Jasmin Berger

Interculturality

Title of the doctoral project

"Asterix in the Hessian dialect. Regionality exemplified by comic transmissions and adaptations."

This dissertation investigates how regional language variations are dealt with in both a negative (glottophobia) and a positive way. By analyzing the translations and adaptations of Asterix comics from French into standard German, and from there into a Hessian dialect, a positive example of the use of regional language variations in the popular-cultural context, the comic, is examined. The Hessian dialect adaptations of the Asterix comics by Jürgen Leber represent the main object of investigation in this thesis. This analysis aims to point out how and where Hessian regional references are established in the dialect versions of Asterix, and how Hessian identity is marked, thus providing group identity reference points for the readers. A comparative methodology, based on a translational, cultural and linguistic perspective, helps to identify these regional markers, promoting the preservation of the Hessian culture and at least slowing down the process of extinction of dialect speaking in the center of Germany.


Contact:

jasmin.berger(at)sk.hs-fulda.de

Curriculum vitae:

  • Full member of the Doctoral Representation in the Centre Board of the FGCSS, HS Fulda

  • Member of the Association of French University Germanists (AGES)

  • Member of the Interdisciplinary Research Association France - Germany (GIRAF-IFFD)

  • Member of the comics research network La Brèche, Recherche en Bande Dessinée

  • 2015 - 2018: University studies in social sciences with specialisation in intercultural relations (B.A.) at the Fulda University of Applied Sciences

  • Semester abroad in Bordeaux (France)

  • Various internships and summer universities in Valladolid (Spain), Brussels (Belgium) and Windhoek (Namibia), among others

  • Trinational Master's degree in Franco-German university studies: Cross-border communication and cooperation (M.A.) at the universities of Saarbrücken, Metz (France) and Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

  • Double Master's in German Studies at the Université de Lorraine and the PhD track in Metz and Saarbrücken

  • Lecturer in the department of social and cultural sciences from the winter semester 2021/22

  • Member of the ComFor society for comics research

  • Member of the trainer circle of the Institute for Team Dynamics Fulda

In her Bachelor's degree and Master's thesis, Jasmin Berger already focused on the German-French comparison in the form of a German-French joke analysis and an analysis of regional identities in the globalised world using the example of Hessian and Occitan. Back at the Fulda University of Applied Sciences, in a cotutelle procedure with the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (France), the research focus will now be on a Franco-German comparison of discrimination based on regional language variations.

Scholarship:

  • Doctoral scholarship holder of the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences from October 2021 to September 2024
  • Since January 2023: Funding for a Franco-German cotutelle de thèse by the Franco-German University of Applied Sciences

Start of the doctoral project: since May 2021

Form of doctorate: Cotutelle

Awards and honours:

Publications

Berger, Jasmin / Dalbeck, Carla / Leppla-Weber, Marie Luise / Lühr, Viktoria Sophie & Weber, Sophie (2019): Identités, frontières et intégration européenne. Criticism of Democracy, Authoritarianism and Populism in Europe: Continuities and Ruptures from the Interwar Period to Today.

Report on the conference Quelle(s) démocratie(s) ?Réflexions sur la crise, la modernisation et les limites de la démocratie en Allemagne, France, Angleterre et en Europe centrale entre 1919 et 1939, Reiner Marcowitz. Paris: German Historical Institute.

Berger, Jasmin; Groh, Geronimo; Lettner, Simone (eds.) (2025): Sprache(n) und Grenze(n) - Language Borders: Übersetzen, Dialekt und Literatur, (literarische) Mehrsprachigkeit / Langue(s) et frontières - frontières linguistiques : l'art de la traduction, dialecte et littérature, plurilinguisme littéraire. Proceedings of the conference for young researchers on 25/26 May 2023 at the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès. Vol. 23, Interdisciplinary publication series of the Centre for Intercultural and European Studies (Cinteus) of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag.

First supervisor

Prof. Dr. Almut Zwengel

Sociology with a specialisation in Intercultural Relations

almut.zwengel(at)sk.hs-fulda.de +49 661 9640-475

Second Supervisor

Prof Dr Dirk Weissmann
Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès

Presentations and Conference Contributions

  • 26-29 Nov 2024: Facilitation of a panel at the Fulda International Autumn School: Qualitative Social Research, Fulda University of Applied Sciences

  • 26-28 June 2024: 55th Congress of the AGES in Toulouse "On the state of research in French German Studies: Traditions, stocktaking and future issues", attendance at the panel discussion "Doctoral research in German Studies: Stocktaking, heritage and perspectives"; contribution title for the conference: The use of comics in German lessons in France: Interdisciplinary approaches from comics research on foreign language acquisition using the example of Asterix comics; subsequent publication

  • 20-21 June 2024: CIERA Junior Colloquium "On the concept of context. A challenge for the interpretation and translation of literary texts? Philosophy, literature, translation and social sciences", ENS Paris, Rue d'Ulm; contribution title: Creation and translation context of a pop-cultural work of the late 1950s using the example of the Asterix comics and their standard German and Hessian translations; subsequent publication

  • 11 June 2024: Presentation in English at the Perspectives seminar on career opportunities after a B.A. and the path to a doctoral degree, Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Ingrid Linda Uhlig

  • 22 May 2024: Guest lecture at the Institute for German and Dutch Philology at the FU Berlin, working group Historical Linguistics, Prof. Dr Horst Simon, title: "Die spinne, die Römer!" - Hessian dialect translations of the Asterix comics

  • 24 April 2024: Presentation at the Research Colloquium of Romance Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Prof. Dr Vera Gerling, title: Asterix auf Hessisch. Regionality using the example of comic transmissions - current status.

  • 23 April 2024: Presentation at the BASIB seminar Translating intercultural fiction by Prof. Dr. Almut Zwengel, title: "Die spinne, die Römer!"- Hessian dialect translations of Asterix comics; Fulda University of Applied Sciences

  • 11 Jan. 2024: Presentation in the BASIB lecture series Migration, Diversity and Participation: Translating and Interpreting by Prof. Dr Almut Zwengel, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, title: Asterix in French, Standard German and Hessian: Translations and translations

  • 09 Jan. 2024: Presentation in the BASIB seminar Translating intercultural fiction by Prof. Dr Almut Zwengel, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, title: "Die spinne, die Römer!" - Hessian dialect translations of Asterix comics

  • 07 Dec. 2023: Presentation in the course Histoire de la langue allemande (History of the German language) by Prof. Dr Manuel Meune, Université de Montréal, title: The Hessian dialects using the example of the dialectal transmissions of the Asterix comics

  • 30 Nov. 2023: Doc-to-me at the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès; contribution by Nicolas Rouvière (Maître de conférences in literature and didactics, Université Grenoble Alpes).

  • 16-18 Nov 2023: Congress "Alterities" AGES Paris; contribution title: Cultural alterities in the French, standard German and Hessian translations of Asterix comics; publication in progress

  • 18/19 Oct 2023: Conference "Humour, pouvoir, politique" in Aix-en-Provence; organised by Aix-Marseille Université, ENS de Lyon and Université Grenoble Alpes, contribution title: L'humour et le pouvoir (politique) dans les bandes dessinées d'Astérix et ses traductions en allemand et en dialecte hessois; publication in progress

  • 11-13 Oct 2023: Conference "Les Corps immobiles dans la Bande Dessinée" in Angoulême; organised by MSHS Université de Poitiers, contribution title: " Ils sont fous, ces romains ! " - Les corps immobiles dans les bandes dessinées d'Astérix; publication in progress

  • 07-08 Sept. 2023: "(Dis)harmonies. Cultural mediators at the limit", online conference organised by the Université de Lorraine, the Université de Strasbourg and the DAAD, contribution title: "Die spinnen, die Römer!" - Asterix translations into German. Gudrun Penndorf's successful cultural mediation?; publication in progress

  • 14 June 2023: Presentation at the FGCSS Research Days, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, title: Regional variations and Hessian translations of Asterix comics: theory and analysis.

  • 25-26 May 2023: German-French conference for young researchers "Sprache(n) und Grenze(n)/Sprachgrenzen: Translation, dialect and literature, literary multilingualism" organised by CREG, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, contribution title: Die spinnen, die Römer!- Translations of Asterix comics into standard German and the Hessian dialect; co-organiser; conference proceedings published

  • 27 Jan. 2023: Contribution on the topic of writing in Asterix as Legionary at the Comics Exchange Meeting of the AG Comicforschung of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft online

  • 05 Dec. 2022: Guest lecture at the Department of Romance Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Prof. Dr Vera Gerling, "Die spinne, die Römer. Cultural transfer in Hessian Asterix comics.

  • 18 Nov. 2022: Presentation of the dissertation topic at the online meeting of the Language Variation Forum of the International Society for Dialectology of German