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The Iron Curtain concealed from Western eyes a vital group of national and regional writers. Seen as a whole, the postwar literatures of Eastern Europe are extraordinarily rich. Marked by not only geographical proximity but also the shared experience of communism and its collapse, the countries of Eastern Europe -Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the former states of Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Yugoslavia -share literatures that reveal many common themes when examined together.Compiled by a leading scholar, the guide includes an overview of literary themes and trends in historical context; a chronology of major political events; an A-Z section of articles on the most important and influential 700 writers, each with its own bibliography; and an index. ... Read more

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Fifteen years after unification contemporary German discourse is witnessing an upsurge of family stories about the long afterlife of the National Socialist era. Exploring this rediscovery of family origins and traditions, Anne Fuchs examines and tests the fashionable concepts of generation and genealogy, developing an original theory of family narratives. Asking why the disturbance of tradition remains an agitated topic, she offers in-depth interpretations of major works by established and newer authors. Offering a provocative contribution to German identity debates, these literary explorations are set in dialogue with films and museum discourse. ... Read more

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This second volume of the set not only presents a detailed picture of the beginnings of writing in German from its first emergence as a literary language from around 750 to 1100, but also places those earliest writings into a context. The first stages of German literature existed within a manuscript culture, so careful consideration is given to what constitutes the actual texts, but German literature also arose within a society that had recently been Christianized -- through the medium of Latin. Therefore what we understand by literature in Germany at this early period must include a great amount of writing in Latin. Thus the volume looks in detail at Latin works in prose and verse, but with an eye upon the interaction between Latin and German writings. Some of the material in the newly written German language is not literary in the modern sense of the word, but makes clear the difficulties and indeed the triumphs of the establishing of a written literary language. Individual chapters look first at the earliest translations and functional literature in German (including charms and prayers); next, the examination of heroic material juxtaposes the Hildebrandlied with the Christian Ludwigslied and with Latin writings likeWaltharius and the panegyrics; Otfrid's work -- the Gospel-poem in German -- is given its due prominence; the smaller German texts and the later prose works are fully treated; as is chronicle-writing in German and Latin. Old High German literature was a trickle compared to the flood of the Latin that surrounded (and influenced) it, but its importance is undeniable: that trickle became a river. ... Read more

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The Weimar Republic was a turbulent and fateful time in German history. Characterized by economic and political instability, polarization, and radicalism, the period witnessed the efforts of many German writers to play a leading political role, whether directly, in the chaotic years of 1918-1919, or indirectly, through their works. The novelists chosen range from such now-canonical authors as Alfred Döblin, Hermann Hesse, and Heinrich Mann to bestselling writers of the time such as Erich Maria Remarque, B. Traven, Vicki Baum, and Hans Fallada. They also span the political spectrum, from the right-wing Ernst Jünger to pacifists such as Remarque. The journalistic engagement of Joseph Roth, otherwise well known as a novelist, and of the recently rediscovered writer Gabriele Tergit is also represented. Contributors: Paul Bishop, Roland Dollinger, Helen Chambers, Karin V. Gunnemann, David Midgley, Brian Murdoch, Fiona Sutton, Heather Valencia, Jenny Williams, Roger Woods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Highly informative collection of essays
As the title hints, this book is the anthology of the German novelists of the Weimar Republic. Some authors represented in the bookare well known and still widely read authors such as Heinrich Mann , Hermann Hesse,Alfred Doeblin and Joseph Roth . On the other hand, some are almost fell into oblivion such as Vicki Baum, Gabriele Tergit , and B. Traven . The representation of each chapters are largely consisted of brief biography, literary analysis of works, political activity of each author.
I especially respect each contributor's way of conveying information on their expertise areas. They are not rely on conventional translation of original work ,but provide thier own translation , especially in case of Mr. Murdoch's translation of Erich Maria Remarque's workis highly esteemable efforts. (Original English translation is highly Anglisized in my opinion)
The book not only focused on authors who are largely affliated himself with Left or liberal democratic side, but also right wing or non political ones. Personally most helpful chapters were those cover Feuchtwanger and Wassermann , two enormously famous but largely forgotten German Jewish author and comparing Feuchtwanger's opinion on Jewish Identity as an assimilated Jew and Josep Roth's view on Jewish live , which is more symphathetic than the former's , are highly interesting.
It is very well researched, written and presented volume . Any one interested in the Weimar literature should read the book.
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"The late German-Jewish political theorist Arendt returned repeatedly in her work to the effects and proper uses of power and authority. This career-spanning collection of essays will reinforce for any reader that these preoccupations followed her even into literary criticism..."
--Publisher's Weekly

"Reflections on Literature and Culture contains fascinating essays on Kafka, Proust, and Brecht."
--New York Review of Books

"Arendt was one of the most important American political thinkers of the 20th century. The 34 selections in this volume, which span 1930-75, offer great insight into her less notable works of cultural and literary criticism...Gottlieb arranges the selections chronologically, letting readers see both the consistency and the change in ideas."
--Library Journal

As one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt is well known for her writings on political philosophy.Less familiar are her significant contributions to cultural and literary criticism.This edition brings together for the first time Arendt's reflections on literature and culture.The essays include previously unpublished and untranslated material drawn from half a century of engagement with the works of European and American authors, poets, journalists, and literary critics, including such diverse figures as Proust, Melville, Auden, and Brecht.

Intended for a wide readership, this volume has the potential to change our view of Arendt by introducing her not only as one of the leading political theorists of her generation, but also as a serious, committed, and highly original literary and cultural critic. Gottlieb's introduction ties the work together, showing how Arendt developed a form of literary and cultural analysis that is entirely her own. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

wonderful book
I have to say that's a quite good book, offering you a totally different perspective on Arendt. ... Read more

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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: H. Holt and company in 1896 in 619 pages; Subjects: German literature; Germany; History / Europe / Germany; Literary Criticism / European / German; ... Read more

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Every aspect of "courtly culture" comes to life in Joachim Bumke's extraordinarily rich and well-documented presentation. A renowned medievalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of original sources and a passion for history, Bumke overlooks no detail, from the material realities of aristocratic society--the castles and clothing, weapons and transportation, food, drink, and table etiquette--to the behavior prescribed and practiced at tournaments, knighting ceremonies, and great princely feasts. The courtly knight and courtly lady, and the transforming idea of courtly love, are seen through the literature that celebrated them, and we learn how literacy among an aristocratic laity spread from France through Germany and became the basis of a cultural revolution. At the same time, Bumke clearly challenges those who have comfortably confused the ideals of courtly culture with their expression in courtly society.

"Monumental, exhaustive, definitive. These are the qualifiers that come to mind as one peruses the medieval scholar Bumke's astonishing and encyclopedicaccomplishment. . . ."--R. J. Cormier, Choice

"This book merits attention well beyond medieval German literary and historical circles. . . . Bumke is intent on demolishing the myth that the idealized patterns of behavior in courtly literature are an accurate reflection of the reality of aristocratic life."--William Henry Jackson, Speculum ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must read for anybody interested in medieval history
This book has, since it was first published in German in 1986, become the classic on the subject of medieval courtly society and its expression in the literature we all are familiar with, i.e. mainly the arthurian romance. The book deals with all aspects of the courtly life, gives every possible background information and is also a great source for own research, since it draws its information from every imaginable source.On top of that it is well written and a pleasure to read. As a medieval historian I highly recommend this book to anybody who has a professional or private interest in the culture of the middle ages. ... Read more

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The history of literature about war is marked by a fundamental paradox: although war forms the subject of countless novels, dramas, poems, and films, it is often conceived as indescribable. Even as many writers strive towards an ideal of authenticity, they maintain that no representation can do justice to the terror and violence of war. Readings of Schiller, Kleist, Jünger, Remarque, Grass, Böll, Handke, and Jelinek reveal that stylistic and aesthetic features, gender discourses, and concepts of agency and victimization can all undermine a text's martial stance or its ostensible pacifist agenda. Spanning the period from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to the recent wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq, Elisabeth Krimmer investigates the aesthetic, theoretical, and historical challenges that confront writers of war. ... Read more

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The work of the groundbreaking writers and artists of German Romanticism -- including the writers Tieck, Brentano, and Eichendorff and the artists Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge -- followed from the philosophical arguments of the German Idealists, who placed emphasis on exploring the subjective space of the imagination. The Romantic perspective was a form of engagement with Idealist discourses, especially Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Fichte's Science of Knowledge. Through an aggressive, speculative reading of Kant, the Romantics abandoned the binary distinction between the palpable outer world and the ungraspable space of the mind's eye and were therefore compelled to develop new terms for understanding the distinction between "internal" and "external." In this light, Brad Prager urges a reassessment of some of Romanticism's major oppositional tropes, contending that binaries such as "self and other," "symbol and allegory," and "light and dark," should be understood as alternatives to Lessing's distinction between interior and exterior worlds. Prager thus crosses the boundaries between philosophy, literature, and art history to explore German Romantic writing about visual experience, examining the interplay of text and image in the formulation of Romantic epistemology. ... Read more

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Short collection of poetry by Schiller, in the original German.. According to Wikipedia: "Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759 – 1805) was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. During the last few years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with whom he greatly discussed issues concerning aesthetics, encouraging Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches; this thereby gave way to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism." ... Read more

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20th-century Austrian literature boasts many outstanding writers: Schnitzler, Musil, Rilke, Kraus, Celan, Canetti, Bernhard, Jelinek. These and others feature in broader accounts of German literature, but it is desirable to see how the Austrian literary scene -- and Austrian society itself -- shaped their writing. This volume thus surveys Austrian writers of drama, prose fiction, and lyric poetry; relates them to the distinctive history of modern Austria, a democratic republic that was overtaken by civil war and authoritarian rule, absorbed into Nazi Germany, and re-established as a neutral state; and examines their response to controversial events such as the collusion with Nazism, the Waldheim affair, and the rise of Haider and the extreme right. In addition to confronting controversy in the relations between literature, history, and politics, the volume examines popular culture in line with current trends. CONTRIBUTORS: JUDITH BENISTON, JANET STEWART, ANDREW BARKER, MURRAY HALL, ANTHONY BUSHELL, DAGMAR LORENZ, JULIANE VOGEL, JONATHAN LONG, JOSEPH MCVEIGH, ALLYSON FIDDLER. ... Read more

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Although the importance of the interplay of literature and philosophy in Germany has often been examined within individual works or groups of works by particular authors, little research has been undertaken into the broader dialogue of German literature and philosophy as a whole. This study offers six chapters by leading specialists on the dialogue between German literary writers and philosophers through their works. ... Read more

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This fascinating study analyzes the fiction (including the didactic political Murchen) of Kurt Eisner, who is best known as a revolutionary politician of the Wilhelminian and Weimar periods. Eisner's literary work has beenlittle studied, even in the GermanDemocratic Republic, where he was revered as a political martyr. This isthe first major study of this neglected aspect of Eisner's production. ... Read more

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This study focuses on the complex legacy of the German and Austrian political and cultural presence in East Central Europe in the twentieth century. It contributes to the discussion of German identity in eastern Europe, and has important implications for German, Austrian, and East European studies. It addresses the specific situations of the former Habsburg regions of Bukovina (the Ukraine/Romania), Moravia (the Czech Republic), and Banat (Romania) as illustrated in contemporary literature by German-speaking authors, such as Herta Müller, Erica Pedretti, Gregor von Rezzori, and Edgar Hilsenrath. The works of these authors constitute contrastive historiographic narratives of the multiethnic regions of East-Central Europe under a series of oppressive regimes: first Austrian imperialism, and then German and Romanian fascism in Bukovina; National Socialism in Moravia, and Communism in Romania. Valentina Glajar investigates these narratives as representations of multicultural East Central Europe in German-language literature that show the political and ethnic tensions between Germans and local peoples that marked these regions throughout the 20th century, often with tragic consequences. The study thus expands and diversifies the understanding of German literature and challenges the concept of a homogeneous German identity reaching far beyond the borders of the German-speaking countries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Illuminating Mind in American Photography
I attended the seminar for this book before publishing and it is all that is has promised to be.Amazing photographs, plus an indepth look at each photographer's life as well as why the individuals took the pictures they did.Wow! ... Read more

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This selection features eight Novellen by leading German writers of the nineteenth century. Newly translated, each piece has an introduction which explores the many contradictions in the theory and practice of the novella, as well as analysis of the narrative devices of individual stories. Included here are Blond Eckbert, by Ludwig Tieck, The Marchioness of O..., by Heinrich von Kleist, Lenz, by Georg Buchner, The Jew's Beech, by Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, Tourmaline, by Adalbert Stifter, Mozart on the Way to Prague, by Eduard Morike, Clothes Make the Man, by Gottfried Keller, and The White Horse Rider, by Theodor Storm. These carefully selected novellas provide a means of surveying an important and widely-studied genre in German literature. ... Read more