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Whether or not Goethe actually cried "More light!" on his deathbed ... last words, regardless of their authenticity, have long captured our imaginations. Here Karl Guthke explores the cultural importance of those words spoken at the border between this world and the next. "Last Words ... is filled with zesty farewells from just this side of the grave... A stimulating tome shot through with grisly black humor and goosey trivia."--Boston Phoenix Literary Supplement

Table of Contents
PrefaceA Note on the English Version1Last Words in Everyday Culture: Forms and Meaning of a Convention in Life and Letters32Why the Interest in Last Words?: Completion, Immortality, Mystique483Pork-Pie or Fatherland: Authentic or Ben Trovato?: The Last Words as Artifact and "Inherited Mythology"674Guidance, Entertainment, and Frisson: Anthologies of Last Words985An Intellectual History of Last Words?: Landmarks in Uncharted Terrain155Notes191Select Bibliography229Index236

Last Words Variations on a Theme in Cultural

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    A Paperback by Karl S. Guthke

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      Publisher: Princeton University Press
      Publication Date: 3/21/2017 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780691628158, 978-0691628158
      ISBN10: 0691628157
      Also in:
      Literary studies: general

      Description

      Book Synopsis


      Trade Review
      Whether or not Goethe actually cried "More light!" on his deathbed ... last words, regardless of their authenticity, have long captured our imaginations. Here Karl Guthke explores the cultural importance of those words spoken at the border between this world and the next. "Last Words ... is filled with zesty farewells from just this side of the grave... A stimulating tome shot through with grisly black humor and goosey trivia."--Boston Phoenix Literary Supplement

      Table of Contents
      PrefaceA Note on the English Version1Last Words in Everyday Culture: Forms and Meaning of a Convention in Life and Letters32Why the Interest in Last Words?: Completion, Immortality, Mystique483Pork-Pie or Fatherland: Authentic or Ben Trovato?: The Last Words as Artifact and "Inherited Mythology"674Guidance, Entertainment, and Frisson: Anthologies of Last Words985An Intellectual History of Last Words?: Landmarks in Uncharted Terrain155Notes191Select Bibliography229Index236

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