Description
Book SynopsisPracticing Progress focuses on the German Enlightenment in its dual manifestation as a cultural era and as a mode of discourse. The volume’s unifying theme is the promise and limitations of the Enlightenment, as seen from the twenty-first century. Contributors deal with figures from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries in theology, poetry and drama, economic theory, and music. Included are such powerful critics of the politics of progress as Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, and Bertolt Brecht. The volume is of particular interest to scholars concerned with the complexity of literary phenomena. A variety of interpretive approaches yield fresh insights into the still ongoing project of Enlightenment.
Trade Review"…a well-rounded summary of all directions into which the Enlightenment spreads, its influences on all kinds of social spheres, and a variety of interpretative approaches…" - in: Focus on German Studies, Vol. 15 (2008)
Table of ContentsPreface Dieter SEVIN: A Word about John McCarthy: Scholar, Teacher, and Colleague Richard E. SCHADE: Introduction to Practicing Progress: The Promise and Limitations of Enlightenment Wolfgang ALBRECHT: Bestimmung(en) des Menschen. Zu einem Zentralthema des Aufklärungsdiskurses und einigen seiner Facetten im Umkreis Lessings Susanne KORD: From Evil Eye to Poetic Eye: Witch Beliefs and Physiognomy in the Age of Enlightenment Laurie JOHNSON: Enlightenment According to Don Alfonso: Perilous Progress in Mozart's Così fan tutte Carl NIEKERK: Casanova’s Radical Enlightenment Richard T. GRAY: Economic Value-Theory and Literary Culture in Late-Eighteenth Century Germany: The Debate over Physiocracy Simon RICHTER: The Errors of Our Ways: The Relation of Literature to Culture in Goethe’s Faust Thomas P. SAINE: “Von London und Hannover verlassen”: Germans in America in the Eighteenth Century Herbert ROWLAND: Laocoon, Nathan the Wise, and the Contexts of Their Critical Reception in Nineteenth-Century American Reviews Robert C. HOLUB: Dialectic of the Biological Enlightenment: Nietzsche, Degeneration, and Eugenics Liliane WEISSBERG: Humanity and Its Limits: Hannah Arendt Reads Lessing Frank TROMMLER: The Use Value of Brecht’s Enlightenment: Revisiting the 1960s in Germany Horst S. DAEMMERICH: Advancing Enlightenment Toward Ultimate Victory: A Recent View of Friedrich Nicolai John McCarthy’s Publications
