June 23, 2008

The new German Quarterly 81.2 (Spring 2008) includes two Davidson contributions: an article by Justice Kraus (Harvard, Davidson ‘01) and a contribution by five senior majors and minors enrolled in Dr. Denham's senior colloquium.

Justice Kraus '01 received the Bremer Award in 2001 "for impassioned reading, engaged analysis, and the promise of a meaningful future in the academy." In his article, "Expression and Adorno's Avant-Garde: The Composer in Doktor Faustus," he argues that Mann's text articulates a different theory of expression than Adorno espouses. Despite Mann's appropriation of many of Adorno's modern ideas about the aesthetics of music, he maintains a traditional stance. While Adorno denies that composers make any meaningful subjective contributions to compositions, the two protagonists of Doktor Faustus emphasize this creative force. This basic disagreement about artistic expression is most conspicuous with regard to Schönberg's method of twelve-tone composition. Referring to Schönberg's theoretical works, Justice shows that the theory of expression formulated in Doktor Faustus has more in common with Schönberg's ideas than with Adorno's.

And in his "Note from the Editor" James Rolleston writes,

A group of undergraduates at Davidson College have drafted a "manifesto" on last year's Forum topic, "Is Literature Still Central to German Studies?" It is posted on our website, as are all the recent forum texts. We hope you will visit the site and, if stimulated, send your own thoughts to us at «german.quarterly@ duke.edu». A new Forum will appear in the next issue, on translation as a process that constantly generates both contentious questions and intercultural openings.

The manifesto (by Kirsten Allen, Rachel Heidmann, Amanda Kuker, Hannah Rogers-Ganter, Alex Seeger, all ‘08) can be read here.


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Posted By: Burkhard Henke