Suchergebnisse

"The Routledge Handbook of German Politics and Culture offers a wide-ranging and authoritative account of Germany in the 21st century. It gathers the expertise of internationally leading scholars of German culture, politics, and society to explore and explain - historical pathways to contemporary Germany - the current 'Berlin Republic' - society and diversity - Germany and Europe - Germany and the world. This is an essential resource for students, researchers, and all those looking to understand contemporary German politics and culture"--

In 1970 Ulrike Meinhof abandoned a career as a political journalist to join the Red Army Faction; captured as a terrorist along with other members of the group in 1972, she died an unexplained death in a high-security prison in 1976. A charismatic spokesperson for the RAF, she has often come near to being idealized as a freedom fighter, despite her use of extreme violence. In an effort to understand how terrorism takes root, Sarah Colvin seeks a dispassionate view of Meinhof and a period when West Germany was declaring its own "war on terror." Ulrike Meinhof always remained a writer, and this book focuses on the role of language in her development and that of the RAF: how Meinhof came to justify violence to the point of murder, creating an identity for the RAF as resistance fighters in an imagined state of war that was reinforced by the state's adoption of what Andreas Musolff has called 'war terminology.' But its all-powerful identity as a fighting group eroded the RAF's empathy with other human beings - even those it once claimed to be 'fighting for.' It became a closed unit, self-justifying and immobilized by its own conviction that everything it did must be right. This is the first specialized study of Meinhof and the RAF in English - which is remarkable given the current interest in the topic in both Europe and the U.S. Sarah Colvin is Professor and Eudo C. Mason Chair of the German Department at the University of Edinburgh, UK

There is still-growing interest in narrative in the context of offender rehabilitation. Recent moves towards a 'narrative criminology' have referenced literary theory and the tools of literary criticism, and have demanded exchange with other disciplines. This article responds with an examination of how a humanities-informed literary critical analysis might complement and extend social science's understanding of narrative work with offenders. The article analyses how and to what effect literary fiction is used in prisons and probation. Against the broader background of findings from prison literature programmes, it offers an in-depth analysis of the work of the Berlin prison theatre company aufBruch, from a literary critical as well as a narrative criminological perspective. With reference to Maruna's notion of the 'redemption script' and more recent narrative criminology, as well as to literary and cognitive theory and experimental psychology, it is suggested that an understanding of how literary fiction 'works' may enhance the theory and practice of narrative work with offenders.