Mine Krause

In the world’s so-called honor and face cultures, certain values and codes related to the protection of a family’s stainless reputation are deep-rooted. When they are violated by what is perceived as an immoral action, and the respective transgression becomes known, the honor not only of the deviant, but also of the in-group itself is damaged. This leads to stigmatization followed by collective rejection. Consequently, the stigma needs to be removed, usually by a publicly recognizable punitive action taken against those who caused this loss of honor or face, which is experienced as a kind of social death. The punishments range from psychological to physical violence, sometimes including murder. With attention to social science as well as works of fiction, this book studies such punitive measures that affect both women and men by also taking into account intercultural contexts of migration and ethnic minorities. Attention is equally devoted to movies that deal with the consequences of honor and face loss. The book is endorsed by the celebrated Turkish writer Elif Shafak.

Honor-related values are a source of gendered inequality and of violence. In so-called honor cultures, traditionally located in parts of the Middle East, Mediterranean regions, North Africa, and South America, honor translates into women’s roles as dictated by family ideology. There is a direct link between male reputation and the female body. In these matters, East Asian face cultures are similar to but also different from honor cultures. For the first time, this book studies literary together with sociological representations of the loss of honor and of face. Fiction explores honor-based values which impose shackles not only on female but also on male society members. The book is endorsed with prefaces by Turkish writer Sema Kaygusuz and Chinese scholar Ma Chi.

Bis heute ist der Begriff Theater des Absurden, den Martin Esslin 1961 in seinem gleichnamigen Standardwerk pragte, umstritten. Als Erganzung wird in dieser Arbeit die Bezeichnung Drama des Skandals und der Angst vorgeschlagen. Trotz unterschiedlicher kultureller Hintergrunde beobachten Edward Albee, Harold Pinter, Eugene Ionesco und Jean Genet den gleichen Werteverfall und stellen diesen auf der Buhne zur Schau. Fur den Zusammenbruch der staatlichen, familiaren und religioesen Ordnung sorgen in ihren Stucken Eindringlinge, die ihre Opfer mit dem metaphysischen Skandal der freien Wahl konfrontieren. Dadurch loesen sie bei den orientierungslosen Figuren existentielle AEngste und Verdrangungsmechanismen aus. Ein Reifen am Absurden im Camus'schen Sinne wird so unmoeglich.