Description
Book SynopsisThe first book in English on the German Gothic in over thirty years, consisting of new essays investigating the internationality of the Gothic mode. The literary mode of the Gothic is well established in English Studies, and there is growing interest in its internationality. Gothic fiction is seen as transgressive, especially in the way it crosses borders, often illicitly -- for instance, in the form of plagiarized texts or pseudo-translations of nonexistent sources. In the 1790s, when the English Gothic novel was emerging, the real or ostensible source of many of these uncanny texts was Germany. Thisfirst book in English dedicated to the German Gothic in over thirty years is aimed at students and researchers in German Studies and English Studies, and redresses deficiencies in existing sources, which are outdated, piecemeal, or not sufficiently grounded in German Studies. The book examines the international reception of German Gothic since the 1790s heyday of the Gothic novel in Britain and Germany; traces a line of Gothic writing in German to thepresent day; and inquires into the extraliterary impact of German Gothic. Thus the essays do full justice to the Gothic as a site of conflict and exchange -- both between cultures and between discourses. Contributors:Peter Arnds, Silke Arnold-de Simine, Jürgen Barkhoff, Matthias Bickenbach, Andrew Cusack, Mario Grizelj, Jörg Kreienbrock, Barry Murnane, Victor Sage, Monika Schmitz-Emans, Catherine Smale, Andrew Webber Andrew Cusack is Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institut für Kulturwissenschaft of the Humboldt-Universität Berlin. Barry Murnane is Assistant Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
Trade ReviewThe collection as a whole points to the demand for a broader critical discourse on the Gothic within Germanistik and to some of the main questions that derive from here: how to trace the 'birth' of the German Gothic from the affect-based spirit of the late Enlightenment; how to chart its strategies of production and dissemination against terminological confusions, gaps, and silences in its international reception; and how to construct its diverse cultural genealogies beyond the framework of literary romanticism. * SEMINAR *
[A] splendid collection of critical essays in the field of reception theory. . . . [A]n impressive assembly of critical voices, whose first-rate scholarly contribution is meant to last. * BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR ROMANTIC STUDIES BULLETIN AND REVIEW *
[T]he volume shows in a convincing and highly interesting way the legacy of the German Schauerroman, not only in other literatures but also in German from the early nineteenth century to the present. * YEAR'S WORK IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES *
[P]rovides concrete evidence of Slavoj Zizek's claim, in Paul A. Taylor's words, that 'a full understanding of what it is to experience reality as a human being requires acknowledgment that the spectral has a very real effect. -- Michael Minden * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *
[A] polished, cohesive body of work . . . . Overall Cusack and Murnane have succeeded in assembling an important volume that addresses a significant lack in German Studies scholarship. . . . With its useful methodology and rich body of research, Popular Revenants will hopefully pave the way for future studies into the influence of German gothic 'revenants' . . . . * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES *
[The editors] gather 13 essays that plumb the production of writers like Schiller, Heine, Schumann, Poe, Walter Scott, Hoffmann, and Raabe. . . . A worthy reentry into a forgotten field, this study with its fine index, footnotes, and comprehensive bibliography fills an egregious lacuna. . . . Recommended. * CHOICE *
[A]n indispensable, highly relevant guide that clearly shows the strong influence of the Germanic strain of horror on the genre we know today. * RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Andrew Cusack Haunting (Literary) History: An Introduction toGerman Gothic - Barry Murnane "The echo of the question, as if it had merely resoundedin a tomb": The Dark Anthropology of the Schauerroman in Schiller's Der Geisterseher - Jürgen Barkhoff Blaming the Other: English Translations of Benedikte Naubert's Hermann von Unna (1788/1794) - Silke Arnold-de Simine Scott, Hoffmann, and the Persistence of the Gothic - Victor Sage Cultural Transfer in the Dublin University Magazine: James Clarence Mangan and the German Gothic - Andrew Cusack In the Maelstrom of Interpretation: Reshaping Terror and Horror between 1798 and 1838 - Gleich, Hoffmann, Poe - Mario Grizelj Popular Ghosts: Heinrich Heine on German Geistesgeschichteas Gothic Novel - Jorg Kreienbrock The Spirit World of Art and Robert Schumann's Gothic Novel Project: The Impact of Gothic Literature onSchumann's Writings - Monika Schmitz-Emans About Face: E. T. A. Hoffmann, Weimar Film, and theTechnological Afterlife of Gothic Physiognomy - Andrew J. Webber Of Rats, Wolves, and Men: The Pied Piper as Gothic Revenantand Provenant in Wilhelm Raabe's Die Hämelschen Kinder - Peter Arnds The Lady in White or the Laws of the Ghost in Theodor Fontane's Vor dem Sturm - Matthias Bickenbach On Golems and Ghosts: Prague as a Site of Gothic Modernism - Barry Murnane "Ein Gespenst geht um": Christa Wolf, Irina Liebmann, and the Post-Wall Gothic - Catherine Smale Works Cited Notes on Contributors Index
