Library News for Comparative Literature

Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins Nobel Prize for Literature

The Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. See the NY Times article.

Some books and articles the Libraries have access to:

Books by Herta Müller in German

Books by Herta Müller in English

Books about Herta Müller (all languages)   

Recent articles on Herta Müller from the MLA Int'l Bibliography: http://libproxy.wustl.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&bquery=(SA+(m%c3%bcller))+and+(SA+(herta))&cli0=RV&clv0=Y&type=1&site=ehost-live&scope=site

In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth--NY Times Article

Article from the New York Times, Feb. 24, 2009

In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth

Competitions for Modern Lang. Assoc. Publication Awards

From the MLA: "Eighteen publication prizes will be awarded in 2009, including the MLA Prize for a First Book, an award for a manuscript in Italian literary studies, the MLA Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies, the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars, and the MLA Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition."

http://www.mla.org/resources/awards/awards_submissions/awards_competitions  

Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood--PBS documentary, Jan. 2, 2009

The PBS Documentary "Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood" will be broadcast  in St. Louis on Friday, January 2, 9:00pm  (CHANNEL 9 (KETC/Channel 9))

"When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, one of his earliest actions was to ban Jews from working in that country’s storied film industry, praised as the most creative cinema in the world. Men and women who had created landmarks of movie history fled their homeland in the ensuing months and years. Many of them went to Hollywood.

CINEMA’S EXILES: FROM HITLER TO HOLLYWOOD traces the experiences of the exiles who took refuge in Hollywood, and examines their impact on both the German and the American cinemas. In Germany, they had created such groundbreaking pictures as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Blue Angel, and M-The Murderers Among Us. In Hollywood, their influence ranged from the horror genre and film noir, to comedy and drama. With their lush compositions, they changed the role of music in the motion picture. They even made westerns"--Program's website.

The program's website includes excerpts, essays, timelines and other information about this period, these films, and filmmakers.

New European Union prize for literature.

New European Union prize for literature

"The European Commission is launching a new European Union prize for contemporary literature. The aim is to put the spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature, to promote more circulation of literature within Europe and encourage greater interest in non-national literary works. The first edition of the Prize will be awarded in autumn 2009"--From press release.

Europeana, Europe's digital library, museum and archive

 A victim of its own success, Europeana, the EU's digital library, museum and archive, crashed due to an unanticipated high volume of traffic when launched on November 20, 2008. Europeana is set to return early 2009.

Europeana will provide direct access to 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers. The digital content will be selected from that which is already digitised and available in Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. The prototype aims to have representative content from all four of these cultural heritage domains, and also to have a broad range of content from across Europe. The interface will be multilingual and will eventually be in all languageas of the EU. 

Video and powerpoint demos of content in Europeana

Foreign language films at St. Louis Film Festival, Nov. 13-23

The St. Louis Int'l Film Festival which is being held Nov. 13-23 at various venues in St. Louis includes a number of foreign films in various languages. There are films in Chinese, Czech, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Pashto, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish, and other languages.

 A complete listing of films can be found at the Festival's website: http://www.cinemastlouis.org/fest.html

Best Foreign Books You've Never Heard of--NPR Story

Story from NPR, Oct. 15, 2008

Foreign Books You've Never Heard of

--includes listing of recent English translations of foreign works

Let Brian know if you're interested in having the Libraries acquire any of these.

A Defense of European Languages -- article in Inside HigherEd

A Defense of European Languages by Stephen Brockmann

Insider HigherEd, May 15, 2008

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/05/15/brockmann

USC Closes German Dept.

From Inside Higher Ed, April 11, 2008:

Das Ende for German at USC
http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/11/german