German Literature of the Nineteenth Century

by Koelb, Clayton; Downing, Eric

• ISBN13: 9781571132505
• ISBN10: 1571132503
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-30
• Publisher: Camden House

Summary

Covering the period from the death of Goethe in 1832 to the publication of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams in 1899, this volume considers the literature of the time in the social and political context of both Germany and Europe as a whole. Essays consider the impact of Romanticism on subsequent literary movements, the effects of major movements and writers of non-German-speaking Europe on German literature, and the impact of politics on the changing cultural scene. The second section presents overviews of the principal movements of the time (Junges Deutschland, Vormarz, Biedermeier, Poetic Realism, Naturalism, Symbolism, and Impressionism), and the third section focuses on the major genres of drama, the novel, lyric poetry, and Wagner's opera and music-drama. The final section provides a critical bibliography and a list of primary sources. The contributors are distinguished scholars of German literature, culture, and history from North America and Europe: ANDREW WEBBER, LILIAN FURST, ARNE KOCH, ROBERT HOLUB, GAIL FINNEY, ERNST GRABOVSZKI, BENJAMIN BENNETT, JEFFREY SAMMONS, THOMAS PFAU, CHRISTOPHER MORRIS, JOHN PIZER, THOMAS SPENCER.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	vii
Introduction	1	(22)
Clayton Koelb & Eric Downing
Part I. Contexts
The Afterlife of Romanticism	23	(22)
Andrew Webber
Parallels and Disparities: German Literature in the Context of European Culture	45	(18)
Lilian Furst
Revolution and Reaction: The Political Context of Central European Literature	63	(30)
Arne Koch
Part II. Movements
Literary Controversy: Naming and Framing the Post-Romantic, Pre-Realist Period	93	(24)
Robert C. Holub
Poetic Realism, Naturalism, and the Rise of the Novella	117	(22)
Gail Finney
Literary Movements of the 1890's: Impressionism, Symbolism, and fin-de-siècle Austria	139	(18)
Ernst Grabovszki
Part III. Genres
The Absence of Drama in Nineteenth-Century Germany	157	(26)
Benjamin Bennett
The Nineteenth-Century German Novel	183	(24)
Jeffrey L. Sammons
Between Sentimentality and Phantasmagoria: German Lyric Poetry, 1830-1890	207	(44)
Thomas Pfau
Richard Wagner: Opera and Music Drama	251	(30)
Christopher Morris
Part IV Bibliographical Resources
Navigating the Nineteenth Century: A Critical Bibliography	281	(22)
John Pizer
List of Primary Sources	303	(14)
Compiled by Thomas Spencer
Selected Secondary Works Cited	317	(14)
Notes on the Contributors	331	(4)
Index	335