Blinde Wut (Western 6) (German Edition)

film archive

---

That soon became a taboo once the direct method, communicative approaches and others surfaced. Nowadays, language teaching presents itself as an open discipline, utilising approaches and methods derived from the research of other academic disciplines such as Applied Linguistics, Psychology or Business Studies, to name but a few. The didactics of teaching foreign languages have come a long way, then, but what about the content of what is being taught?

What about the topics used by books, lecturers and teachers to get pupils and students to speak in and about the foreign language? They used to be taken from respected disciplines such as Politics, Philosophy or Literature. Then, back in the early 80s, current affairs were discovered: Those who attended English classes in West Germany during the 70s and 80s will surely remember endless discussions about acid rain, the tragic fate of the American natives, the coal miner strikes of 70s Britain, etc.

Literature, of course, is still highly en vogue, as is translation. When later moving on to institutions of higher education, mainly universities, the picture does not really change much. As well as new methods and contents, new keywords have emerged on the horizon of up-to-date teaching: To do all these ideas justice seems a very difficult task within one single course, especially if some sort of assessment — in accordance with university regulations — has to be the visible outcome of such an undertaking.

newsletter signup

This article sets out to prove that it is a goal that can be achieved. In this article, the authors will talk generally about possible ways to structure such a seminar, portray the contents and outcomes of two seminars already run at a British university, and illustrate these with the help of a case study. We will look at the pros and cons of bringing taboos into the seminar room, and complement this with findings taken from the actual seminars that have already been held.

The aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, academia and real life. This may entail breaking with traditions, leaving the safe haven of academic disciplines as we know them, and overstepping the boundaries of what we thought was possible, or for that matter permissible. Taboos in the German as a foreign language classroom. Taboos are more than mere church or moral orders.

Taboos are not only about rules and regulations dictated by an outside party. Taboos seem to carry an inherent do not touch sign, often hard to explain and even harder to overcome. In his famous book on Totem und Tabu, Sigmund Freud set out to explore primitive cultures in order to explain our own roots. In his line of thinking, primitive cultures still existing in his time could be seen as a mirror image of what the western world had been like millennia ago. Freud stated that, although the notion of totem no longer exists in modern times, the concept of taboo still seems very much alive.

Whilst Freud clearly homed in on the psychological aspects of the taboo phenomenon and its relevance to psychiatric matters, the sociological aspects were taken up only 30 years later in a study on taboos by Hutton Webster. Webster was interested in discovering the role played by taboos in the emergence and development of mankind. However, as will be explained below see 2. Rules of politeness, the ceremonial observances of courts, the euphemisms of our speech, even our sanitary regulations may have been influenced by such notions.

Webster, who studied many aspects of cultural structures that had been based on taboos, comes to several important conclusions. To mention but one: This indicates that overcoming a taboo might first of all actually entail either breaking or ignoring it. The other conclusion Webster comes to after having identified and analysed many taboo areas of former cultures - such as family planning [3] during certain times, female menstruation and its association with impurity, death, etc. Webster quotes a native of the Congo: Taboos, although they still exist in every society, have seen a drastic shift in focus and relevance over the past few hundred years.

What was once linked to notions such as holy or totem is nowadays more often trivialised than contextualised. Also, the mechanisms evoked by taboos have changed. Today, with morals allegedly being at an all time low, other things matter. In cinema, for example, it seems that disgust and revulsion have taken over from morals as the guardian of taboos cf. Das verbotene Bild, Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik It is one thing to list taboo subjects from days gone by or today, but it is quite another to make them accessible for discussion and analysis.

This is especially true for the foreign language class room at university level. Not only are the students quite anxious to avoid anything that could be embarrassing, but lecturers are as well.

Two extremes, in the opinion of the authors, are to be avoided when setting out to make taboos a topic in class. One is the approach whereby the topic in hand is isolated, taken apart with surgeon-like precision, dismantled of all its explosive aspects, and presented to the student in little, digestible chunks of inoffensive, easy-to-handle in terms of content, though not necessarily language-wise quotes of acceptable literature.

One possible solution to this is to put taboos into context, for example in that of the media. This approach has several advantages. Firstly, teaching material is much more easily found, and students have equal access to the sources and resources used and can easily do their own research. The media used in the seminars under discussion included, amongst other things, recordings of soap operas and documentaries, advertisements, comics, and music CDs. Another advantage of dealing with taboos in the context of the media is the fact that well-documented cases of media censorship do exist.

Also, when looking at taboos in the context of media coverage, students can deepen their knowledge and understanding of the inherent properties of the different media. What might be appropriate to be shown on TV or in a book, may cause entirely different reactions when presented in the form of a comic. It is to be expected that students, at least in the beginning, will be more than reluctant to relate their own first-hand experience with taboos. Therefore, the medium of what could be called processed taboo can help students and lecturers alike to overcome their inhibitions.

The seminar also followed a programme that was handed out to students during their first week and which will be described in greater detail in the following chapter. The above lyrics by a very controversial German band opened the seminar. However, the song presents a wide range of general issues and opens an initial discussion about taboos, rituals, rules and censorship. The discussion that resulted from listening to the song and reading its lyrics, produced a point of reference which one could always return to while dealing with specific topics. The seminar consisted of three phases; although not equal in size in terms of length and time allocated to each phase , each phase formed an integral part of the overall concept.

In the following section, each phase will be explained in greater detail. Taboos — Traditional Approaches.

In order to sensitise students to the subject, a general overview was given. They were given the task of checking newspaper articles for any use of the word taboo. They had to identify topics that were mentioned in connection with the term taboo, and look for related terms often used in conjunction with the word taboo. As a result, students found that the term taboo was by no means used consistently. Some journalists used it in a strictly Freudian or Huttonian sense, others used it simply to avoid lexical repetition of terms like outrageous, offensive, unthinkable and the like.

These findings led to phase 2. Taboos — Working Definition. The group decided that it would come up with its own definition of taboo.

Bearing prior findings in mind, students decided that for the purposes of the seminar they would consider such topics or actions taboo that: By explicitly wording their understanding of taboo [7] , the students made sure they all had — at least in theory — the same point of reference. However, during the course of the semester the students realised that a common point of reference still remains an unemotional one.

Words on paper are one thing, but interpreting these words in an individual context is quite another. The final phase was dominated by the topics chosen for presentations and discussions.

Navigation menu

A list of possible taboo topics together with available material was distributed to students at the beginning of the semester. Each week during phase 3 a team, usually consisting of two students, would present the topic of their choice. In order to bring students up to speed who had not prepared a certain topic and thus were sometimes unaware of the relevant aspects of the respective media form , a half hour introduction was given by the lecturer prior to the student presentation. The presenting team had 45 minutes of the standard minutes per seminar session at their disposal.

Presenting teams were free to chose their own approach to the task set but could consult with the lecturer at any time during their preparation if they so desired for inherent risks see 4.

Western Union

Students were given guidelines on what their presentation should entail. These included an introduction to the taboo from a academic point of view, an interpretation of the media adaptation of the respective taboo, and the involvement of the entire class by means of their own choice. This interactive element to their presentations could, for example, take the form of discussions, brainstorming, role plays and the like for a very different approach, see the case study below.

It also facilitated a more general understanding of what could be considered appropriate in a presentation that deals with taboos. Students and lecturer alike were forced to reconsider time and time again what they really felt constituted a taboo or the breaking of one, that is , as opposed to it merely being an unusual approach or one with which they had no prior knowledge. A leader is best. When people barely know he exists,. Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,. Worst when they despise him. But of a good leader, who talks little,. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,.

Except for a single lecture and several short introductions see 2. The lecturer also took the position of a mediator, especially when the discussion became too heated or analysis of a subject too intense for some of the students. However, since the very nature of taboos often entails censorship, the role of the teacher was discussed by the group on several occasions also see 4. An excessively controlling and interfering role on part of the lecturer would have rendered the very purpose of the project futile; therefore, in most cases the lecturer functioned predominantly as a referee or source for further information.

The lecturer did play a major role insofar as she provided the students with material for presentations and further research. However, most of the suggestions with regard to materials as described below were not binding unless students decided otherwise. A sensitive area was, of course, the assessment of student work.

Apart from the language grammar, appropriateness of style etc. All oral presentations had to be videotaped, since they formed part of the final assessment and therefore needed to be accessible to the external examiner should this be deemed necessary. One would expect students to be inhibited by this fact, yet it turned out that, although they did not especially like it see also 4. Students also had to produce a 3,word essay on a chosen topic, which could vary from the one they had chosen for presentation in class. The essays were then marked according to university regulations that apply for any academic written work e.

Television was one main source. Every day when switching on the TV, one is bombarded with topics presented in every possible shape and form, ranging from documentaries, news broadcasts and talk shows to films and soap operas. The latter category represents a very useful source since even established soap operas in Germany and Britain try to take up many of the taboos which still exist in our society.

Bands | Wacken Open Air

Another source was the printed media, in particular comics and comic books. To cover the subject of censorship — an inevitable issue and one which is intertwined with almost any taboo — the seminar referred to R. These two books themselves could form the basis of another course along the lines of the one presented in this article, since both volumes are packed with visual material, historical facts and legal arguments. Popular music was another pool for material to be looked at in greater detail. Not only have infamous bands such as Boehse Onkelz or Rammstein tackled taboo topics more than once in their songs, but chart toppers such as Pur or Tic Tac Toe have also produced material suitable for analysis and discussion see Chapter 3 below.

The latter was especially useful since it is not by its nature prone to sensationalism. Stern TV had a section on child pornography and Internet security, while Auslandsjournal featured a report on self-justice in South Africa.

Navigation menu

These materials were chosen according to their content and availability; in the case of the soap operas, relevant sequences were edited to enable students to follow a storyline that spanned several weeks. Many further sources are possible. For example, one could add literature such as R. Any medium can be the source of taboo topics. The content of the songs in question will be discussed as well as the method of communicating these to fellow students. Case Study Taboos in Popular Music: In many respects this depends on the materials available and the personal interests, opinions and passions of the students concerned.

This case study a student presentation, held in December at Aston University, Birmingham focuses on the area of popular music, a medium whose diverse and constantly evolving nature enables it to be taken as a basis upon which to build a broad examination of the taboos dealt with in this field. What applies to the Americanised world of MTV and multi-billion-dollar record companies, however, is not necessarily reflected in the German music scene. The situation in Germany often appears to give the artists in question free rein to sing about what they want, as if distancing themselves from the commercial conventions of English-language music gives them this right, and often it is the most famous singers and bands, the big sellers who appear on the front of magazines and on the walls of teenagers around the country, who are the most daring when it comes to approaching so-called taboo subjects in their work.

This background provides an ideal basis for the examination of such music in a German learning framework. The nine songs featured in the presentation at the centre of this case study were all recorded and released within the last ten years and for the most part appeared on highly successful albums; some were big hits in their own right.

Taken in turn, these were as follows: Their tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a Neo-Nazi as an immature and almost pathetic figure with as many self-hate issues as pieces of Nazi paraphernalia and deep down inside a simple human desire to be loved was unusual among the more serious and directly critical commentaries of the time. But it clearly struck a chord and became a top 10 single. Not only one of the most successful bands in Germany but also unlikely flag-carriers for German language music in the USA and beyond, Rammstein have never shied away from controversy: Their tendency towards simplistic and ambiguous texts has also earned its fair share of criticism, and is illustrated perfectly by Spiel mit mir from the album Sehnsucht.

Like Rammstein, Pur can be considered one of the biggest German bands of the last decade. The lyricist also depends to a great extent on emotive adjectives. Without doubt the most obscure song in this presentation, Willi is a simple ballad performed by Hamburg-based singer Rainer Bielfeldt, remembering his experiences with a lover from years gone by. That Bielfeldt is gay is no secret — the album from which Willi is taken, Nachtzug , features two men embracing on its cover and many of its songs contain references to, or at least influences from, his love life and sexual orientation.

German rap music tends to be far less obsessed with violence, drugs and sex than its American counterpart — and blessed with a more intelligent musical and lyrical content as a result.

Latest announcements

First coming to widespread attention through their attempt to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest, Knorkator are as renowned for pelting their audience with mincemeat and offal as for their musical pot-pourri of industrial heavy metal and operatic singing. In music, as in cinema as described earlier , it seems that some artists have decided that disgust and revulsion are emotions which can be leveraged to a far greater extent than traditional morals.

Music has the advantage of being a universal art form.

Although most students involved in a seminar during their final year at university are naturally familiar with German and German culture in general, not everyone can claim to be an expert or a specialist in a particular field. However, music and the instinctive human reaction to an evocative text in combination with a melody can always be called upon, even regardless of knowledge of any cultural context. Nonetheless, addressing the subjects of taboos in German language music in the form of a presentation to other students does require an element of research and preparation.

This includes not only the compilation of materials and background information on the songs and artists to be presented, but also the devising of a structure for the presentation that will both inform and involve the audience. Other parameters, such as the breadth of subjects and musical styles and the modernity of the material being presented, must also be considered. In the presentation detailed here, such considerations resulted in the following methodology. As detailed above, a total of six so-called taboo subjects were selected, corresponding to nine songs.

The class was introduced to these subjects and the corresponding songs one by one, [11] then played a one-minute excerpt from a key passage of the song and shown an acetate with the corresponding text and a picture of the artist. The person studying taboos in a light media context must, after all, recognise that the purpose of the media is to reach a certain audience, and the reaction of this audience to what it sees and hears is perhaps even more important than the content transmitted.

Following the presentation of the songs, as described above, a brief reprise of each song was played, then the voting procedure began. The class was asked to vote on two questions, and ideally to also give reasons for their choices. The questions were phrased as follows: Which song do you feel dealt best with its topic, and which song do you feel dealt worst with its topic? The Magazine in German.

Alki Alki Axel Ranisch. Anime Nere Francesco Munzi. Aus der Haut Stefan Schaller. Germany, France, Kosovo, Macedonia Between 10 And 12 Peter Hoogendoorn. Belgium, France, Netherlands The Descendants Alexander Payne. Das Dorf des Schweigens Hans Steinbichler. Federal Republic of Germany Staffel, Folge Alexander Payne. Hungry Hearts Saverio Costanzo. Im Zweifel Aelrun Goette.

Key House Mirror Michael Noer. Krisha Trey Edward Shults.

• Journey of the Heart: The Story of Janet McLean (The Courtship Series Book 3)
• Mistress Anna & Other Scorching Erotica
• Il tesoro di seta. Milly Merletti. Sogni di moda. Vol. 5 (Italian Edition)
• Understanding Blackness through Performance: Contemporary Arts and the Representation of Identity
• Autumn Leaves Angel Eyes - ebook
• Maple Grove Cemetery (Images of America)
• The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Modern Library Classics)