Reading Heinrich Heine

by Anthony Phelan

• ISBN13: 9780521863995
• ISBN10: 0521863996
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-23
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This comprehensive study of the nineteenth-century German poet Heinrich Heine is the first to be published in English for many years. Anthony Phelan examines the complete range of Heine's work, from the early poetry and 'Pictures of Travel' to the last poems, including personal polemic and journalism. Phelan provides original and detailed readings of Heine's major poetry and throws new light on his virtuoso political performances that have too often been neglected by critics. Through his critical relationship with Romanticism, Heine confronted the problem of modernity in startlingly original ways that still speak to the concerns of post-modern readers. Phelan highlights the importance of Heine for the critical understanding of modern literature, and in particular the responses to Heine's work by Adorno, Kraus and Benjamin. Heine emerges as a figure of immense European significance, whose writings now need to be seen as a major contribution to the articulation of modernity.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
The Biographical Imperative
The biographical imperative: Karl Kraus	p. 3
The biographical imperative: Theodor Adorno	p. 20
The biographical imperative: Helmut Heibenbuttel - pro domo	p. 33
From the private life of Everyman: self-presentation and authenticity in Buch der Lieder	p. 46
In the diplomatic sense: reading Reisebilder	p. 91
The Real Heine
How to become a symbolist: Heine and the anthologies of Stefan George and Rudolf Borchardt	p. 113
The real Heine: Atta Troll and allegory	p. 129
Ventriloquism in Ludwig Borne. Eine Denkschrift	p. 151
Parisian Writing
Scheherazade's snapshots: Lutetia	p. 181
Mathilde's interruption: archetypes of modernity in Heine's later poetry	p. 209
Epilogue
The tribe of Harry: Heine and contemporary poetry	p. 245
Notes	p. 265
Bibliography	p. 291
Index	p. 303
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