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Project Report from the year 2001 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0 (A), Dresden Technical University (Institute for Anglistics/American Studies), course: GLC 6 Project, language: English, abstract: When I was a teenager I read several of those books written by Karl May that are set in the "Wild West." I was very impressed, not only by the "Winnetou" trilogy but also because I knew Karl May never went there. - […] - Ever since then I have wondered about the accuracy and truth of his writings, which I now was given the chance to investigate by visiting a particular state, one he has also used for several of his plots, Arizona. Before I crossed the ocean by plane on January 20, 2000, I knew I would be spending two weeks in Globe, Arizona, adjacent to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and four weeks in Dragoon, Arizona, at the Amerind Foundation, the former to see how a special group of Native Americans is living today, the latter to view reference books. At both places I conducted a depth interview and compared my results to Karl May′s "Winnetou" trilogy, which I read once more. By doing so, I most of all wanted to find out how accurate Karl May describes the country, his characters, and their customs, but also how much exposure certain Americans had had to his works so far, and what their reactions would be to an extract of it, the "Winnetou" trilogy. With these aims in mind, I conducted my research. I chose interesting passages from the aforementioned trilogy for both my questionnaire and interview questions, which I later asked the native speakers to fill out and answer. In order not to leave out historical research, I visited the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and at the Amerind Foundation I surveyed at least ten reference books about Native American peoples, their history and culture. As a result of this research my aims were well fulfilled: Firstly, there are certain topics I can disagree or agree with Karl May about, to various degrees. Secondly, I am more familiar with the exposure that the people I talked to had to Karl May before I stepped into their lives, and thirdly, I experienced their reactions to the events in the "Winnetou" trilogy. These results met my two expectations: one, Karl May was no historian, and two, his works should be promoted more aggressively in the American Southwest, if not the entire United States.
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Technische Universität Dresden
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
GLC Project
Sheila Comer
Sommersemester 1999
& Arizona 01-20 - 05-16-2000
Kunze, Silke-Katrin
4. Semester - Englisch / Französisch Lehramt Gymnasium
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When I was a teenager I read several of those books written by Karl May that are set in the "Wild West." I was very impressed, not only by the ":LQQHWRX" trilogy but also because I knew Karl May never went there. - During his 16 months of travel around the Middle East in 1899 - 1900, he had made the "mistake" of visiting towns and places he had once written about. Not expecting the contrast in differences between his writings and the reality he must have found there, May returned very disappointed. Thus, during his four months of travel to North America in 1908 he preferred to stay away from states and places he had once described. - Ever since then I have wondered about the accuracy and truth of his writings, which I now was given the chance to investigate by visiting a particular state, one he has also used for several of his plots, Arizona.
Of course, such a visit needs preparation, and so I contacted a friend from my hometown’s American sister city, Sierra Vista, Arizona, to help me with the organization. Before I crossed the ocean by plane on January 20, 2000, I knew I would be spending two weeks in Globe, Arizona, adjacent to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and four weeks in Dragoon, Arizona, at the Amerind Foundation, the former to see how a special group of Native Americans is living today, the latter to view reference books. At both places I conducted a depth interview and compared my results to Karl May’s ":LQQHWRX" trilogy, which I read once more. By doing so, I most of all wanted to find out how accurate Karl May describes the country, his characters, and their customs, but also how much exposure certain Americans had had to his works so far, and what their reactions would be to an extract of it, the ":LQQHWRX" trilogy.
With these aims in mind, I conducted my research. I chose interesting passages from the aforementioned trilogy for both my questionnaire and interview questions, which I later asked the native speakers to fill out and answer. In order not to leave out historical research, I visited the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and at the Amerind Foundation I surveyed at least ten reference books about Native American peoples, their history and culture.
As a result of this research my aims were well fulfilled: Firstly, there are certain topics I can disagree or agree with Karl May about, to various degrees. Secondly, I am more familiar with the exposure that the people I talked to had to Karl May before I stepped into their lives, and thirdly, I experienced their reactions to the events in the ":LQQHWRX" trilogy. These results met my two expectations: one, Karl May was no historian, and two, his
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works should be promoted more aggressively in the American Southwest, if not the entire United States.
All in all, I am very satisfied with my results because the conclusion I have drawn after evaluating everything, is this: Make about ten people familiar with the person and writer Karl May and at least one of them will take a closer look at him. The one I mean is Dr. Anne Woosley, director of the Amerind Foundation, Inc., my second interviewee, who said: "He has a very interesting history, which I have just started to read about because you are here."1A contrast to this is the evaluation of my questionnaire. After having given it to two American friends in Globe, I called it a total failure, due to the questions I had chosen, but when two other American friends visited my hometown of Radebeul, I was able to change my verdict of a total failure. Since there were no right or wrong answers, interviewees only could agree or disagree with Karl May. In the end the interviewee’s exposure to other Native American peoples seems to play a role.