The Position of the German Language in the World focuses on the global position of German and the factors which work towards sustaining its use and utility for international communication. From the perspective of the global language constellation, the detailed data analysis of this substantial research project depicts German as an example of a second-rank language. The book also provides a model for analysis and description of international languages other than English. It offers a framework for strengthening the position of languages such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Spanish and others and for countering exaggerated claims about the global monopoly position of English. This comprehensive handbook of the state of the German language in the world was originally published in 2015 by Walter de Gruyter in German and has been critically acclaimed. Suitable for scholars and researchers of the German language, the handbook shows in detail how intricately and thoroughly German and other second-rank languages are tied up with a great number of societies and how these statistics support or weaken the languages’ functions and maintenance.

The (potential) use of gender-inclusive language is being discussed controversially in the public sphere. Opinions on it have increasingly been voiced by individuals as well as organisations. These include state institutions, private associations, subject specialists such as linguists, and private individuals / laypeople. Views of and attitudes towards the use of gender-inclusive language cover a broad spectrum between extreme ends, and even subject specialists hold conflicting views. Research on gender-inclusive language is very much a current trend in linguistics, including the so-called ‘genderless’ languages. However, the focus is mostly on structural issues, while sociolinguistic research on attitudes towards the use of gender-inclusive language is mostly missing. Some scattered work in this area has been published, but a more thorough understanding and conceptualisation of attitudes is still needed. Furthermore, a multilingual, comparative perspective is still missing. This edited volume will address these shortcomings.

The book contains a state-of-the-art summary of the theoretical discussions within the field of lexicography during the last decades. On this basis it presents and argues for a new general theory, called the function theory. It goes on to develop this theory in one single field, i.e. learners lexicography where it both formulates the basic elements of a general theory for learners’ dictionaries as well as a number of specific theories for special subfields such as selection, meaning, semantic relations, morphology, syntactic properties and word combinations. It contains a big number of examples extracted from existing dictionaries which are discussed from the point of view of the theories formulated.

Western Art and Jewish Presence in the Work of Paul Celan: Roots and Ramifications of the “Meridian” Speech addresses a central problem in the work of a poet who holds a unique position in the intellectual history of the twentieth century. On the one hand, he was perhaps the last great figure of the Western poetic tradition, one who took up the dialogue with its classics and who responded to the questions of his day from a “global” concern, if often cryptically. And on the other hand, Paul Celan was a witness to and interim survivor of the Holocaust. These two identities raise questions that were evidently present for Celan in the very act of poetry. This study takes the form of a commentary on Celan’s most important statement of his poetics and beliefs, “The Meridian,” which is an extraordinarily condensed text, packed with allusions and multiple meanings. It reflects his early work and anticipates later developments, so that the discussion of “The Meridian” becomes a consideration of his oeuvre as a whole. The commentary is an act of listening—an attempt to hear what these words meant to the poet, to see the landscapes from which they come and the reality they are trying to project; and in the light of this, to arrive at a clear picture of the relation between Celan’s Jewishness and his vocation as a Western writer.

Formerly known by its subtitle "Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete", the International Review of Biblical Studies has served the scholarly community ever since its inception in the early 1950's. Each annual volume includes approximately 2,000 abstracts and summaries of articles and books that deal with the Bible and related literature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Pseudepigrapha, Non-canonical gospels, and ancient Near Eastern writings. The abstracts - which may be in English, German, or French - are arranged thematically under headings such as e.g. "Genesis", "Matthew", "Greek language", "text and textual criticism", "exegetical methods and approaches", "biblical theology", "social and religious institutions", "biblical personalities", "history of Israel and early Judaism", and so on. The articles and books that are abstracted and reviewed are collected annually by an international team of collaborators from over 300 of the most important periodicals and book series in the fields covered.

To initiate its new Ph.D. Program in Transcultural German Studies, jointly offered by the University of Arizona and the University of Leipzig, the Department of German Studies at the University of Arizona organized an international conference on Transcultural German Studies in Tucson from March 29-31, 2007. Conference participants sought to define the nature of Transcultural German Studies. This new, interdisciplinary field of inquiry investigates the cultural landscapes of the German-speaking world in the light of globalization and inter- and transcultural contact. The contributions that comprise the volume are by scholars who work in a number of related fields, exploring transcultural phenomena - past and present - evident in selected literary, filmic, musical and historical texts. Zur Einführung des neuen, interdisziplinären Studiengangs Transcultural German Studies, den die University of Arizona und die Universität Leipzig gemeinsam anbieten, organisierte das Department of German Studies der University of Arizona vom 29. bis 31. März 2007 in Tucson eine internationale Konferenz. Die Teilnehmer hatten es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, das Wesen der Transcultural German Studies zu definieren und näher zu beleuchten. Dieser Band vereint ausgewählte Ergebnisse der Vorträge. Im Licht von Globalisierung sowie inter- und transkulturellen Kontakten werden Kulturlandschaften des deutschsprachigen Raumes untersucht. Wissenschaftler, die in einer Reihe von verwandten Forschungsgebieten arbeiten, nehmen literarische, filmische, musikalische und historische Texte genauer unter die Lupe und zeigen anhand dieser Texte transkulturelle Phänomene der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart auf.

A new crop of essays on topics in the literature of Goethe and the Goethezeit, with a special section providing innovative readings of Goethe's lyric poetry. The Goethe Yearbook is a publication of the Goethe Society of North America, encouraging North American Goethe scholarship by publishing original English-language contributions to the understanding of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit while also welcoming contributions from scholars around the world. Volume 20 contains a special section on Goethe's lyric poetry with contributions from leading scholars. The essays incorporate a range of new methodologies that provide innovative readings of Goethe's most important poems, including contributions by Benjamin Bennett on Faust and Daniel Wilson on the West-östliche Divan. The volume also includesessays on Götz von Berlichingen, the Sturm-und-Drang sublime, the Nibelungenlied's place within Weltliteratur, as well as an examination of Schiller's notion of freedom. Contributors: Constantin Behler, Benjamin Bennett, Frauke Berndt, Fritz Breithaupt, Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge, Andrew Erwin, Patrick Fortmann, Edgar Landgraf, Horst Lange, Charlotte Lee, Claudia Maienborn, Joseph D. O'Neil, Elizabeth Powers, Christian P. Weber, W. Daniel Wilson. Daniel Purdy is Associate Professor of German at Pennsylvania State University. Book review editor Catriona MacLeod is Associate Professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania.