The emergence of a new theory of literature in the German Romantic period constituted a decisive turning point in the history of criticism. A view of the literary work and the artistic process developed that diverged sharply from the dominant classicist understanding of aesthetics and poetics. It recognized the infinite changeablility of genres, and asserted the rights of genius and creative imagination. Professor Behler provides a new account of this crucial movement, illustrating each theoretical topic with close reference to a characteristic work by a major writer of the period.

Vienna is of central importance in the whole history of drama, opera and operetta, and for more than a century was the only German-speaking city to sustain a theatrical life comparable to that of Paris or London. This is the first general history in English of modern theater in Vienna, covering the period from its beginnings in the 1770s up to the present. It takes full account of the social, political and intellectual contexts of theatrical culture, and provides a wealth of factual information based on original documents and up-to-date scholarship. All quotations are given in English to...

This original study offers a comprehensive reappraisal of Freud's work from a literary-critical perspective.

This is a new and accessible study of the plays of Kleist (1777-1811), an important and much-studied author whose work has been highly influential in contemporary German writing. Sean Allan examines Kleist's critique of the aspirations of both Enlightenment and Romantic metaphysics, and offers resolutions of a number of long-running controversies in Kleist criticism. The book contains summaries of the state of research on all the plays. All quotations are given in both German and English, and full references are given to published English translations of Kleist's works as well as to the...

Judith Ryan traces Rilke's development from aestheticism to modernism, paying special attention to the way his work engages with other poetry and the visual arts. Taking a skeptical view of Rilke's own myth of himself as a solitary genius, Ryan shows how deeply his writing is embedded in the culture of its day. Rilke is now the most widely-read and influential German-language poet, and this study is full of surprising discoveries about his innovative and often profoundly moving poems.

Todd Kontje offers the first survey in English of novels by German women from 1771 to 1871. He introduces readers to the lives and works of fourteen women writers of the period--including Sophie von LaRoche, Sophie Mereau, Fanny Lewald, and Eugenie Marlitt--and argues that their novels played an important role in shaping attitudes toward class, gender, and the nation in the century preceding Germany's first unification. Women, the Novel, and the German Nation explores ways in which novels about traditionally feminine domestic concerns also comment on patriarchal politics in the German...

Stefan Heym was Hitler's youngest literary exile. This book, the first full-length study of Heym to appear in English, outlines his exciting career, which culminated in his becoming the major dissident of the German Democratic Republic. It focuses primarily on his journalism and his novels, some of which have been translated into over twenty languages, but also discusses his earliest, almost unknown, poetry and drama. Peter Hutchinson pays special attention to the way in which Heym's defiance of a repressive regime inspired others and paved the way for the new Eastern European literature.

This book is the first systematic attempt in English to examine the literary consequences of German reunification. In its emphasis on problems of national identity, it is one of the first books in any language to treat contemporary Germany as a cultural and national unity. In exploring the ways in which authors of the 1990s have sought to cope with history and national identity, the book addresses questions about the role of the nation and a national literature in the context of economic and political globalization.

In this important study, Lesley Sharpe assesses Schiller's development as a dramatist, poet and thinker, and provides detailed discussions of all his major works, including his essays on aesthetics. His works are viewed against the social, political and literary background of the late eighteenth century. Spanning a period from the late 1770s to 1805 they explore the insistent themes of the age - the loss of tradition and authority, the individual's claim to self-expression and the search for stability. While the early works focus on the turbulent individual, Schiller later turns to the great...

In this important study, Lesley Sharpe assesses Schiller's development as a dramatist, poet and thinker, and provides detailed discussions of all his major works, including his essays on aesthetics. His works are viewed against the social, political and literary background of the late eighteenth century. Spanning a period from the late 1770s to 1805 they explore the insistent themes of the age - the loss of tradition and authority, the individual's claim to self-expression and the search for stability. While the early works focus on the turbulent individual, Schiller later turns to the great...