This book attempts for the first time a comparative literary history of Germany and the USA in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its material does not come from the familiar overlaps of individual German and American writers, but from the work of the literary historians of the two countries after 1815, when American intellectuals took Germany as a model for their project to create an American national literature. The first part of the book examines fundamental structural affinities between the two literary histories and the common problems these caused, especially in questions of canon,...

This textbook examines Mann's great novel Buddenbrooks.

This study bridges literature and music at an exciting and controversial point, offering the lover of music and literature and the specialist reader an insight into the relationship between Wagner's operas and the nineteenth century novel, including comparisons with Rigoletto and Der Rosenkavalier in their evolution from other forms. It discusses matters of genre and national tradition, placing Wagner's works in the heritage of the European Enlightenment. Comparisons of Wagner's works with the novel have been fleeting, denoting only their length and complexity. Examining in principle and in...

In diesem Band bietet der Autor eine Ubersicht uber das lyrische, erzahlerische und essayistische Werk Gottfried Benns. Auf einen einfuhrenden, biographischen wie zeitgeschichtlich orientierten Teil folgt eine Untersuchung der Beziehungen von Benns lyrischem Fruhwerk zur Dichtung der Jahrhundertwende, insbesondere zu Liliencron, Rilke und George. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt bildet die Analyse seiner fruhen Prosa, deren Erzahlstruktur und spezifische Merkmale im Vergleich mit anderen expressionistischen Werken herausgearbeitet werden. Abschlieend werden Aspekte von Benns Wiederentdeckung nach...

This book analyses Darwin's influence on art and the effect of his science on experiences of beauty. The first chapter discusses Darwin's great forerunner, Alexander von Humboldt, and his contribution to thinking about the relationship between science and beauty. The second examines the public reception of Darwin in Germany, focusing on the German Naturalists and the important scientific controversies which Darwin's idea provoked. It shows the political use of science (Hackel and Virchow) and foreshadows present-day debates between Darwinism and Creationism, science and an idealized view of...