Switzerland 1652: an eleven-year old girl, a strong-willed child with rich imagination, who grows up without parents in a remote valley, claims that she can create birds. The girl is arrested, accused of witchcraft, put to a long and painful trial in Lucerne and finally executed. She was punished for assuming creative power which was God's alone. It was with good reasons that the authorities had chosen the parentless child for an exemplary trial: she was the weakest member of a community of rebelling peasant farmers, whom they wanted to bring to reason. Seven years later a similar case, this time in Upper Swabia, one of the German territories: A boy of nine years and his eleven-year old sister are suspected and condemned for alleged sexual relations with the devil. Because they were found to be too young to be executed, they were kept for four long years in the monastery of Buchau, until the verdict could be executed. Translated from the original work of Swiss writer Eveline Hasler, The Child Witches of Lucerne and Buchau, provides a moving memorial for these children convicted and executed for witchcraft.

No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body."" Almost a century after Margaret Sanger wrote these words, women's reproductive rights are still hotly debated in the press and among policymakers, while film, television and other media address issues like birth control and abortion to global audiences. This collection of new essays brings fresh perspective to the study of family planning, contraception and abortion with a focus on their representation in popular media. Topics include dramas of adoption and abortion, telling the story of the pill, Sanger's depiction in entertainment media, and a controversy about demographic developments stirred by Carl Djerassi, also known as ""the father of the pill.

Der Band enthalt die Beitrage von vier Sektionen des Warschauer IVG-Kongresses. Die Beitrage der Sektion Erzahlte Geschichte - Erinnerte Literatur (betreut und bearbeitet von Ulrike Gleixner, Marianne Henn, Gabriele Kamper, Waltraud Maierhofer) rekonstruieren, wie sich Erinnerung in verschiedenen Epochen (von der Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart) und Textsorten (Memoiren, Biographien, Erzahlungen, Romanen) unterschiedlich literarisch gestaltet. Besonders werden Methoden der Fiktionalisierung des Erlebten und Mechanismen der Bildung von literarisch vermitteltem individuellem und kollektivem Gedachtnis hervorgehoben. Die Beitrage der Sektion Schreiben im Holocaust (betreut und bearbeitet von Joerg Riecke) befassen sich mit dem noch immer schwierigen Thema der Darstellung des Holocaust, d.h. mit Arbeiten (vor allem deutsch-judischer) Autoren, die versuchen, das Unsagbare des Traumas und des Todes zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Die Studien geben einen klaren Umriss des Spannungsfeldes zwischen UEberlebensstrategien (Bewaltigung des Unfassbaren) und Widerstand gegenuber der Gefahr einer AEsthetisierung des Grausamen. Die Beitrage der Sektion Geschlecht, Generation und Nation (betreut und bearbeitet von Monika Shafi) untersuchen Schreibweisen von AutorInnen, die Geschlechterbeziehungen aus einer Perspektive gestalten, die sich programmatisch als postnational (transkulturell) auffassen lasst, vor allem in Hinblick auf die politische Qualitat von ausgewahlten mannlich und weiblich kodierten Verweis- und Identifikationsmustern. Die Beitrage der Sektion Bilaterale Interkulturelle Kommunikation in der Globalisierung (betreut und bearbeitet von Xiaohu Feng) setzen sich mit verschiedenen Aspekten, Problemen und Konzepten der so genannten "interkulturellen Linguistik" nach dem cultural turn auseinander. Sie gehen auf eine Reihe von linguistischen, kulturlinguistischen und kulturwissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen (transkulturelle Werte, Identitatsbildung, Entwicklung von interkultureller Kompetenz, Kulturtransfer) ein, die in der Zeit der Globalisierung immer starker in den Vordergrund rucken.

Deutsche Literatur im Kontext 1750-2000 is organized by historic periods and includes carefully chosen readings, with notes and vocabulary, beginning with Goethe and ending with modern authors such as Gunther Grass. Also included are numerous exercises and thought provoking questions for each chapter and support materials which emphasize the cultural and historical background of each historic period.

In tandem with Gudrun Clay's 1000 Jahre deustche Literature, these two volumes provide a modern approach to German literature in its cultural, historical and linguistic context.

Although Prussia's beloved Queen Luise and the Swiss-born aristocrat and writer Germaine de Stael were Napoleon Bonaparte's best-known female opponents, women's discontent with Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars was more widespread - and vocal - than once assumed. "Women Against Napoleon" expands our awareness of the range of women's responses to the despot by presenting an international spectrum of female opposition, including contemporary letters, diaries, and published writings, as well as historical fiction of the twentieth century. By juxtaposing analyses of these materials, this volume forges new links between literary, historical, and gender scholarship.