Description
Book Synopsis* Provides an accessible and fresh account of German writing since 1750. * Achieves a balance between textual analysis and cultural theory that gives the book value as both a key introductory text and a cutting edge original study.
Trade Review"A rich and rewarding book"
Modern Langauge Review"A valuable contribution to cultural studies. Highly recommended."
Choice
"Minden's study is intellectually exciting, full of intriguing insights, opinionated and argumentative in the best sense. The book is eloquently written and challenging and will be a major contribution to German Studies and to Cultural Studies."
Elizabeth Boa, University of Nottingham
"Michael Minden's cultural history of modern German literature provides a rich context for astute and stimulating re-readings of canonical works. In scrutinizing German literature as a variety of social and artistic practices, he offers refreshing perspectives on the interaction between writers, texts and readers."
Katrin Kohl, Jesus College, Oxford
"This synthetic account of 250 years of Europe's central literary culture is a history of modernity which shows how literature assimilated, anticipated, and countered the effects of rapid social change. Minden's readings of the most influential examples of high and low German literary writing are uncompromisingly intelligent, memorably sententious, and nearly always invite contestation. Modern German Literature is the distillation of a lifetime's reading and teaching; it is a rare feat by a unique scholar and fluent writer."
Julian Preece, Swansea University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Cultural History of Literature
Chapter one: A European German Literature
Chapter two: Poetry and Politics
Chapter three: Imperial Modernity
Chapter four: The Literature of Negation
Chapter five: The Fate of Affirmative Literature
Chapter six: Literature in Democratic Capitalism
