Description
Book SynopsisOf all European landscapes and regions, the Rhine is one of the most heavily overlaid with cultural and political meaning. Cradle of Romanticism, tourism, and the picturesque, bone of contention between the German and French spheres of cultural and geopolitical influence, the Rhine has attracted armies, artists, activists and tourists for centuries and has featured prominently the key writings of Europe’s literary and intellectual history from Byron to Lucien Febvre. This volume brings together eminent literary and cultural historians to present materials and analyses from various of the central nexus of European culture. The volume also contains a unique and comprehensive anthology of key texts (historical, poetical and polemical) related to the Rhineland and its contested position. Contributors are: Reinhard Baumann, Manfred Beller, Hans-Werner Breunig, Giovanna Cermelli, Joep Leerssen, Elmar Scheuren, Helmut J. Schneider, and Waldemar Zacharasiewicz.
Trade Review'This admirable book tells us what it was like before sanity prevailed.' John Fletcher in, Journal of European Studies 49 (3-4) 2019, p. 5-6.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Rhine, Europe’s Frontier, Europe’s Dreamland: Transnational Destination, Inspiration, Disputation Part 1: Case Studies in Geopolitics, Romanticism and Travel 1 Victor Hugo’s Le Rhin: French National Perspectives on a European River Manfred Beller 2 The Symbolical and Political Investment of the Rhine: A Dutch Perspective Joep Leerssen 3 Italian Travellers in the Rhineland in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century Giovanna Cermelli 4 English Middle-Rhine Tourism in Late-eighteenth and Nineteenth-century Literature Hans Werner Breunig 5 North American Travellers in the Rhine Valley: Revisions of Their Perspectives on the Landscape and on Sites of Memory in the Contested Region Waldemar Zacharasiewicz 6 Goethe’s Art Travels in the Rhine Regions 1814–1817 and His Concept of Decentralized Collections Helmut J. Schneider 7 Restored Future: A Panorama of the Castles, Churches and Monuments on the Confluence of Rhine and Nahe Manfred Beller 8 The Rhine as a Symbol: Aspects, Meanings and Functionalization of a Memory Landscape Elmar Scheuren 9 The Walhalla: Bavarian Integration Monument, Germanic Hall of Fame, Expression of European Patronage Reinhard Baumann Part 2: A History of Appropriations 10 From the Meuse to the Rhine: A Disputed Region in French and German Atlases and Encyclopaedias Manfred Beller 11 The Never-ending Stream: Cultural Mobilization over the Rhine Joep Leerssen 12 Literary Appropriations of the Rhine: A German–French Repertory, 1814–1925
