Sarah Ruhnau – författare

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: Jewish American Literature, language: English, abstract: In the following paper I would like to examine to what extent the Holocaust is appropriate as a literary inspiration. I will cite Art Spiegelman's comic strips MAUS I and MAUS II (with focus on the latter) as examples since they are two of the most extraordinary works among Holocaust literature and art. In general I want to demonstrate that Adorno s thesis about the impossibility of writing about the Holocaust is not true. By giving the example of Spiegelman s MAUS it should be made clear that it is even possible to use the Holocaust as some kind of inspiration in a fairly unusual way.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: Romantic Poetry, language: English, abstract: In the following essay I would like to analyse one of Lord Byron's earlier poems, namely "e;Well! Thou art happy"e; which was written in November 1808 and thus belongs to the epoch of romanticism. The poem involves a poetic speaker who laments a love relationship to a woman that has come to an end. In his sadness, he is torn between the love he still feels and the jealousy that occurs inside of him when he is concerned with his beloved's husband or their child. However, he is aware of the fact that it is necessary for him to get over the end of the relationship. As mentioned above, "e;Well! Thou art happy"e; belongs to Byron's early po-ems as it was written in 1808 and in general, Byron's poems written before 1809 are consid-ered as early poems (cf. Marchand, 15). Apart from that the poem itself includes some hints which point out its early stage. In line 22 the poetic speaker talks about his "e;boyish flame"e; and in line 33 he describes his "e;early dream"e; (cf. Byron, 83). Hence, the poetic speaker seems to be a fairly young man who is not very experienced yet. This suits the typical characteristic of Byron's early poems. Marchand calls it a "e;juvenile verse"e; that describes "e;youthful inno-cence"e; as well as "e;the fictions of flimsy romance"e; (cf. Marchand, 15 f.). Before I will begin to analyse the poem, I will start with a subchapter about its formal part.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: Political Cultures in Britain, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction The British electoral system is not a gamble. (Butler, 194). This famous quotation by the British political scientist David E. Butler gives a first insight in how intricate and controversial the topic has been discussed. The quotation also shows that the British voting system never lacked criticism and the fact that Butler has to deny that the electoral system of his home country is a gamble makes clear that also a lot of sarcasm was involved while judging it. All of this seems rather negative. However, in this paper it is not my aim to just condemn the electoral system of Britain, nor do I want to prove that it is a gamble. Yet, the severe criticism must have a reason and cannot be completely unfounded. A main argument of critics that is often discussed is a possible lack of democracy. Therefore I would like to examine in how far the British voting system can be reconciled with basic democratic principles. To do so, it will be necessary to give a short overview about democracy and its main features. I also don t want to neglect to talk about democracy as a political system. In accordance with the main topic, namely the electoral system, I will specifically talk about the competitive and consensus democracy because they are most suitable when it comes to discussing the two main voting systems, viz. proportional representation and majority voting. As it has probably become clear already, I do not want to limit this paper to the British electoral system itself. To illustrate the discrepancy between the first-past-the-post system and the proportional representation, I will use the example of the Federal Republic of Germany. This country can be seen as a representative for a typical consensus democracy and in addition it is using the proportional representation quite successfully. By providing information about the common alternative system of voting, instead of just describing the system which is actually examined, it will hopefully become easier to judge the latter in the end. Arguable is now, to what extent the British electoral system deserves to be criticised or even disapproved. Is it unpredictable and bizarre as Marco Evers claims? (cf. Evers, 84). Or does the long-lasting tradition of using the majority voting system prove once more that its advantages outweigh its weaknesses and that there should not be any worries concerning its democratic compatibility?

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: Saints and Sinners in OE and ME, language: English, abstract: In the following essay the concept of femininity in Old English female saint's lives will be examined and analysed. Due to the brevity of this essay, only two saint's lives will be investigated, the Life of Mary of Egypt and Pelagia of Antioch. Both of them are often referred to as 'harlot saints' because of their not only promiscuous but also highly sinful lives before becoming their pious selves. (cf. Cox Miller) It is therefore very interesting that both do not only avert themselves from their previous lives, but even find religious patrons who become ardent worshippers of these women.