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.

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.

Nuremberg: The Imaginary Capital is a broad study of German cultural history since 1500, with particular emphasis on the period since 1800. It explores the ways in which Germans have imagined Nuremberg as a cultural and spiritual capital, focusing feelings of national identity and belonging on the city -- or on their image of it. Chapters focus on the city of Durer and Sachs at the threshold of the modern era, the glory of which became the basis for all the other imaginary Nurembergs; the Romantic rediscovery of the city in the late 18th century and the institutionalization of Nuremberg...

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, German intellectuals and writers were forced to confront perhaps the most difficult complex of problems ever faced by modern intellectuals in the western world: the complete defeat and devastation of their country, the crimes of the Hitler dictatorship, the onset of the Cold War, and ultimately the political division of the nation. To a large extent these debates took place in literature and literary discourse, and they continue to have pressing relevance for Germany today, when the country is rediscovering and exploring this previously...

Twenty-five years after the demise of the German Democratic Republic, there is perhaps more scholarship being produced on all aspects of that country than ever. This is true also in the field of literary studies, but especially in English-language literary scholarship there has been a strong imbalance toward a focus on the last three decades of GDR literature. The literature of the earlier GDR has mostly been dismissed or ignored by scholars, as the discontinuities between the early and late GDR have been emphasized over the considerable continuities. This book seeks to redress that state of...