Papers by Peter O . Stummer
Review of Stephen Buoro, Andy Africa : Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2023.
Let it be said from the very beginning. The German version will have a few shortcomings. This is ... more Let it be said from the very beginning. The German version will have a few shortcomings. This is by no means a criticism of Volker Oldenburg, the translator, who manages the rendition of the youngsters' special lingo quite adequately. The deficit is most clearly demonstrated by the different connotations of the two titles. Andy Africa points to the entire continent. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, however, clearly evoke Stations of the Cross associations. In this way, a catholic horizon as well as a context of suffering is unequivocally set out. My advantage, on the other hand, is most certainly the first-hand knowledge of things Nigerian, as I have a friend of roughly Buoro's age who lives in the South of the country and can easily testify to the hopeless condition 'the biggest democracy in Africa' is in at the moment. Police arbitrariness, senile kleptomaniacs as irresponsible politicians, and a youth without any prospects of a viable future, who feel imprisoned as if in a cage, and who most
Critical Approaches to <i>Anthills of the Savannah</i>
Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung auß... more Dieses Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfaltigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen.
BRILL eBooks, 2002
The emancipation of the study of Literatures in English other than GB and US from the dominant An... more The emancipation of the study of Literatures in English other than GB and US from the dominant Anglistics in Germany is sketched from an insider&#39;s perspective.The changes in post-colonial theory, the wavering between commitment and a metaphorical posture of resistence, form the background. The intricacies of cross-cultural communication are discussed on the basis of a plethora of examples, which are taken from Australian, Canadian, Indian, and African literature, and which demonstrate how these authors cope with alterity and difference.
BRILL eBooks, 2012
Could it be that relics of a half-digested reading oi Jumpers wanderThrough my mind? But that wou... more Could it be that relics of a half-digested reading oi Jumpers wanderThrough my mind? But that would prove that literature affects usIn a way, does it not? Anyway, I remember how it all began.We prided ourselves on siding with the underdog and discoveredThe fate of minorities. Some of us took refuge in the lean-to ofThe Commonwealth, while others started to take issue withEnglish Studies, even degraded it to Eng.Lit. (downsizing had yetTo be invented) or dreamt up Cultural Studies of a particular kind.It all started with the flag-independence of Ghana and professorialAggrandizement, which no longer convinced rebellious students.The way Anglistics saw itself came more and more under fire.Unwittingly we applied the core-periphery paradigm, wormingAway from the margins of the field, or so we were told. SomeColleagues of our up-and-coming generation were eager to fawnOn profs in power positions, where they defined the rules of theGame (defending the status quo of the system) and insisted that,With us, it was just a matter of sour grapes. We extolled the periphery,They maintained, because we lacked the ability to play ball with the core.Could these be the times when unheard-of Soyinka might be a matchFor time-honoured Shakespeare? No way, they thought, but they wereAlready on the retreat.For we had started to get organized. We got our act together and formedAssociations and thus became internationally active, before networking andGlobalization had become common coinage. We experimented with 'NewLiteratures in English' and were proud of the non-totalizing plural, only toEnd up in the maze of postcoloniality. For, in the meantime, another slurHad appeared on the scene. Against a backcloth of postmodern trickery,We were accused of lagging behind, inasmuch as we defended some sortOf lingering partisanship. It took the mainstream a terribly long time toPerceive, in its 'ethical turn', that some aspects of postmodernism had beenNothing but a ploy to play into the hands of the neo-con revoltOf 'depoliticizing the Culture Wars'.Now, I fear, the maggots of success arc in the process of feeding on theGreen leaves of our beginnings. We have made it, to a degree, and we haveThus arrived. We have arrived in the centre of a field which seems to takeMany of the formerly marginal positions for granted, it is true. …
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift Fur Literaturwissenschaft Und Geistesgeschichte, Dec 1, 1975
BRILL eBooks, 2001
RANCE IS WHAT WE FIRST MEAN by 'abroad'; it is our primary exotic. This is not a German's complim... more RANCE IS WHAT WE FIRST MEAN by 'abroad'; it is our primary exotic. This is not a German's complimentary bow to French culture. It has its origin in that rare species, English francophiles. It stems from the pen of the self-proclaimed member of this species, Julian Barnes, and appears in his essay "Froggy, Froggy, Froggy,'" where he continues, "The British are obsessed by the French, whereas the French are only intrigued by the British." This inner-European banter on national stereotypes is all very well. However, the joke turns somewhat sour when Comrade Stoyo Petkanov, erstwhile president of Bulgaria, enumerates, in his show-trial plea, among his many honorific titles, his Doctor honoris causa from the University of Nice just to spite the Public Prosecutor in Barnes's political satire The Porcupine' I mention this here for the by far more complex reason that Barnes uses, in the same text, 'Africa'-if the infelicitous pun may be permitted-as a denigrating signifier. For when the said culprit mentions the various heads of state whom he was awarded medals by, Africa predominates, from Burundi to Zambia, and the name of Canaan Banana of Zimbabwe (this was before his recent incrimination by his own compatriots) is made to convey particular scorn. Incidentally, the same procedure can be observed in Javier Marias' novel A Heart So White; there, in similar semiotics of belittling amusement, hero and heroine speak disparagingly of the trans-1,
The role of science and the internet in the short stories of John Murray and Nam Le
J.B. Metzler eBooks, 2020
GASt-Newsletter, 2011
The Vietnam-born and Melbourne-raised author cultivates an impressive online presence on www.naml... more The Vietnam-born and Melbourne-raised author cultivates an impressive online presence on www.namleonline.com. On his website, the viewer is confronted with an intimidating breaker which threatens to engulf the onlooker on the beach. The next thing that strikes the eye is a quote from novelist Mary Gaitskill praising The Boat´s vision and power as "timeless." This introductory bow towards North American literary culture is then followed, on the next pages, by a long list of positive reviews published in American papers.
BRILL eBooks, 1996
Poem in
A Talent(ed) Digger,
Creations, Cameos, and Essays in honour of Anna Rutherford,
ed. ... more Poem in
A Talent(ed) Digger,
Creations, Cameos, and Essays in honour of Anna Rutherford,
ed. Hena Maes-Jelinek, Gordon Collier , Geoffrey V. Davis.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996; p. 70
Soyinka's total disillusion, 2023
Review of Soyinka's novel
Crabtracks, Progress and Process in Teaching the New Literatures in English, 2002
The emancipation of the study of Literatures in English other than GB and US
from the dominant An... more The emancipation of the study of Literatures in English other than GB and US
from the dominant Anglistics in Germany is sketched from an insider's perspective.The changes in post-colonial theory, the wavering between commitment and a metaphorical posture of resistence, form the background.
The intricacies of cross-cultural communication are discussed on the basis of a plethora of examples, which are taken from Australian, Canadian, Indian, and African literature, and which demonstrate how these authors cope with alterity and difference.
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Papers by Peter O . Stummer
A Talent(ed) Digger,
Creations, Cameos, and Essays in honour of Anna Rutherford,
ed. Hena Maes-Jelinek, Gordon Collier , Geoffrey V. Davis.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996; p. 70
from the dominant Anglistics in Germany is sketched from an insider's perspective.The changes in post-colonial theory, the wavering between commitment and a metaphorical posture of resistence, form the background.
The intricacies of cross-cultural communication are discussed on the basis of a plethora of examples, which are taken from Australian, Canadian, Indian, and African literature, and which demonstrate how these authors cope with alterity and difference.
A Talent(ed) Digger,
Creations, Cameos, and Essays in honour of Anna Rutherford,
ed. Hena Maes-Jelinek, Gordon Collier , Geoffrey V. Davis.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996; p. 70
from the dominant Anglistics in Germany is sketched from an insider's perspective.The changes in post-colonial theory, the wavering between commitment and a metaphorical posture of resistence, form the background.
The intricacies of cross-cultural communication are discussed on the basis of a plethora of examples, which are taken from Australian, Canadian, Indian, and African literature, and which demonstrate how these authors cope with alterity and difference.