Consul General in Leipzig
since summer 2005, about his work and life
Interview by Stine Eckert & Katja Wenk, Photograph used with
kind permission of the Consulate General Leipzig
Twin Peaks: How was your day this
far?
Mark Scheland: I have just come back
from a lunch at the Handwerkskammer.
It was a bit challenging because we had
to sit through an hour and fifteen minutes
before they let us eat.
TP: What was the occassion for that
lunch?
MS: The president of the
Handwerkskammer invited the Consuls
General and Honorary Consuls here in
the region. We recently had a delegation
of six Handwerksbetriebe in the Leipzig
area whose leaders travelled to an
industry and trade show in Las Vegas. A
member of our foreign commercial
service staff here helped organize the trip
and accompanied them. The president of
the Handwerkskammer was very
appreciative and stressed what sort of
eye-opening lessons this trip had had for
these businesses regarding the less
onerous business regulation that
characterizes the United States. That
was his characterization actually. He
emphasized that Bürokratieabbau is a
main objective of his organization.
TP: In February you met the current
Ambassador to Germany, William
Timken, in Weimar.
MS: Yes, at the opening of an exhibit.
TP: How are the relations with the
Embassy?
MS: That’s a good question. The
Consulate here in Leipzig is a constituent
post. Each consulate is part of an
integrated diplomatic mission. We in
Leipzig are physically the closest, we’re
by far the smallest, and in terms of our
operations we are the most reliant on
12
colleagues in Berlin. There’s a
mothership-and-satellite relationship, but
as in any pyramidal organization, we as
the smaller local unit have to be the
experts on our scene. The Embassy relies
on us for interpretation of events.
I find that we have very good
communication. The Ambassador has
been in our Consular district at least eight
times in the half year that he has been in
office, and clearly he enjoys it and values
coming in contact
with just plain
folks. He also
views his task as
getting
to
understand
Germany better
every day so that he
can give the best
advice possible to
the President.
Getting him down
here to Leipzig and
the other cities and
smaller towns in our
district is a big part
of helping him do
his job better.
TP: Talking with
you one can’t help but notice that
your German is very good. Where
did you learn that?
MS: I knew that I had German
forebearers, but there was not German
spoken in the family. My grandfather had
gone to a German-speaking church as a
TALKING HEADS
little boy in Jersey City, and the only
German he knew how to speak were the
prayers that were drilled into his head.
I started learning German in seventh
grade in a public school in Long Island,
New York. It was completely by chance.
We had just moved from another school
district from New Jersey. The week, or
two, before school started I went in to
take a placement test. When I was
finished, I handed in my papers and began
to leave. Then they
said to me: „All our
Spanish classes are
full. Do you want to
take French or
German?“
I wasn’t expecting
to be asked any
such thing. I was
twelve and I
thought I want to
be an architect
when I grow up;
and French is for
girls. I took German
and I stayed with it
as long as I could in
school and then
again in university.
I did my junior year
of college in Hamburg. The experience
of living in a Studentenwohnheim and
having a German roommate – one had
to be active in the language from the
moment you woke up up until the moment
you fell asleep. Of course, you ultimately
become active in a language in your
sleep. The first time you dream in a
13
TWIN PEAKS
foreign language is a great feeling.
Then working in Germany as a diplomat,
but also being here as the father of small
kids, really brought me a lot of language
experience that solidified my language
and broadened my vocabulary.
TP: In order to work here in Leipzig,
did you apply for it or did it happen
by chance?
MS: Nothing happens by chance. In our
foreign service, we are about 11,000
foreign service personnel. About 65 per
cent of our positions are overseas. Every
year a list of all positions that are due to
change hands is circulated to everybody.
If you’re one of the people due to
transition to another position, you’re
obliged to submit a wishlist. It’s a multimonth process to get oneself identified
to be the favorite candidate for a job,
there is a lot of informal lobbying.
Ultimately a panel of colleagues who are
working in the human resources bureau
make the assignments. I knew as of
December of 2004 that I would be
coming here the following summer.
TP: And did you want to come here
to Leipzig?
MS: Yes. I had put my name forward
for a number of leadership positions either
as deputy chief of mission, that is number
two in an embassy, or Consul General,
that is principal officer at a consulate. I
had just been promoted which made me
eligeble for this type of leadership
position at a number of places around the
world.
My wishlist included leadership positions
in the Middle East, in Africa, and a variety
of positions in Europe. I knew all along,
because of my previous service in Bonn
and Berlin, that Leipzig was probably the
easiest for me. Other jobs on my list
were in a sense more ambitious. I would
have had more responsibility or
supervision of more people. I might have
had to spend ten months learning a
different language. All would have been
fine, but as it happened it seems I was
the obvious choice for Leipzig, and I’m
very glad it came out that way.
TP: What did your family think about
your decision?
MS: My wife was very pleased to come
back to Germany. Our daughter Norah,
who is the eldest and who was here from
age three-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half,
was twelve then and wanted one more
year in the U.S. She also said: „I want to
learn a different language, and I want to
get to know another country.“ So, she
was initially disappointed.
Now that we’ve been here for six months
she has the nerve to say to us: „Well,
when you all leave in three years can I
stay a fourth year so I can do the Kleine
Latinum with my classmates?“ She has
integrated very well, and the boys are all
having a pretty good time here, too.
TP: You have settled in well then?
14
MS: Yes.
TP: How do you like living in Leipzig?
MS: I like it a lot. I like the size of the
city. I love the architecture. I like having
our Consulate in this neighborhood. It has
such a young feel thanks to the university
and the Hochschulen. I first visited
Leipzig from Washington in March of
1994, and I have always had a
sentimental feeling for the sort of pioneer
diplomacy that one does here – coming
in contact with, at that time in the early
1990s, many Germans who had no direct
experience with Americans. Of course,
after 16 years there are a lot of folks who
have had American experiences.
Now the challenge has somewhat
changed but there is still a lot of curiosity
based in lack of experience and
knowledge. The other challenge is for
those who think they know America
pretty well because of the amazing
coverage amd the mass of American
images that comes through the German
media. Part of our task is rounding out
that picture. We’re sort of up against the
choices made by the German media of
what to say and what to show about our
country.
TP: Are you satisfied with the state
you found the Consulate in when you
came here?
MS: I’m satisfied with the process the
Consulate is undergoing. I arrived here
in the summer with the work to upgrade
TALKING HEADS
the physical security of the building
already under way. I’m satisfied that we
have the prospect to have the streets
open for pedestrians and bicycles again
within a few months. We’re doing the
work with respect to physical security in
order to correspond to global standards
set in law by our Congress. We’ve
learned a hard lesson. It took us quite
some time when one thinks back to Beirut
in the 1980s, Oklahoma City in 1995, East
Africa and then, of course, September
11, 2001. The steps that we’re taking here
will make this building – the Americans
and Germans who work here, the
Germans who visit here, the Germans
who work in the neighboring buildings –
safer by making this a less attractive
target for violence.
TP: Aside from the physical state of
the Consulate, how did you find it
when you came here in terms of
relations with companies in the
region, with the community, with
students?
MS: The Consulate as in institution has
been doing terrific work. When you look
at the budget and the staffing of the entire
U.S. diplomatic mission to Germany, it’s
about 1350 people and about 110 million
dollar operation. This Consulate is three
Americans, 15 Germans plus the contract
guards. We’re about one per cent of the
total budget of the U.S. diplomatic
mission in Germany. With those
resources – there’s a phrase that comes
from boxing: We punch above our weight
15
TWIN PEAKS
class.
This Consulate is well networked in
these three Länder in the area of culture,
educational institutions, the local and
regional media, our contacts to political
office holders, to leaders in business, to
think tanks and economic institutes. Back
at the end of January we had a New
Year’s reception. The Consulate had
never done one. We had more than 200
people turn out, and it was a very
impressive mix of ages, geography,
professional purposes, and objectives.
That event, in a microcosm, indicated
what good work has been going on here,
making the Consulate part of a landscape
for people in their everyday activities.
TP: As of yet, people don’t know
much about you. There’s not much
on the official website of the
Consulate. What do you think people
absolutely have to know about you?
MS: About me personally? What’s on the
website will do.
TP: And about you as the Consul
General?
MS: I put great emphasis on
Gesprächsbereitschaft, that’s a good
German word for it. Our most important
task, after protecting American citizens,
is offering Gesprächsbereitschaft in
many forms to many different
communities and individuals. We’re not
very big, we’re not very many people. I
can’t be everywhere in all three Länder
at once as much as I would like to be.
But if we can respond to people’s interest
and help them get better networked with
the United States, we’re the facilitator
and the catalyst. And if we’re advancing
a dialogue between Germans and
Americans, we’re doing it in a manner
that advances America’s interests, of
course.
TP: Is there anything you miss here
in Leipzig?
MS: I miss being able to see baseball live
on television. I also feel like it would be
great if more of our friends and family
from the U.S. could be here to
experience what we are experiencing.
That’s part of a diplomat’s life: Anywhere
you go, you get used to the fact that back
in the United States life is going on and
people can not relate to what you’re
living. It happens to most new foreign
service officers that when they first go
home they want to tell everybody
everything. Then you get this sinking
feeling that people have only a passing
interest. You get used to that over time.
But I’d still say that the thing I miss most
is not being able to see baseball.
TP: Thank you very much for this
interview.
16
LOCAL COLOR
Neue Visumsregelung für Reisen in die USA
Informationen für Inhaber eines vorläufigen deutschen
Reisepasses, die planen, in die USA zu reisen - Aktueller
Hinweis aus dem US-Generalkonsulat Leipzig
Seit dem 1. Mai 2006 sind die von Deutschland ausgestellten
vorläufigen Reisepässe für Reisen in die Vereinigten Staaten im Rahmen
des Programms für visumfreies Reisen (Visa Waiver Program - VWP)
nicht mehr gültig.
Inhaber eines von Deutschland ausgestellten vorläufigen Reisepasses,
die vorhaben, in oder über die Vereinigten Staaten zu reisen, müssen
entweder einen gültigen, maschinenlesbaren deutschen Reisepass für
Reisen im Rahmen des Programms für visumfreies Reisen oder ein USVisum für Reisen in die Vereinigten Staaten beantragen.
Weitere Informationen zum Programm für visumfreies Reisen:
http://www.usembassy.de/germany/visa/vwp.html (Englisch)
http://www.us-botschaft.de/germany-ger/visa/vwinfo.html (Deutsch)
Coffee Talk & Serious
Conversation
Join our editorial round table!
Café Kowalski
(Ferdinand-Rohde-Straße 12)
- 7 pm June, 22 (Thursday)
July, 6 (Thursday)
Questions? Criticism? Advise? - E-mail us at:
[email protected]
17
TWIN PEAKS
News from the American Studies Alumni Association
How does
to be an
The American Studies Alumni Association (ASAA), Leipzig has
once more invited all graduates of the last two semesters to celebrate
their graduation.
For me personally, my last day at the university was March 29th,
2006. At 10:30 am, I knew I had passed my last oral exam meaning
there were no more papers to hand in, no more exams to study for.
Although I was conscious of the fact that I had finally graduated, it was
hard to realize what this would mean. Nothing else had changed. After
my last exam, I went straight to the library – the place, which I had
called my home for the last months. I returned all my checked-out books
and for the first time felt ‘lighter’. For the rest of the day, my phone kept
ringing constantly. Friends and family, they all wanted to know how I felt
now that I had finally graduated. Yes, I was happy, but I did not feel any
different than the day before. One does not feel a year older on a birthday
either; it is the same feeling as the day before. Even now, two months
later, I still eat at the Mensa and check the university’s homepage regularly
to see what is going on. Even when Mrs. Seidel from the examination
office handed me out my Examination Certificate with a friendly smile
and congratulating words, my feeling of still being a student did not change.
I felt like being on semester break. One night, I even worried about the
schedule for the upcoming semester until I realized that I would not
need one anymore.
On April 21st, 2006 the ASAA had invited all graduates of American
Studies and their friends and family to celebrate the Alumni of the last
two semesters. 120 people came to the Ring Café to enjoy the solemn
ambience. Welcomed with a glass of champagne, everybody could enjoy
a beautiful view on the ‘Unizahn’ and the Moritzbastei.
18
LOCAL COLOR
by Kirsten Jörß
?
it
feel
Alumnus
The director of the ASAA, Zoe Kusmierz, welcomed all the guests
and especially the alumni who she had invited to join the ASAA. The
Consul for Public Affairs, Mark Wenig, from the U.S. Consulate General
in Leipzig, which supported the event, pointed out that the new alumni
should use their knowledge about the American culture to sustain GermanAmerican relations.
After the introducing words, Crister Garrett, Professor for American
culture, and Jana Linder, board member of the ASAA, congratulated
each student individually. While handing out a symbolic certificate
Professor Garrett read out the title of every student’s thesis. This procedure
did not only give the former students the feeling of an official graduation
ceremony, but was very interesting for all guests because it displayed the
wide range of different topics that are covered within the American Studies.
For all those friends who still would ask what one studies if one majors
in American Studies, the new alumni Christin Rettke and Leonard
Schmieding gave a lively summary of their studies. In the name of all
graduates, they thanked the professors and associates of the university,
the ASAA, the American Consulate General, and above all their families
and friends for the successful evening and for all the support during their
studies.
The evening was finished with champagne, snacks, and live music in a
celebratory get together between alumni, professors, and guests.
So how does it feel to be an Alumnus? I felt happy and proud that
night. The event made it easier or more realistic to say farewell to the
Leipzig University. Nevertheless, all the years of study have shaped me
and my way of thinking. I therefore joined the ASAA in order to stay in
touch with the university while new doors will open.
19
TWIN PEAKS
Die Monotonie des
yeah, yeah, yeah
Official Ways of Dealing with Western
Po
pular Music in the GDR
Popular
by Thomas Kolitsch
„Is it really the case that we have to copy every filth coming from the West?
I think, comrades, that the monotony of the yeah, yeah, yeah and all that
stuff should end now.“
– Walter Ulbricht, 1965
“Rock’n’Roll is the most brutal, ugly,
desperate, vicious form of expression it
has been my misfortune to hear.“
(Whalley : 5) This statement is not by
Walter Ulbricht or Erich Honecker or any
other leading member of the SED
(Sozialistische
Einheitspartei
Deutschlands), the governing party of the
GDR. It is by Frank Sinatra.
Yet there is something that people as
different as Ulbricht, Honecker, and
Sinatra have in common – it is their date
of birth. Walter Ulbricht was born in
1893 (which makes him 61 in 1954, the
year Sun Records released Blue Moon
of Kentucky, Elvis Presley’s first single).
Sinatra and Honecker are a little bit
younger – the first one was born in 1915,
the second one in 1912. Both of them
were over 50 years old when the first
records by the Beatles and the Rolling
Stones were published. They were not
able to understand Rock’n’Roll. They
were not supposed to. In the beginning,
this attitude predominated Western
Europe as well as the USA.
When Elvis Presley had his first
appearance on the „Ed Sullivan Show“
in 1956, his hips and legs were famously
not allowed to be shown. The West
German magazine „Podium“ wrote about
the Beatles in 1963: „They behaved like
four young men from a madhouse. When
they are singing and playing, nobody
doubts their membership in a club of
mentally disturbed musicians anymore.“
(Hofmann : 65) Rock’n’Roll could be
seen as the first true youth culture,
inventing the concept of the teenager and
leading to a generation clash. In the
GDR, this confrontation took place as
well. Due to the conditions, it happened
in a different way, but, although not
outspoken, it lay at the heart of the
problem.
The decisive difference in dealing with
Rock’n’Roll lay in the political systems.
The Western capitalist free market was
not able to prohibit products – especially
20
ACADEMIC VIEW
if they sold so well. The Eastern planned
economy could do this – and did. This
had two obvious reasons. First, a cultural
one: Rock’n’Roll was played by young
people with long hair, it was loud and had
explicit sexual content. Second, a political
one: It came from the US, the imperialist
enemy. Rock’n’Roll, so the official
propaganda, was on the one hand the
method with which the US government
tried to brainwash the young people,
diverting them from capitalist exploitation,
class struggle, and the war in Vietnam,
to name but a few, on the other hand, it
was seen as the behaviour of these
completely spoiled teenagers.
When prohibition did not work the way
it was supposed to do, other strategies
were used. Peter Wicke, the only
lecturer for popular music in the GDR,
melted them into the short formula:
„Prohibition, Re-Definition, Integration“
(Augsburg : 15). These strategies were
introduced in regard to all American and
American-influenced music. This
differentiation is important because in the
1960s the main musical trends did not
come from the US but from Great
Britain. On the other hand, British Beat
very likely would not have existed
without its American predecessor. Thus,
the influences can be rightly called
American – they only made a detour.
Rock’n’Roll, the baby of the Blues, as
Muddy Waters once called it, proved to
be so important that the development of
20th century popular music could hardly
be imagined without it. Therefore, a
genuine GDR pop that later on became
subject to Americanization simply did not
exist. On the contrary, what is nowadays
remembered as „Ostrock“ had its roots
firmly in American traditions. So when
Walter Ulbricht ranted in his
aforementioned speech about „the
influence of the American way of life,
the American un-culture, the lifestyle
from Texas – all these things they try to
import“ he meant British bands like the
Rolling Stones – but in his own strange
way he was right; the influences were
definitely American.
It is one of the typical contradictions
of history that the building of the Berlin
Wall in August 1961 helped the
blossoming of rock music in the GDR.
After the closing of the borders, the GDR
government felt safe to allow a certain
amount of personal freedom for the
population – including beat music. Beat
groups boomed – in Leipzig alone 56
bands existed in 1965. In the mid-sixties,
three Beatles-singles were released. Yet
in 1964, Breshnev followed Chruschev
and the Thaw began to cool off.
After the infamous Rolling Stones
concert in West Berlin in 1965 (that
lasted only 25 minutes and had to be
stopped because of rioting fans), the
GDR finally had a reason to prohibit rock
music – on the grounds that even the
Western authorities had no control over
their morally corrupted youth anymore.
Thus, the LVZ (Leipziger Volkszeitung)
wrote in an article from October 20th,
1965 about „young people who see their
ideals in a highly doubtful American way
of life, idolizing and aping it“. (Hartwig :
12)
Banning the beat bands proved to be
considerably easy. Since 1954 it was not
21
TWIN PEAKS
allowed to perform live without a
„Spielerlaubnis“
(performance
permission as can be seen on p. 23).
This included performing in front of a jury
who judged not only „technical ability“,
„musical correspondence“ and „electroacoustic realization“, but „taste educating
[...] arrangement“ and „social
effectiveness, grade of fulfilment
regarding the contest for the title
‚Outstanding Collective for People’s
Art’“as well. (profil : 5) This performance
permission came into existence to
guarantee a certain cultural standard
among amateur musicians and define the
fees for them, but was in reality often
used to control music scenes. Many
bands failed in the first categories
because they were teenagers playing
three chords on used electric guitars,
which is what Rock’n’Roll was all about.
But all of them failed in the last ones.
The GDR officials were convinced
that rock music was intended to
brainwash the youth. The SED wrote in
a Party intern paper in 1961: We seperate
ourselves determinetly from the socalled Western way of life that
contaminates the youth morally and aims
at deadening their human emotions and
making them compliant tools of war
policy [...] Besides pulp-literature,
popular music plays an essential role in
propagating this way of life in the Bonn
state. [...] Based on the constitution of
the GDR that bans chauvinism and war
propaganda, the prohibition of revanchist
and anti-humanist ideology by means of
Western dance music is already given.
(Rauhut : 23)
According to this, a beat band was by
definition not able to fulfill the
requirements for a permission. After they
had to register in October 1965, virtually
all groups did not receive a performance
permission. This meant a complete
prohibition of East German beat bands.
In Leipzig, this even had a small epilogue.
On October 31st, 1965, 10 a.m., at the
Wilhelm- Leuschner-Platz, 2500 people
met to demonstrate against this prohibition
– the largest non-official demonstration
since the June uprising in 1953. In true
GDR-fashion, only a third were real fans,
the other ones were people from the FDJ,
Staatssicherheit,
and
similar
organizations. Hundreds of people were
arrested, although none of them had any
political motive for demonstrating –
witnesses and participants stress even
in retrospect that they did not want a
revolution. They wanted to listen to beat
music.
Banning recorded music (singles, LPs,
and tape recordings) was even easier.
Only one record label for popular music,
Amiga, existed. If Amiga did not release
a record, it was not available. The main
reason for this was political, but financial
reasons were important, too. Records are
made of vinyl, which is again made of oil
– something the GDR had to buy with
foreign currency. Sometimes even the
paper for the record sleeves was rare.
Additionally, licenses had to be paid to
the original record companies. The
aforementioned
Beatles-singles
consisted of songs they recorded before
they were signed by EMI – just because
it was cheaper to obtain. They could only
be pressed in a very limited quantity,
22
ACADEMIC VIEW
the desired products
could not be
obtained with the
currency at hand,
the
products
themselves became
a currency.
making them so-called „Bückware“
because it was sold „under the counter“.
Western records were prohibited to be
imported into the GDR and were
confiscated by customs.
This led to an enormous black market.
Some records achieved astronomic
prizes of up to 150 DDR-Mark – three
times the rent for a normal-sized flat.
Even recorded tapes of music and blackand-white photographs of pop stars were
sold on „flea markets“. In a way, because
Besides buying
records for a large
amount of money
and circulating
copies on tape
(which
was
expensive as well –
an empty 60
minutes cassette
cost between 17
and 22 DDRMark), there was
another, cheaper,
easier way of
listening to rock
music, a way that
could not be
stopped: the radio.
RIAS (Radio im
Amerikanischen
Sektor) was the
first station to be
established after World War 2 – it was
started on February 7th, 1946 and had
transmitting posts in Hof, West Berlin,
Schöneberg, and other places. The goal
was to reach the entire GDR population.
The GDR reacted with moral pressure
– people had to sign papers in which they
obliged themselves to listen to East
German stations only, antennas were
dismantled, 82 jamming stations were
built, etc. The results were small –
according to intern studies, sometimes up
23
TWIN PEAKS
to 60 % of the population listened to
RIAS, Radio Luxemburg, AFN
(American Forces Network), and other
stations.
A further possibility lay in the opposite
direction – Eastern European countries
like Poland or Hungary were often more
open to Western popular music than the
GDR. Record labels like Supraphon
(Chechoslovakia) or Melodija (USSR)
released records by the Doors, Johnny
Winter, Led Zeppelin and others that
were not available in East Germany. Long
queues formed in front of the Polish
Culture Institute in Leipzig, which was
located at the Brühl, when rumours had
it that new LPs had arrived. In 1967 the
Rolling Stones performed in Warsaw,
and in 1987 Paul McCartney released a
record of old Rock’n’Roll standards (all
of them of American origin) exclusively
in the USSR.
Bursts of prohibition lasted as long as
the GDR existed, sometimes following
periods of liberalization of the policy
concerning beat music, but Rock’n’Roll
proved to resist all attempts of prohibiting
it. And so the GDR officials tried one of
the best weapons of propaganda: Redefinition. The underlying idea was
simple: Rock’n’Roll developed out of
Afro-American music, people oppressed
by white Americans, singing about
revolution and freedom. Then it was
taken by the white working-class youth
who were disappointed with the capitalist
system, changing the music into nearly
communist-like protest songs. This is a
thesis that was applied not only to
Rock’n’Roll, but to Jazz and, later on,
HipHop, as well.
This point of view is of course very
problematic. A large part of
Rock’n’Roll’s roots were either white
and/or religious – both is quite opposed
to the official GDR thesis. Both the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones came
from firm middle-class backgrounds. As
musicians, they became rich and famous,
and they benefited from the capitalist
system. As the legendary DJ John Peel
said at the end of the sixties: „ Mick
[Jagger] thinks he is the leader of some
kind of working class revolution; how is
this supposed to work with his 40 room
villa and his Rolls Royce?“ (Wyman :
360)
Yet, it is even more complicated. Every
artistic expression is subject to market
rules, every recording has to be paid for
by a label, and every LP has to be sold
on the free market. This does not
necessarily mean that it can not contain
lyrics of resistance or revolutionary
music. Even an anti-capitalist statement
was (and is) subject to these free market
rules. On the contrary, often this content
even served as part of the advertisement
– the Rolling Stones’ Street Fighting
Man reached the US Top 50 probably
because it was on the index of many
radio stations.
This nature of Rock’n’Roll changed
when it reached the GDR. The records
were not part of a free market – a free
market did not exist, the music was to a
large degree not available. Since it was
often prohibited, listening to the Rolling
Stones really was an act of resistance,
24
ACADEMIC VIEW
of disobedience, perhaps even more so
than in the countries where this music
originated. I Can’t Get No Satisfaction
meant something different in East
Germany.
The GDR government wanted to break
this by telling the people what John
Lennon, Mick Jagger, and all the others
„actually“ wanted to say, acquiring
authority of definition by this. Especially
in the eighties, a considerable number of
biographies about the Beatles, John
Lennon, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, and
others were published (paradoxically
including detailed description of music the
reader officially never could have listened
to) and LP editions came with essays on
the record sleeves.
Rudi Benzien wrote in John Lennon
Report (1989) about the reasons for the
Beatles’ fast success in 1963: „America
was shaken by race riots […] The former
British colony Kenya gained
independence [...] The USSR proved
with various space expeditions its
standing in regard to the exploration of
the universe. [...] A sensation was in order
to divert from dissonances. (Benzien :
115). And later in the book, he stated:
„With Working Class Hero, a song John
wanted to be understood as revolutionary,
he, in his own way, stands up for the
working class.“ (Benzien : 214) – a
serious misinterpretation of this
disappointed venomous song.
On the other hand, when Gottfried
Schmiedel said in Die Beatles – Ihr
Leben und ihre Lieder (1985) „As early
as 1968, John Lennon had demanded the
immediate retreat of the Americans from
Vietnam. [...] He took part in political
demonstrations of American left-wing
activists.“ he just stated true facts.
The third strategy, besides prohibition
and re-definiton, was the substitution of
Western products with genuine GDR
ones. The reasons for this were twofold.
The first one is connected to the socialist
cultural life. In order to educate the
population to be a socialist one, it needed
socialist art. As the SED culture
conference stated in 1960:Therefore, this
„education through dance music“ has a
social function […] When we speak
about the class character of art, this is
discernible on the field of dance music
as well. […] Our social order gives this
genre […] a new mission – to contribute
to the unity of esthetical education,
pleasure, edification and enrichment of
life. (Bachmann : 11)
Beat music definitely did not belong in
this category. As late as 1976, an author
could lament especially „rapture and
licentiousness while listening or dancing
to or playing Twist and Shake“
(Bachmann : 62).
This led to one of the more obscure
examples of East German substitution.
In order to overcome Rock’n’Roll, the
system commissioned its own dance –
the Lipsi. Named after its place of origin,
Leipzig, invented by the composer Rene
Dubianski and the married dance teacher
couple Christa and Helmut Seifert, it was
heavily promoted. Training movies were
made, records produced, competitions
organized, leaflets distributed (as canbe
25
TWIN PEAKS
seen on p. 26) and, in a naïve hope of an
international breakthrough, it even was
applied for a patent. It was hailed as the
„most important […] success in the
development of the new dance music“
(Rauhut : 40) When it failed, officials
could not fathom it. One of the reasons
might have been its complicated structure
– the Lipsi consisted of
two ¾-bars with stress
on beat 1-3-4-5. The
other reason was
certainly its artificial
creation. The Lipsi was
soon forgotten, a fate it
shared with other, even
stranger dances like the
Cock-Step (sic!), the
Malterson, the Orion,
the Tshila and so on.
programs, discotheques, live concerts
etc. 60% of the played songs had to be
from GDR or Eastern European origin,
and only 40% were allowed to be
Western products. This quota came into
force on January 2nd, 1958 and was in
effect until 1989. Discotheques reacted
by playing the unloved GDR-songs in
The other reason for
substituting western
products is mentioned in
the article, too. It is a
very simple one:
Money. As it has been
stated before, the GDR
had problems obtaining
the rights for Western
music because they had
to be paid with foreign
currency.
These
licenses were very
expensive. If the people
would have bought
GDR or even Eastern European music,
it would have saved large amounts of
money. This is the reason not only for
complete cover records, but for the
infamous 60:40 quota as well. The new
quota was to ensure that in all radio
breaks between dances, radio DJs put
them on late at night.
In 1965, Erich Honecker, then a
member of the ZK der SED, said: „Long
hair hinders the view on how the world
changes.“ (Rauhut : 7) In 1972,
26
ACADEMIC VIEW
Honecker had in the meantime followed
Ulbricht as Generalsekretär, he said
about the same topic: „It is not important
what is on but what is inside the head.“
(Augsburg : 15)
Something had
changed.
Especially
after
the
X.
Weltjugendspiele in 1973, an international
festival in East Berlin, the GDR opened
itself to Western influences, trying to
fulfil the needs of the population not only
concerning Western popular music, but
other consumer goods as well – in 1974
the first jeans was produced (under the
official name „Nietenkapphose“, made
out of brown cord), in 1978 the first blue
jeans.
Rock bands were not only allowed, but
promoted and officially supported. They
had to fulfill certain fixed cultural
standards, which consisted of stressing
their GDR origin and denying American
influences: First, their names were not
permitted to be in English, which led to
artificial names like Puhdys (an
acronym of the band member’s first
names) or electra. Second, they had to
have a certain artistic and poetic value,
resulting in collaborations with GDR
poets.
Music and youth culture magazines
emerged, the most well-known being
neues leben and Melodie und
Rhythmus. Both existed since the fifties
(1954 and 1957), but heavily changed
their appearance, printed posters by
Western rock stars, etc. In 1987, Bob
Dylan performed in East-Berlin in front
of 100.000s of people, disappointing
every one of them by not even saying
„Hello“. In 1988, Joe Cocker (in
Dresden) and Bruce Springsteen (in
East-Berlin) followed, the latter
prompting the radio stations to hastily
interrupt their live broadcast by saying
something about his hope that „someday
all walls will fall down“.
At the end of the eighties, certainly
under the influence of Gorbachev’s
policy of Glasnost (openness) and
Perestroika (restructuring), new and
experimental bands had the chance to
make records. Some of the beat fans of
the sixties were now in positions at radio
stations (especially DT 64, the youth
station that came into being at the
Deutschlandtreffen 1964) and played
demo-tapes by young groups. That this
comparatively „underground“-based
music scene was heavily infiltrated by
the Staatssicherheit is one of the sad facts
concerning GDR Rock’n’Roll.
This time did not last long. It
lasted until 1989. The rest, as they say, is
history. Perhaps the journalist Wolf
Kampmann hit the nail on the head: „In
the GDR, rock music was never only
Rock’n’Roll.“ (Galenza/Havemeister :
369)
That’s why they liked it.
All translations of German quotes by
the author, with assistance by Anja
Eifert.
Due to limited space in the printed
edition, the bibliography for this
article is only included in the
electronic version of the Twin Peaks
Newsletter No. 20.
27
TWIN PEAKS
ACADEMIC VIEW
Die Monotonie des yeah, yeah, yeah
Bibliography
Augsburg (2005). „Haare auf Krawall“ in: Kreuzer 08/05. Leipzig: Kreuzer
Medien GmbH.
Bachmann, Fritz (1976). Tanzmusik und Gesellschaft – Zu einigen Fragen
der Entwicklung von Tanzmusik und Schlagerlied. Leipzig: Zentralhaus für
Kulturarbeit.
Benzien, Rudi (1989). John Lennon Report. Berlin: Neues Leben.
Hartwig, Marcel (2005).“ SEDisfaction“ in: Kreuzer 08/05. Leipzig: Kreuzer
Medien GmbH.
Hofmann, H.P. (1971). abc der tanzmusik. Berlin: Verlag Neue Musik Berlin.
Hofmann, H.P. (1980). Beat-Lexikon – Interpreten. Autoren. Sachbegriffe.
Berlin: VEB Lied der Zeit.
Kampmann, Wolf: „Ich such die DDR – Ost-Rock zwischen Wende und
Anschluß“ in: Galenza, Ronald & Havemeister, Heinz (ed.) (1999): Wir
wollen immer artig sein... – Punk, New Wave, HipHop, IndependentSzene in der DDR 1980-1990. Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf.
Profil Heft 5. Zentralhaus-Publikation Leipzig 1986
Rauhut, Michael (1993). Beat in der Grauzone – DDR-Rock 1964 bis 1972
– Politik und Alltag. Berlin: BasisDruck.
Schmiedel, Gottfried (1985). Die Beatles – Ihr Leben und ihre Lieder.
Leipzig: Edition Peters.
Whalley, Boff (2003). Footnote. London: Pomona.
Wyman, Bill & Havers, Richard (2002). Rolling Stones Story. Starnberg:
Dorling Kindersley.
27
28 b
TWIN PEAKS
Das Essen war gut
Ein Bericht über die grandiose Fachschaftsfahrt im
vergangenen Wintersemester von Frank Loddemann
Zugegeben, es war eine organisierte Gruppenreise. Und ich muss gestehen, Ziel der
Reise war die bei Reisegruppen mit Teilnehmern jenseits der Sechzig beliebte Sächsische Schweiz. Wir waren sogar auf der Bastei, dem bekanntlich ersten Ort an den jede
Reisegruppe kutschiert wird, die in die Sächsische Schweiz fährt. Aber hier hören die
Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen einer Rentnerfahrt und unserer Winter-Fachschaftsfahrt
auch schon auf.
Immerhin sind wir nicht mit einem Fünf-Sterne Reisebus sondern im Regionalzug
der Deutschen Bundesbahn angereist. Sitzplätze sind bei gebuchten Reisen sonst ja
üblich, keine Selbstverständlichkeit bei der DB. Auch die Wanderung durch den dunklen Wald zur Herberge war wohl eher reisegruppenunüblich. Bemerkenswert an der
Nachtwanderung ist vielleicht, dass wir als völlig von der Natur entfremdete Stadtkinder weniger Angst vor den berüchtigten Nazis der Gegend hatten, als vielmehr vor
Wildschweinen, Hirschen und Wölfen.“Wie auch immer, alle kamen von Wölfen und
Nazis unbehelligt im Open-House in Rathenwalde an, wo wir auch sofort anfangen
konnten zu kochen, weil die Proviant-Vorhut mit dem Auto schon angekommen war.
“Das Essen war gut. Ich will auch gar nicht schreiben, dass es Spaghetti mit allerlei
Soßen gab.
Für einige gab es offenbar nicht genügend Kohlenhydrate, denn am nächsten Tag gab
es, besonders beim Aufstieg auf die Bastei, nicht wenige Fälle von Erschöpfung.
Schließlich aber erreichten (fast) alle die Bastei. Von dort ging es weiter zur Festung
Königstein. Nass und kalt standen wir auf der Festung und wir waren ziemlich froh, als
es in den verhältnismäßig warmen und windstillen Gewölbekeller ging. Alkohol konnte
uns dort unsere Kälte nur in der Phantasie mindern, denn das Riesenfass in der Garage
der Burg war leer.
So richtig warm wurde uns erst wieder daheim in Rathenwalde, wo wir bei Glühwein, Bier und warmer Milch das Beste einer Wanderung erlebten: das Zurückkommen
und Füßehochlegen.
Nach den hoffentlich deutlich gemachten Unterschieden will ich eine Tatsache, die
uns wiederum einer reisenden Rentnergruppe ähnlich macht, nicht verschweigen:
irgendwo in der Umgebung der Bastei ist uns ausgerechnet der älteste Teilnehmer der
Reisegruppe verloren gegangen. Während eines kurzen Moments der Unachtsamkeit
war er im Wald verschwunden und wir waren heilfroh ihn abends in der Herberge
wohlbehalten wiederzusehen.
Soviel Schnee wie beim letzten Mal werden wir bei der Sommerfahrt auf die Burg
Lohra vermutlich nicht haben, aber ganz sicher werden wir wieder grillen. Diesmal
geht es vom 30. Juni bis zum 2. Juli auf die Burg Lohra im Südharz. Für nur 25 Euro
seid Ihr dabei! Meldet Euch an unter [email protected]!
28
LOCAL COLOR
Bachelor- und Mastereinführung
– Was bedeutet das für Euch?
von Victor Weiler
Ab dem Wintersemester 2006/7 werden Studierende auch am Institut für
Amerikanistik nicht mehr in Magisterstudiengänge, sondern in Bachelor- und später,
ab WS 2007/8, in Masterstudiengänge immatrikuliert.
Was bedeutet das für Euch konkret? Zunächst einmal die gute Nachricht: für
Euch ändert sich im Prinzip nichts. Wer bisher in einen Magisterstudiengang
eingeschrieben war genießt „Bestandsschutz“. Das bedeutet, dass eure Studienund Prüfungsordnungen gültig bleiben und Ihr einen Rechtsanspruch darauf habt,
euer Magisterstudium zu Ende zu studieren.
Für das Institut bedeutet es, dass auch weiterhin die Lehrveranstaltungen angeboten
werden, die Ihr für euren Magisterstudiengang braucht. Das Institut hat uns
gegenüber unmissverständlich deutlich gemacht, dass es Magisterstudierende nicht
als „Studierende zweiter Klasse“ behandeln wird. Allerdings solltet Ihr versuchen,
Euer Studium zügig zu Ende zu bringen. Urlaubs- und Auslandssemester könnt Ihr
natürlich trotzdem noch nehmen. Das Institut für Amerikanistik plant, spezielle
Beratungsangebote für Studierende bereitzuhalten, die ihr Studium möglichst effektiv
gestalten möchten.
Einige Fragen sind derzeit noch offen, z.B. ob und wie aus den aktuellen
Studiengängen in die neuen gewechselt werden kann. Für uns sieht das momentan
so aus, dass es wohl keinen Wechsel in den B.A.-Studiengang geben wird, was
den neuen M.A. angeht, ist vieles derzeit noch unklar. Sobald die Uni dazu zentrale
Vorgaben gemacht hat, werden wir Euch natürlich darüber informieren.
Fazit: Kein Grund zur Panik, Ihr habt das Recht, Euer Studium nach den weiterhin
gültigen Studien- und Prüfungsordnungen zu Ende zu studieren. Wenn Ihr Fragen
bezüglich der Umstellung habt, wendet Euch an uns. Wir werden darauf achten,
dass im Prozess der Umstellung Eure Rechte gewährleistet werden und Euch so
weit und unbürokratisch wie möglich entgegengekommen wird.
Euer FSR Anglistik/Amerikanistik
For more information, please check out the American Studies Leipzig
website: http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~amerika
29
TWIN PEAKS
Dave
of all Trad
es
Trades
Interview by Katja Wenk
To call one’s first book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
is, at the least, daring, but Dave Egger’s memoir earned him a bestselling book and a Pulitzer nomination. As the founder of the independent
publishing house McSweeney’s, as editor of the annual Best American
Nonrequired Reading, as the initiator of 826 Valencia and 826NYC
(writing labs for young people in San Francisco and New York,
respectively), Eggers was suddenly all around and bringing a fresh breeze
into American literature and publishing – and was always busy.
We persevered, nonetheless, for the past three issues until, at last, Mr.
Eggers found time to answer some of our questions.
America‘s Best: Short stories,
essays, mystery writing, recipes ...
What was the initial impulse to get
the Best Nonrequired Reading
going?
Twin Peaks: TIME Magazine
named you one of the „2005 Time
100“. How does it feel to be on such
a list?
Dave Eggers: It’s very flattering, but I
assume I was named because someone
more worthy dropped out at the last
minute.
DE: Houghton-Mifflin, the publishing
company, asked me to edit a collection
for younger readers – those under 25
or so. At the time, I had just begun
teaching high school students, so it
seemed natural that I would have the
students help edit it. The collection is
read by people of all ages, but having
17-year-olds choose the entries gives
TP: You are the editor of Best
American Nonrequired Reading,
which first appeared in 2002 and is
published annually since. There are
different series published under
30
TALKING HEADS
it a dynamic, eclectic angle.
TP: Your share of the money the Best
American Nonrequired Reading
makes goes directly to 826 Valencia, which is an initiative you
founded. It is based in San Francisco
and helps young people with their
writing skills. What was the reason
for you to do this?
DE: Many friends and members of my
family were teachers, and I always
knew that they welcomed help with their
students’ writing. In California, a good
percentage of students come from
families were English isn’t spoken at
home. So the students need help
bringing their writing skills up to gradelevel. The best way to do this is oneon-one attention, and thus you need a
lot of tutors. 826 Valencia has 930
tutors in San Francisco who go into
schools and work at our own location
to help students write better, and with
all of their homework. The results are
always dramatic.
next door to the classroom, so we see
the kids all day every day. It makes it a
much livelier place to work. There are
always about 60 kids, from age 8 to
18, working on projects while we’re
working on our own books and
magazines, and the kids appreciate being
part of something like that, a publishing
center where so much is happening.
Writing and editing and book production
can be fairly lonely work, so having 9year-olds occasionally asking for help
with their homework certainly breaks
up the monotony and gives us a sense
of perspective.
TP: How is people‘s response to the
project, such as from the community
or local media?
TP: What is it like to work with these
young people?
DE: It’s been very welcoming. The
center’s reach grows all the time. We’ve
been able to open similar centers in
Chicago, New York, Los Angeles,
Seattle, and Michigan. People respond
to the simplicity of the idea, and the
universality of it. Everywhere you go,
students need extra help, and one-onone attention is the best way to provide
it.
DE: It makes life far richer. Our
publishing company, McSweeney’s, is
TP: With A Heartbreaking Work of
Staggering Genius you were
31
TWIN PEAKS
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for
General Non-Fiction, but before it
was published eventually, did any
publishers dimiss the script?
life into the events of this young man’s
life. I knew his story from his
perspective, but I still needed to go to
Sudan to see it myself. Thus the story is
almost entirely his, but it inevitably will
reflect what I’ve seen, too.
DE: Before I started writing it, I made
an arrangement with an editor at Simon
& Schuster. He agreed to publish it
based on a few pages of notes, actually.
I was lucky that way. I was terrified of
rejection, so I don’t know if I could have
written it without a commitment from the
publisher ahead of time.
TP: With all the projects you are
involved in – when do you find time
to write?
DE: Very late at night. I’m writing this
at 2:26 am, and I’ll be up till 5 or so.
It’s the only time I have alone, really.
TP: There are many authors who
believe that writing about their own
life doesn‘t allow for good stories –
which, in your case, seems to be
different. What is your reply to such
statements?
TP: Mr. Eggers, thank you for
staying up late to answer our
questions.
DE: I’ve never heard of a writer saying
something like that. Who doesn’t write
about their own life in one way or
another? If you write about anything
you’ve ever seen, you’re writing about
your life. If you describe the sun, the
ocean, the smell of a baby’s head –
everything comes from your own life to
one extent or another. I’m writing the
story of a refugee from Sudan right now,
but I have to draw a great deal on my
own experiences, in attempting breathe
Dave Eggers has also written a
novel, You Shall Know Our
Velocity, and the short story
collection How We Are
Hungry. Both are published by
McSweeney‘s and available
online.
32
ACADEMIC VIEW
Newspaper Language
Tabloid
by Kirsten Jörß
versus
Quality Paper
According to the Pew Research Center, the average American watches eight
hours TV per day, the TV therefore is the first medium for information and above
all for entertainment. Yet, in order to achieve background information the daily
newspaper is the preferred medium. On 9/11 everybody watched TV, but the day
after was the „newspaper day“ – the Washington Post for instance sold „more
than 150, 000 papers above its normal press run, and would have sold more if they
had been printed“ (Downie and Kaiser 2002: 63). Considering the presidential
campaign in 2004, 40 % of Americans used daily newspapers to receive information.
The aim of my thesis is to compare the language of different types of newspapers
– tabloid versus quality paper. The presidential campaign 2004 determined the
corpus of newspaper articles. In order to achieve a manageable amount of data, I
have picked two different American newspapers – the Washington Post
representing the quality paper and the New York Post representing the tabloid.
Both newspapers are regional American daily newspapers and have been chosen
in regard to their circulation numbers. According to the Audit Bureau of
Circulation, both newspapers belong to the ten biggest American daily newspapers.
Although carrying the same name the New York Post does not belong to the
family of the Washington Post or vice versa. Due to a low cover price of 25 cents,
the New York Post is America’s eighth biggest newspaper. (McGeveran 2005)
Being rather famous for its sports coverage, the New York Post also includes
business, lifestyle and politics; yet, the focus is put on personalities rather than
politics. The content and the very low cover price attract a less educated readership.
According to a Scarborough research less than 30% of the readers graduated
from college.
The Washington Post gained its greatest recognition through the coverage of the
„Watergate Scandal“ which led to Nixon’s resignation in 19741. The coverage of
international, national and local news and politics is characterized by analytical and
detailed news reporting. Elaborate articles attract a rather highly educated readership.
33
TWIN PEAKS
Selling more than half of its copies to subscribers, the Washington Post is not
forced as strongly as the New York Post to convince the reader every day via
running headlines or sensational pictures.
The choice of articles was determined by a national subject covered by both
newspapers – the presidential election 2004. Since the last two weeks before
Election Day are the most important weeks of a presidential campaign, the corpus
begins with October 22nd, 2004.
While investigating three main areas of newspaper language – headlines, articles
and also pictures, I come to the following results:
• All differences between the tabloid and the quality paper are an effect of different
audience design. According to Bell (2001) the speaker designs his or her
language to be more like that of the person he or she is communicating to. Bell’s
audience design could be broadened in its scope for not only referring to language
but also to pictures. Since newspapers nowadays carry some information via
pictures as well, pictures are included into the analysis.
The most obvious observation shows that the New York Post attracts its readership
via large colorful photos and bold headlines. The design of the pages is determined
by the desire of quick information with less effort placed on reading requirement.
In contrast to the tabloid, the pages in the Washington Post are filled with verbal
texts rather than visual elements. In order to convince people to buy the paper, the
front-page of the Washington Post covers multiple articles which stop in the middle
of a sentence or even of a word and are continued inside the paper. This procedure
is aimed at people who do not mind reading and decide to buy a paper due to
articles and not due to interesting pictures.
• A trend of visualization in the serious paper was nevertheless marked by the
amount of pictures used. Comparing the amount of pictures per articles, I come
to the result that the Washington Post uses almost as many pictures per articles
than its counterpart. Nevertheless, the pictures used differ from those used in
the tabloid.
• Analyzing the type of pictures another difference between both newspapers
can be stated. Differentiating between iconic pictures (photographs) and
1
The Watergate Scandal is often used to demonstrate the power of the media as the
‘fourth estate‘.
34
ACADEMIC VIEW
symbolic pictures (diagrams, maps etc.), it was obvious that diagrams or maps
which explain detailed facts are predominantly used by the quality paper. Since
pictures in general belong to the most salient elements in tabloids, they function in
the New York Post as attention getting rather than as informational elements.
Furthermore, there is a clear difference between neutral pictures found in the
Washington Post and silhouetted pictures used in the tabloid which overlap
other elements on the page and thus create an active appearance (cf. illustration
1 where the framing between photo and text is omitted).
• The New York Post manipulates its readers through a hierarchical order of
elements on a page. Through suggesting the importance of articles by adding
pictures and by the size of the article itself, the tabloid expresses what is important
to its readers, whereas the Washington Post orders most of its articles in neutral
manner, with the aim that its readers individually decide what is relevant to them.
above: Illustration 1: New York Post,
Nov. 2nd 2004
right: Illustration 2: Washington Post,
Nov. 2nd 2004
35
TWIN PEAKS
The language used in newspapers differs from category to category. The business
section makes use of another register than the sports or life style. In my
investigation I have concentrated on political articles ‘only’. Therefore the results
differentiate between news reports, commentaries and letters to the editor. The
language used in news reports differs in vocabulary and linguistic style from the
language used in commentary. In contrast to its news reports, the Washington
Post contracts its verb forms in commentaries. In contrast to the Washington
Post, the New York Post addresses its readers directly in commentaries and
thus creates a more conversational situation compared to its news reporting.
• The complex process of language production leads to a different use of
vocabulary in newspapers than in common conversation. Especially the language
used in headlines can be referred to as a language of its own with loaded
vocabulary and incomplete syntax. Whereas, the structure of headlines is similar
in both types of papers (articles and verbs are omitted, use of monosyllabic
words) the use of vocabulary differs as can be seen in the following examples:
above: Illustration 3 New York Post,
Oct.26th 2004
right: Illustration 4 Washington Post,
Oct. 26th 2004
Both headlines cover the same subject – Bill Clinton supporting John Kerry in
Philadelphia. The naming of the former president of America marks a clear difference
of language formality. While the headline in the Washington Post is neutral, the
New York Post refers to Clinton by his first name suggesting a friendship to the
reader expressed by less formal language use. The language in headlines can be
described as emotional and attention getting.
In general, war is often used as subject for headlines; in the New York Post
issue of the Election Day, it is the dominant subject in various headlines. Since the
Iraq war was one of the campaigning issues, it can be concluded that the New
36
ACADEMIC VIEW
York Post used its connotational headlines to manipulate its readers. The following
examples were found in the issue of the New York Post from Nov. 2nd, 2004:
• The most obvious difference can be seen in the vocabulary used by the
newspapers. In general, it can be said that the language used to cover the political
battle for presidency reflects the competitive situation. The tabloid’s language is
characterized via the trend towards colloquial style with contracted verb forms
and informal terminology in every section analyzed. The quality paper makes use
of literary expressions and different registers. Yet, the structure of sentences used
in the articles is similar in both papers. The news reports are dominated by complex
sentences and the commentaries increase the use of simple sentences. Considering
the word stock of both newspapers, there is a trend of more emotional expressions
in the tabloid. Another interesting point of language use is the „verbal pot-pourri“
which marks newspaper language in general. This mixture of different registers
can be found in the Washington Post rather than in the tabloid. The main linguistic
differences between both papers thus can be seen in the lexis used.
Finally, it can be stated that there appear differences as well as similarities in the
language of the different newspapers. It has become clear that in a competitive
environment, both newspapers not only design their language, but their entire
appearance according to their implied readership. Nevertheless, it is necessary to
point out that although various aspects of newspapers language have been looked
at, there are far more issues which could be compared considering newspaper
style. The differences of language between the individual sections offers an interesting
field of study for instance within the linguistic field. Considering media science, it
may be of interest to follow on the new ‘friendship’ between Rupert Murdoch and
Hillary Clinton and its influence on her political carrier in order to demonstrate the
politic-press relationship.
Due to limited space in the printed edition, the bibliography for this article is
only included in the electronic version of the Twin Peaks Newsletter No. 20.
37
TWIN PEAKS
ACADEMIC VIEW
Newspaper Language
Bibliography
2004 Scarborough Report, unpublished data
http://www.scarborough.com.
Audit Bureau of Circulations:
http://www.accessabc.com/reader.
Bell, Allan (2001). „Back in Style: Reworking Audience Design“. In: Eckert,
Penelope and John R., Rickford (2001). Style and Sociolinguistic
Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 139-170.
Downie, Leonard, Robert G. Kaiser (2002) The News about the News:
American Journalism in Peril. New York: Knopf.
McGeveran, William, A (2005) The World Almanac and Book of Facts
2005. New York.
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
http://www.people-press.org.
Newspapers:
New York Post, Oct. 22nd 2004.
New York Post, Oct. 26th 2004.
New York Post, Oct. 29th 2004.
New York Post, Nov. 2nd 2004.
Washington Post, Oct. 22nd 2004.
Washington Post, Oct. 26th 2004.
Washington Post, Oct. 29th 2004.
Washington Post, Nov. 2nd 2004.
3738b
TWIN PEAKS
TWIN PEAKS SUDOKU
A
N
S
K
I
N W
P
P
T W I
K
N
P
E K
E A
T W A K S
A
T
T
K
I
A W
N
E
If you‘ve heard of SuDoku, the Japanese brain-teasing number
game, you know how it works. If you haven‘t, don‘t worry. The
SuDoku hype is just about over already; besides, the person
sitting next to you probably knows how to solve this thing.
* The views expressed in the various contributions do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the Twin Peaks editors.
* All rights reserved to Twin Peaks‘ authors and editors.
38
IMPRINT
THE AUTHORS
THE EDITORS
- Thomas Kolitsch majors in German
and English Studies at Leipzig University
to become a teacher.
* Stine Eckert (V.i.S.d.P.) majors
in Journalism and American Studies at Leipzig University.
- Frank Loddemann majors in German
and English Studies at Leipzig University
to become a teacher. He is a member
of the Fachschaftsrat Anglistik/
Amerikanistik.
* Kirsten Jörß (M.A.) just recently
completed her master thesis in
American Studies. Her minors included French Studies and Communication and Media Science.
- Jordan Mills Pleasant is a Classical
Languages major at the Honors Tutorial
College at Ohio University at Athens.
* Paul Salisbury majors in American Studies at Leipzig University
and has completed his second
major, German Studies.
- Elmar Schenkel is professor for
English literature at Leipzig University.
His research interests include literature
and natural science/technology as well
as travel literature, science fiction and
fantastic literature.
* Katja Wenk majors in American
Studies at Leipzig University, combining it with Journalism and Psychology.
- Victor Weiler majors in American
Studies and is currently writing his
master‘s thesis. He is a former member
of the Fachschaftsrat Anglistik/
Amerikanistk.
* Rosa Linke is a trained librarian
who currently studies graphic design at Bauhaus University in
Weimar.
THE ILLUSTRATOR
Twin Peaks - A Newsletter for American Studies
Institut für Amerikanistik, Beethovenstraße 15, 04107 Leipzig
Design: Stine Eckert, Katja Wenk
Title Photograph: Stine Eckert
Contact: [email protected]
Katja Wenk: 0341/ 22 78 05 1, Stine Eckert: 0173/ 81 28 369,
Printed by: ZIMO druck und kopie KG, Beethovenstraße 10, 04107
Leipzig
39
connewitzer
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connewitzer
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Your first-rate bookshop for
English
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and
and
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e-mail: [email protected] • http://www.cvb.de