Florian Schwarze – författare

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,3, University of Koblenz-Landau (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: It is impossible to imagine living without irony in our everyday life. Irony as a form of "e;linguistic indirectness"e; has become a phenomenon in recent years. It is used by, no matter what age or social group in our speaking, writing and literature. The term "e;irony"e; derives etymologically from the Greek word "e;eironeia"e; and actually means "e;adjustment"e;, "e;escape"e;, or especially "e;lack of seriousness"e;. But another significant element is being added, which is "e;making fun of someone"e;. So if you call someone a hero, who just ran away from something harmless, you do not mean it literally, you indirectly try to express the opposite. Actually you would have said, that he is a total coward. But exactly that is what makes a definition of the term irony so difficult, because it is not always exactly the opposite when you are ironic; sometimes it just means something else. If we now start from this explanation of the term, you could assume that something ironic is almost a lie, as someone who uses irony wants to express something else than he actually says. It is not a lie because when you lie you try your best nobody realizes your being untrue. When someone is ironic, the intention is to let the other person notice this. Thus irony is transparent where a lie is, at least, opaque. The second major difference is the intention to deceive which is constitutive for the lie, but not when you use irony. You also can not compare irony with mockery; mockery always tries to hurt someone directly, irony in contrast always is detached and uses some kind of adjustment. In this work I will try to define irony and try to find and analyze some of the ironic passages from Oscar Wilde s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest . The eccentric Oscar Wilde, who lived from 1854 until 1900 was one of the leading representatives of the aesthetic movement of L art pour l art , which tried to aestheticize all areas of life. Wilde, who lived the life of a perfect dandy, deliberately bended the norms of the Victorian era. In 1895, at the peak of his career, he was sentenced to two years of hard labour, because of homosexual practices. This verdict ended in his financial and social ruin. After his release Wilde emigrated to Paris where he died on the 30th Nov 1900. In his works, including The Importance of Being Earnest , Wilde criticized the bigotry and the exaggerated morality of the English society at this time.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 2,3, University of Koblenz-Landau (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: England became powerful, when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558. During her term England became one of the most powerful empires in the world. The first colonies were founded and the English troops conquered the Spanish Armada. A man called Francis Drake was the first English person, who circumnavigated the world. From "e;Small"e; to "e;Big"e; that was always the motto he lived and finally became famous with. His motto describes his life, a life which began in modest living conditions and finally reached the highest social classes (Damm 25). The Spanish feared and admired Francis Drake at the same time. This was due to his great courage and his unpredictability. They called him El Dragon - The Dragon . He was hated by many Spaniards, but the King of Spain (Philip I.) hated him the most. He even announced to pay 20.000 ducats, on Drake s head (Wood 73). This was a great honour for Sir Francis Drake. What was it, that made him so dangerous for the Spanish King, and how did the Queen of England appreciated his doing? In which connection did he stand to Elizabeth I.? Who was this man and what influence did he have in the British Empire and on the British throne?In this work I will try to find answers to all these questions, but also find out more about his occurrence and behaviour, when he landed on unsettled land. I will try to compare his occurrence and behaviour, to the Ethnocentric behaviour. Even though the coinage of the term Ethnocentrism itself was first introduced in 1906, ethnocentric behaviour can certainly be found centuries before that. When the European settlers began to colonize the new world , the land was simply taken from the native population. For the Europeans the Natives were outsiders with no rights. In most cases the explorers showed typical ethnocentric behaviour. How Sir Francis Drake treated the native population is one of the focuses of this paper. Did he show the same ethnocentric behaviour like most of the others did or was he friendly and nice to the native population? How did he get in contact with them to communicate? I will give a closer explanation to the term Ethnocentrism and want it stands for, before I analyse the way Drake treated to native people, when he landed in the New World (America). Her for I will analyse the narratives by Hakluyt about Sir Francis Drake s landing in the new world, which was somewhere in the vicinity of what is now San Francisco (The Norton Anthology of English Literature 894 ff).