Autor: Stephan Küpper
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What do Ring Structures mean?
Do structures have a meaning at all? The common Structuralist approach – to which we adhere – is a clear yes. Structure is meaning. Structure imparts a certain meaning, too – if only in the sense that adherence to a certain, already-known structure shapes readers‘ expectations, and and hence produces meaning. A chiastic pattern suggests…
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Grimus – Simurg
Grimus is Salman Rushdie’s first novel. The title is an anagramm of „Simurg“, and the text is full of what one character calls „the ornithology of myth“ (Ch. 1). Grimus as a character is the secretive figure who seems to rule Calf (Qaf) Island, where most of the book takes place. Grimus claims to have…
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Bethlehem, Moravians, Stars, Guitars
Last week, we found ourselves outside the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, the church where Czech religious dissenter Jan Hus first preached the gospel in the People’s language. This chapel triggered a long line of memories. For 12 years, we lived in Berlin in the Böhmisches Dorf, the Bohemian village, named after religious refugees who settled…
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Senmurv – Simurgh
Vor ein paar Wochen waren wir waren wir im Essener Domschatz und fanden dort auf dem goldenen Vortragekreuz der Äbtissin Theophanu die Email-Abbildung eines Senmurv. Senmurv? Nie gehört. Auch die englische Form Simurgh oder Semorgh war uns unbekannt. Zeit für ein wenig Forschung. Der Senmurv ist ein Mischwesen aus Vogel und Hund aus der persischen…
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Sugar Maple, Episode 1: Bobby Lindro
Episode 1 begins with the killing of a huge tree – „bigger than you could ever imagine“. Then it introduces a narrator, situating himself in 1995, who narrates a story that goes back to 1951. Young orphan boy Bobby Lindley lives on a farm in Illinois with his aunt Buggy. He is obsessed with playing…
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Sugar maple – SETTING UP EXPECTATIONS
Sugar Maple is an eight-episode dramatic fiction podcast from Osiris Media. Each episode centers around one owner of a semi-mythical Fender Telecaster electric guitar (which attracted me to it in the first place). The story stretches across several decades and musical styles, over which the Telecaster, „Sugar Maple,“ is played by a series of musicians.…