The Representation of War in German Literature: From 1800 to the Present

by Elisabeth Krimmer

• ISBN13: 9780521198028
• ISBN10: 052119802X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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, J8nger, Remarque, Grass, B_ll, 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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: overview	p. 19
War and the sublime: Schiller	p. 27
War and terror: Kleist	p. 46
The First World War
The First World War: overview	p. 65
War and myth: Jünger	p. 71
War and the body: Remarque	p. 88
The Second World War
The Second World War: overview	p. 107
War and victimization: Böll	p. 114
War and accountability: Grass	p. 133
Yugoslavia and Iraq
Yugoslavia and Iraq: overview	p. 151
War and peace: Handke	p. 155
War and the media: Jelinek	p. 175
Conclusion	p. 197
Notes	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 226
Index	p. 262
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.