All posts by Henrike Kattoll

Recognizing a Freak: An Atheist Reads Flannery O’Connor

By Raul Quinque

Pho­to Cred­it: flan­nery o’con­nor and pea­cock pub­lished by will (50 watts)

The read­er and the writer. Two sides of the same coin. Par­don, the same page. Rela­tion­ship sta­tus: It’s com­pli­cat­ed since only one gets to state what’s on their mind. Thus, it’s only fair to talk back via text. Flan­nery O’Connor (1925–1964) may be long gone from this world, but her lit­er­a­ture endures as an eter­nal mes­sage. And so does the ques­tion how an athe­ist-by-con­vic­tion con­nects to Catholic O’Connor’s South­ern Goth­ic reli­gious themes.

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A Story Beyond Words: The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

By Hannah Quinque

Pho­to Cred­it: “No Pride With­out Black Trans Lives” by Janine and Jim Eden

LGBTQ+ Pride is usu­al­ly a cause for cel­e­bra­tion. It is meant to express the joy of being alive and being seen in a soci­ety where an iden­ti­ty that diverges from the norm eas­i­ly leads to exclu­sion, iso­la­tion, and fear. Some­how, it makes sense, then, that the idea of Pride is born from suf­fer­ing, tragedy, and anger, too. The 2017 Net­flix doc­u­men­tary The Death and Life of Mar­sha P. John­son presents a stir­ring tes­ta­ment to a life and death that are uni­ver­sal­ly mean­ing­ful in the strug­gle for LGBTQ+ exis­tence, then and now.

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Nuclear Power and the Road to Ecomodernism

By Levin Schüren

Pho­to Cred­it: “Nuclear Envi­ron­men­tal­ist” by jurvet­son is licensed under

What if a belief you deeply held and one that’s rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed by your entire social cir­cle is actu­al­ly wrong and harm­ful? In the spir­it of my last blog, I want to tell the sto­ry of how I changed my mind on a major issue. The posi­tion I want to chal­lenge is deeply engrained in the DNA of the main­stream envi­ron­men­tal move­ment, espe­cial­ly here in Ger­many: the oppo­si­tion to nuclear power.

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When in Doubt, Ask a Native Author! The Winnetou Debate

By Maryann Henck

After a storm of protests from enraged par­ents con­cern­ing issues of (mis)representation and cul­tur­al appro­pri­a­tion in the new children’s movie, The Young Chief Win­netou (2022), the Ger­man pub­lish­er, Ravens­burg­er Ver­lag, with­drew the com­pan­ion book and puz­zle to the film. Soon there­after, the main Ger­man TV sta­tion (ARD) announced they would no longer broad­cast the pop­u­lar Win­netou movies from the 1960s based on Karl May’s nov­els. Every­one seems to have their take on the cur­rent con­tro­ver­sy; yet, there’s been some crit­i­cism regard­ing issues of pater­nal­ism due to the lack of Native voic­es in the debate. That’s why the Amer­i­can Stud­ies Blog has gone direct­ly to the source and inter­viewed Drew Hay­den Tay­lor acclaimed Cana­di­an Anish­naabe author, fre­quent fly­er to Ger­many, and cre­ator of the doc­u­men­tary, Search­ing for Win­netou (2018).

Please acti­vate javascript to watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvM4V6HLJAI

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Going against the Grain: Declaring My Love for Cars 2

By Veronika Heinrich

Every­body hates Cars 2 – and I just don’t under­stand why. First of all, let me make a con­fes­sion: I’m 25 years old and a Dis­ney nerd. I love watch­ing ani­mat­ed movies – as long as they’re well made. And Cars 2, even after more than ten years, is still my all-time feel-good movie.

It has every­thing you could wish for: Uplift­ing words, fun­ny jokes, and a world you can lose your­self in. There’s bare­ly any­thing that’s hate­ful or trig­ger­ing, and I love join­ing the char­ac­ters on their jour­ney. Yet, most crit­ics have char­ac­ter­ized Cars 2 as vio­lent and illog­i­cal, call­ing it the worst Pixar movie ever – and I just can’t wrap my head around it. How could I feel so dif­fer­ent­ly from every­one else?

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Childhood Memories

By Michael Lederer

Mem­o­ries are sto­ries we tell ourselves.

Cred­it: Genia Chef, “Emer­ald Grot­to,” oil on pan­el, 1997 (frag­ment); pub­lished with the artist’s permission

“When I was younger, I remem­ber how…” We cher­ry-pick. We have to. Oth­er­wise, we’d remem­ber what we wore and ate for lunch a day before our 6th birth­day, and the week before that. TMI.   

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