Description
Book SynopsisIn an authorial class with dramatists and authors of literary prose such as Goethe, Schiller, Thomas Mann, Brecht, and Kafka, Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) remains prominent in international evaluations of artistic genius when measured by enduring popular and artistic reception; legal, philosophical, and scientific criticism; and resonance of political rage. Scholars have long been fascinated by Kleist’s biography and works, in no small part due to his influence on authors, philosophers, political thinkers, and filmmakers, who regard Kleist as among the most accessible of “classic” artists — one whose relevance requires neither theoretical introduction nor literary-historical justification. The present volume addresses two centuries of engagement with Kleist and his works from an angle that has proven most important to their popular canonical status — his artistic and political legacies. What mattered to Kleist has mattered to centuries of readers, and thus all the more to artists and thinkers with similarly urgent messages to convey.
Trade Review“[…] the contributions succeed in bringing a fresh outlook and opening a range of stimulating and distinctive perspectives. For this, the volume warrants recognition as a profitable contribution to Kleist scholarship and deserves a wide readership.” - Steven Howe, University of Lucerne, in: Modern Language Review 110.2 (2015), pp. 590-592
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Seán Allan (University of Warwick): Foreword: Heinrich von Kleist and His Legacy Jeffrey L. High (California State University, Long Beach): Introduction: Heinrich von Kleist’s Legacies Karl J. Fink (St. Olaf College): Kleist’s Justice beyond Tears: Kohlhaasian Manifestos after Kleist Jeffrey Champlin (Bard College): Reader Beware: Wild Right in Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas and Eichendorff’s Das Schloß Dürande Amy Emm (The Citadel): The Legacy of Kleist’s Language in Music: Schoeck, Wolf, Bachmann, and Henze Tim Mehigan (University of Queensland): The Process of Inferential Contexts: Franz Kafka Reading Heinrich von Kleist Curtis Maughan (Vanderbilt University) and Jeffrey L. High (California State University, Long Beach): Like No Other? Thomas Mann and Kleist’s Novellas Jennifer M. Hoyer (University of Arkansas): A Michael Kohlhaas for the Post-Holocaust Era: Nelly Sachs’ Eli. Ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels Markus Wilczek (Harvard University): The Puppet Inside:Reading Stuffing in Heiner Müller’s Kleist Carrie Collenberg-Gonzalez (Longwood University): Kleist in the Reception of the Red Army Faction Daniel Cuonz (Universität St. Gallen): Robert Walser, Christa Wolf, and Kleist on the Move: Portraits of the Writer on his Way to Writing Bernd Fischer (The Ohio State University): What Moves Kohlhaas? Terror in Heinrich von Kleist, E. L. Doctorow, and Christoph Hein Friederike von Schwerin-High (Pomona College): Causality and Contingency in Kleist’s “Das Bettelweib von Locarno” and Judith Hermann’s “Sommerhaus, später” Mary Helen Dupree (Georgetown University): “The Glazed Surface of Conviction”: The Motif of the Broken Jug in Kleist’s Der zerbrochne Krug and Ian McEwan’s Atonement Marie Isabel Schlinzig (University of Oxford): Artistic Reincarnations of the Author and his Texts: Adaptations of Kleist and Henriette Vogel’s Double Suicide Hans Wedler (Bürgerhospital Stuttgart): No Home on Earth: Suicide in the Narratives of Kleist and David Foster Wallace Index
