Modern German Literature / Cultural History of Literature (ePub)

This accessible and fresh account of German writing since 1750 is a
case study of literature as a cultural and spiritual resource in
modern societies.

Beginning with the emergence of German language literature on the
international stage in the mid-eighteenth century, the book plays
down conventional labels and periodisation of German literary
history in favour of the explanatory force of international
cultural impact. It explains, for instance, how specifically German
and Austrian conditions shaped major contributions to European
literary culture such as Romanticism and the 'language
scepticism' of the early twentieth century.

From the First World War until reunification in 1990,
Germany's defining experiences have been ones of catastrophe.
The book provides a compelling overview of the different ways in
which German literature responded to historical disaster. They are,
first, Modernism (the 'Literature of Negation'),
second, the literature of totalitarian regimes (Third Reich and
German Democratic Republic), and third the various creative
strategies and evasions of the capitalist democratic multi-medial
cultures of the Weimar and Federal Republics.

The volume achieves a balance between textual analysis and cultural
theory that gives it value as an introductory reference source and
as an original study and as such will be essential reading for
students and scholars alike.