PhD student contributes to Anzac Day commemorations
Anzac Day 2017 commemorations on RNZ National included an interview with School of Languages and Cultures' PhD student, Roger Smith, talking about the MA project he completed last year—a study of the reception in German and English of the 1914 poem by Ernst Lissauer "A Chant of Hate Against England."
The poem caused a sensation when first published in Germany and was soon reproduced in newspapers, printed on postcards, distributed to frontline troops, set to music, taught in schools, discussed in the Reichstag, and admired by the Kaiser, who honoured its author with a medal usually reserved for military valour. The appearance of a translation in the New York Times only a few weeks after the poem's German publication sparked an equally excited response in the English-speaking world—the poem even became the subject of heated discussion in provincial New Zealand newspapers.
An article based on Roger's MA research and co-authored with his supervisor Dr Richard Millington is due to appear in mid-2017 in a themed issue of the journal Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature, dedicated to "national perspectives on the First World War."
A podcast of the interview with Roger is available on the RNZ website.