Description
Book SynopsisInvestigates the function and meaning of sadness in German, Austrian, and Swiss literature and culture from the 18th century to the present. Established, commissioned, and edited by the Department of German at the University of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh German Yearbook is the only peer-reviewed German Studies publication that each year invites scholarly contributions on a single topic of current challenge to the field. Focusing on "Sadness and Melancholy in German-language Literature and Culture," volume 6 investigates the often subversive function and meaning of sadness and melancholy inGerman-language literature and culture from the seventeenth century to the present where, arguably, it has fallen from the heights of melancholy genius and artistic creativity of earlier epochs to become the embarrassing other ofa Western civilization that prizes happiness as the mark of successful modern living. Interrogating the distinction between sadness as an anthropological constant and melancholy as a shifting cultural discourse, the contributionsexplore how different authors use established literary and cultural topoi from melancholy discourses to comment on topics as diverse as war, religion, gender inequality, and modernity. As well as essays on canonical figures including Goethe and Thomas Mann, the volume features studies of sadness in lesser-known writers such as Betty Paoli and Julia Schoch. Contributors: Per Brandt, Peter Damrau, Kristian Donko, Svenja Frank, Jens Hobus, StephenJoy, Johannes D. Kaminski, Franziska Meyer, Richard Millington, Karin S. Wozonig. Mary Cosgrove is Reader in German at the University of Edinburgh. Anna Richards is Lecturer in German at Birkbeck College, University ofLondon.
Trade ReviewThis rich collection makes a strong case for the continuing relevance of literature as a space that allows us to project and explore emotional states, but also as a source of Identifizierungsangebote for our own (sad?) lives. Readers of a less than sanguine disposition may want to approach it with caution, and remain mindful of Goethe's exhortation: 'Gedenke zu leben! * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Sadness and Melancholy in German-Language Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present: An Overview - Mary Cosgrove Tears That Make the Heart Shine? "Godly Sadness" in Pietism - Peter Damrau Produktive Negativität: Traurigkeit als Möglichkeitssinn um 1800 - Johannes Kaminski Die Schwester Lenaus? Betty Paoli und der Weltschmerz - Karin S Wozonig "Immer wieder kehrst du, Melancholie": Plotting Georg Trakl's Poetic Sadness - Richard Millington Die Lust am Unendlichen: Melancholie und Ironie bei Robert Walser - Per Brandt and Jens Hobus Melancholy Echo and the Case of Serenus Zeitblom - Steve Joy Melancholy in Wilhelm Genazino's Novels and Its Construction as Other - Svenja Frank The Past is Another Country and the Country Is Another Past: Sadness in East German Texts by Jakob Hein and Julia Schoch - Franziska Meyer
