Ent-Fernungen. Fremdwahrnehmung und Kulturtransfer in der deutschsprachigen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur seit 1945

by Gina Weinkauff, Martina Seifert

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

A generally well enough constructed and in all ways massively informative two-part mega-tome on multiculturalism and the perception of "the stranger" or "the other" in post World War Two German literature for children and teenagers, while the general writing style of Gina Weinkauff's and Martina Seiffert's Ent-Fernungen is most definitely more than a bit convoluted and at times even perhaps somewhat overly academic, if you do not rush your perusal, if you take your time and read slowly and deliberately, you will (or rather you should) be rewarded with and by both an interesting and enlightening reading experience (and I guess that the stylistics, the conceptualisation of the printed words are really not so annoyingly dense and academic as to actually be all that majorly frustrating and render the text of Ent-Ferningunen incomprehensible, but advanced fluency in academic German is not just recommended, it is an absolute and indeed a necessary must here).

Now that all being said, and my general appreciation of the presented narrative notwithstanding, I do have one major and annoyingly frustrating issue with this tome, with Ent-Fernungen, as unfortunately and yes, even infuriatingly, while the bibliography of secondary materials and sources is contained within the book proper, for some strange and annoying reason that I cannot fully fathom and comprehend, the list of primary works cited and used accompany the book(s) as a supplemental CD-Rom (which is also NOT compatible with Macintosh or Apple computers). And truly, it would have been much much better (and in my opinion more academically sound) if the primary material list had also been included as part of the book itself, or at the VERY least, if it had been put on a CD-Rom that is both PC and Mactintosh/Apple compatible (and since my copy of the accompanying CD-ROM has somehow vanished, it is not even available to me anymore, period). Considering that I was in a way counting on using the primary works bibliography for finding potential future reading materials, and as an owner/user of an IMac, I do feel more than a bit cheated with regard to Ent-Fernungen (especially since it is also NOT pointed in the book description that the accompanying CD-ROM only works with IBM compatible computers, for if I had been made aware of this for me absolutely massive and all encompassing shortcoming, I would probably not even have bothered purchasing a copy of Ent-Fernungen for my personal library).

EDITED TO ADD IN APRIL 2018: And while I have indeed now managed to obtain a physical paper copy of the primary reading materials, of the primary children's literature works used and cited by the authors in Ent-Fernungen, this is still in no way the same as having a bibliography of primary works included within the text proper (and considering that I have already managed to misplace said list, I am curmudgeonly enough at present to now consider only a two star ranking at best, for not having the primary literature included within the physical pages of Ent-Fernungen is just too personally aggravating for me, and it sure does make research and even just looking up a book title whilst reading Ent-Fernungen much more difficult, and not nearly as potentially fun even, for if one has to consult a different book or a supplemental list for something that really should be included within the text itself, that does take some of the shine off of potential reading and research pleasure).