Edinburgh German Yearbook

by Cosgrove, Mary; Richards, Anna; Cosgrove, Mary

• ISBN13: 9781571135285
• ISBN10: 1571135286
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-03
• Publisher: Camden House

Summary

Established, commissioned, and edited by the Department of German at the University of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh German Yearbook is the only peer-reviewed German Studies publication that each year invites scholarly contributions on a single topic of current challenge to the field. Volume 6's focus, sadness, is a broad term denoting a universal human affect - in a very general sense an anthropological constant, but expressed differently in specific historical epochs. This volume investigates the often subversive function and meaning of sadness in German-language literature and culture from the eighteenth century to the present, where it has fallen from the earlier grandiose heights of melancholy genius and artistic creativity to become the embarrassing other of a Western civilization that prizes happiness as the mark of successful modern living. Along with essays on canonical figures including Goethe and Thomas Mann, the volume features studies of sadness in lesser-known writers such as Jenny Erpenbeck and Julia Schoch. Contributors: Per Brandt, Peter Damrau, Kristian Donko, Svenja Frank, Stephen Joy, Johannes Kaminski, Franziska Meyer, Richard Millington, Martin Modlinger, Karin S. Wozonig. Mary Cosgrove is Lecturer in German at the University of Edinburgh. Anna Richards is Lecturer in German at Birkbeck, University of London.