Description
Book SynopsisViews adaptations as a way in which Germany seeks to come to terms with its past. Coming to terms with the past has been a preoccupation within German culture and German Studies since the Second World War. In addition, there has been a surge of interest in adaptation of literary works in recent years. Numerousvolumes have theorized, chronicled, or analyzed adaptations from novel to film, asking how and why adaptations are undertaken and what happens when a text is adapted in a particular historical context. With its focus on adaptationof twentieth-century German texts not only from one medium to another but also from one cultural moment to another, the present collection resides at the intersection of these two areas of inquiry. The ten essays treat a varietyof media. Each considers the way in which a particular adaptation alters a story - or history - for a subsequent audience, taking into account the changing context in which the retelling takes place and the evolution of cultural strategies for coming to terms with the past. The resulting case studies find in the retellings potentially corrective versions of the stories for changing times. The volume makes the case that adaptation studies are particularly well suited for tracing Germany's obsessive cultural engagement with its twentieth-century history. Contributors: Elizabeth Baer, Rachel Epp Buller, Maria Euchner, Richard C. Figge, Susan G. Figge, Mareike Hermann, LindaHutcheon, Irene Lazda, Cary Nathenson, Thomas Sebastian, Sunka Simon, Jenifer K. Ward. Susan G. Figge is Professor of German Emeritus at the College of Wooster, Ohio, and Jenifer K. Ward is Associate Provost, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle.
Trade ReviewThis volume makes a valuable and multidisciplinary contribution to the discussion of Vergangenheitsbewältigung and adaptation theory in 20th- and 21st-century German cultural production. * GERMAN QUARTERLY *
Excellent. . . . The consistently high quality of scholarship and overall readability of the essays testify to the expertise of the individual scholars and the effectiveness of the editors' work. * WOMEN IN GERMAN REVIEWS *
A particularly interesting take on the master trope [of coming to terms with the past]. . . . Employs a wide conceptual framework by emphasizing . . . the multiple contexts at stake in adaptation . . . and by expanding the range of media to include not only film and literature but also photomontage, opera, popular song, and museum exhibits. Recommended. * CHOICE *
Alongside insightful analyses of German Vergangenheitsbewältigung, this volume offers new and exciting perspectives in the broader field of adaptation studies, firmly establishing adaptation's value as a gauge of evolving historical discourses. * THIS YEAR'S WORK IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES *
