Can German students understand and find access to Toni Morrison's newest, complex novel Paradise?? In this second part of our "Mediating Toni Morrison in Germany" project, we - a graduate seminar ("Hauptseminar") at the University of Siegen - asked ourselves this question. Click on "Paradise" in our menu to have a look some of our working material (chronology, personae register, Morgan family tree), our understanding of the notion of "paradise" in the novel, some 'statements'. Email us to request copies of our detailed 'worksheets' for each chapter of Paradise or to give us feedback!
This website was created by the seminar on "Interculturality in Modern American
Literature," fall semester 1998-99, University of Siegen/Germany:
Yvonne Balser, Ulrich Bauer, Ilka Bewerunge, Katrin Bruch, Britta Frank,
Annemarie Goez, Dennis Grenzel, Sandra Henrich, Zsuzsa Hildebrand, Dyana
Khalilullah, Michaela Link, Karen Lüling, Michaela Malich, Eleanor
McCormack, Andreia Mendonça, Sandra Nehm, Nicole Neuburger, Martin
Ortmann, Lars Rumpf, Verena Sawatzki, Sonja Schüttenhelm, Carmen Schwens,
Ines Siebel, Ulrike Stahl, Kai Thomsen, Sascha Trauth
Webmaster: Michaela Malich
Instructor: Dr. Cathy Waegner
Below you will find the description of part 1 of our project (fall semester 1997-98):
We are a "Hauptseminar" (comparable to an M.A. graduate seminar) at the University of Siegen, Germany. One of our semester inquiries has been to investigate the effect of televised book reviews on the reception of Toni Morrison´s works, particularly in Germany. We have chosen the influential program "Literarisches Quartett" with its controversial guru Marcel-Reich Ranicki, broadcast monthly on a major channel ZDF (Friday night prime time), as well as the "Oprah Winfrey Show", extremely popular in the U.S., broadcast in Germany on the tm3 channel late-night slot. In December 1993 Reich-Ranicki panned the New Nobel Prize laureate Morrison´s recent novel Jazz, and in December 1996 (broadcast in Germany in Jan. 1997), Winfrey´s "Book Club" glorified Morrison´s 1977 novel Song of Solomon. Look through our menu for info and comments!