Dagmar C. G. Lorenz - Böcker

Devoted to collecting the finest Jewish writing from around the world, the Jewish Writing in the Contemporary World series consists of anthologies, by country, that are designed to present to the English-speaking world authors and works deserving international consideration. As a series, the books permit a broad examination of the international crosscurrents in Jewish thought and culture. Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria presents a gathering of writers from several generations who have published a remarkable range of works in recent decades. The result is a diverse portrait of Jewish experience in Austria since the Second World War. Dagmar C. G. Lorenz has assembled an extraordinary roster of literary talents, ranging from authors born in the early decades of this century to writers born after the Shoah. The volume maps a complex tradition of Jewish discourse marked by a profound awareness of the literary past, by the failure of a long-anticipated Austrian-Jewish symbiosis, and by the unparalleled tragedy of the Shoah. It is a modern tradition that has made an essential contribution to Austria's literary history while remaining, in Lorenz's words, "distinct and unassimilated."

A fresh collection of essays on the work of one of the leading figures of the Viennese fin de siècle.This volume of specially commissioned essays takes a fresh look at the Viennese Jewish dramatist and prose writer Arthur Schnitzler. Fascinatingly, Schnitzler's productive years spanned the final phase of the Habsburg monarchy, World War I, the First Austrian Republic, and the rise of National Socialism, and he realized earlier than many of his contemporaries the threat that racist anti-Semitism posed to the then almost complete assimilation of Austrian Jews. His writings also reflect the irresolvable conflict between emerging feminism and the relentless "scientific" discourse of misogyny, and he chronicles the collapse of traditional social structures at the end of the Habsburg monarchy and the struggles of the newly founded republic. In the 1950s Schnitzler's powerful literary record assumed model character for Viennese Jewish intellectuals born after the Shoah, and his portrayal of gender relations and role expectations and casual sex are received with the same fascination today as they were by the audiences of his own time. Schnitzler remains a major figure in contemporary European culture, as his works are still widely read, performed, and adapted -- witness Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Schnitzler's Traumnovelle as the 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut. In this volume a team of international scholars explores Schnitzler's dramas and prose worksfrom contemporary critical vantage points, but within the context of Austria's multicultural society at a time of unprecedented change.Contributors: Gerd Schneider, Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner, Elizabeth Loentz, Iris Bruce, Felix Tweraser, Elizabeth Ametsbichler, Hillary Hope Herzog, Katherine Arens, John Neubauer, Imke Meyer, Susan C. Anderson, Eva Kuttenberg, and Matthias Konzett.Dagmar C. G. Lorenz is professor of German at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

New essays providing a comprehensive scholarly introduction to the great writer and thinker Canetti.The Bulgarian-born scholar and author Elias Canetti was one of the most astute witnesses and analysts of the mass movements and wars of the first half of the 20th century. Born a Sephardic Jew and raised at first in the Bulgarianand Ladino languages, he chose to write in German. He was awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature for his oeuvre, which includes dramas, essays, diaries, aphorisms, the novel Die Blendung (Auto-da-Fé) and the long interdisciplinary treatise Masse und Macht (Crowds and Power). These works express Canetti's thought-provoking ideas on culture and the human psyche with special focus on the phenomena of power, conflict, and survival. Canetti'smasterful prose, his linguistic innovations, his brilliant satires and conceits continue to fascinate scholars and general readers alike; his challenging, genre-bending writings merge theory and literature, essay and diary entry.This Companion volume contains original essays by renowned scholars from around the world who examine Canetti's writing and thought in the context of pre- and post-fascist Europe, providing a comprehensive scholarly introduction.Contributors: William C. Donahue, Anne Fuchs, Hans Reiss, Julian Preece, Wolfgang Mieder, Sigurd P. Scheichel, Helga Kraft, Harriet Murphy, Irene S. Di Maio, Ritchie Robertson, Johannes G. Pankau, Dagmar C.G. Lorenz, Penka Angelova and Svoboda A. Dimitrova, Michael Mack.Dagmar C. G. Lorenz is Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago.