Michael Minden - Böcker

Franz Kafka is one of the most important figures in twentieth-century culture. The fascination of his work has long since reached international proportions, and the concept 'Kafkaesque' has entered the English Language as an everyday part of speech.This new edition of Kafka's famous story contains a critical introduction and notes which help to explain how the author achieves his particular effects. The editors are concerned less with what the story means then with how it blocks and baffles its reader, provoking them into an interpretation through its combination of clues and counter-clues, its questions and its uncertainties. Careful attention is therefore paid to the 'openness' of the text, to point of view, and to Kafka's use of language. The editors also consider the important biographical and cultural influences which shaped the writing of the story, and they outline some of the very different ways in which it has been interpreted --biographically, socially and psychologically.A select vocabulary, aimed at the demands of the sixth-form pupil, is also included, and the text itself is taken from the original hardback edition.

This book was originally published in 1997. The Bildungsroman - the story of the development or formation of a young man - is the most famous German contribution to the European novel. Most studies of the Bildungsroman have concentrated on its underlying philosophy; Michael Minden addresses it as literature. He offers detailed readings of some of the best-known novels in the German language, from Goethe to Mann, including Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Agathon, Anton Reiser, Hyperion, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Der grüne Heinrich, Der Nachsommer, and Der Zauberberg. Looking at the novels from the points of view of gender, subjectivity, and the ideology of the aesthetic, and taking account of the literary theory, Minden uncovers aspects and motifs which subvert traditional ideas of the Bildungsroman and raise questions about the function and status of literature.

This book was originally published in 1997. The Bildungsroman - the story of the development or formation of a young man - is the most famous German contribution to the European novel. Most studies of the Bildungsroman have concentrated on its underlying philosophy; Michael Minden addresses it as literature. He offers detailed readings of some of the best-known novels in the German language, from Goethe to Mann, including Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Agathon, Anton Reiser, Hyperion, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Der grüne Heinrich, Der Nachsommer, and Der Zauberberg. Looking at the novels from the points of view of gender, subjectivity, and the ideology of the aesthetic, and taking account of the literary theory, Minden uncovers aspects and motifs which subvert traditional ideas of the Bildungsroman and raise questions about the function and status of literature.

This accessible and fresh account of German writing since 1750 is a case study of literature as a cultural and spiritual resource in modern societies. Beginning with the emergence of German language literature on the international stage in the mid-eighteenth century, the book plays down conventional labels and periodisation of German literary history in favour of the explanatory force of international cultural impact. It explains, for instance, how specifically German and Austrian conditions shaped major contributions to European literary culture such as Romanticism and the ‘language scepticism’ of the early twentieth century. From the First World War until reunification in 1990, Germany’s defining experiences have been ones of catastrophe. The book provides a compelling overview of the different ways in which German literature responded to historical disaster. They are, first, Modernism (the ‘Literature of Negation’), second, the literature of totalitarian regimes (Third Reich and German Democratic Republic), and third the various creative strategies and evasions of the capitalist democratic multi-medial cultures of the Weimar and Federal Republics. The volume achieves a balance between textual analysis and cultural theory that gives it value as an introductory reference source and as an original study and as such will be essential reading for students and scholars alike.

This accessible and fresh account of German writing since 1750 is a case study of literature as a cultural and spiritual resource in modern societies. Beginning with the emergence of German language literature on the international stage in the mid-eighteenth century, the book plays down conventional labels and periodisation of German literary history in favour of the explanatory force of international cultural impact. It explains, for instance, how specifically German and Austrian conditions shaped major contributions to European literary culture such as Romanticism and the ‘language scepticism’ of the early twentieth century. From the First World War until reunification in 1990, Germany’s defining experiences have been ones of catastrophe. The book provides a compelling overview of the different ways in which German literature responded to historical disaster. They are, first, Modernism (the ‘Literature of Negation’), second, the literature of totalitarian regimes (Third Reich and German Democratic Republic), and third the various creative strategies and evasions of the capitalist democratic multi-medial cultures of the Weimar and Federal Republics. The volume achieves a balance between textual analysis and cultural theory that gives it value as an introductory reference source and as an original study and as such will be essential reading for students and scholars alike.

Franz Kafka is one of the most important figures in twentieth-century culture. The fascination of his work has long since reached international proportions, and the concept 'Kafkaesque' has entered the English Language as an everyday part of speech.This new edition of Kafka's famous story contains a critical introduction and notes which help to explain how the author achieves his particular effects. The editors are concerned less with what the story means then with how it blocks and baffles its reader, provoking them into an interpretation through its combination of clues and counter-clues, its questions and its uncertainties. Careful attention is therefore paid to the 'openness' of the text, to point of view, and to Kafka's use of language. The editors also consider the important biographical and cultural influences which shaped the writing of the story, and they outline some of the very different ways in which it has been interpreted --biographically, socially and psychologically.A select vocabulary, aimed at the demands of the sixth-form pupil, is also included, and the text itself is taken from the original hardback edition.

A collection of essays -- early seminal works as well as freshinterpretations -- on the famous German expressionist film,Metropolis.Fritz Lang's classic 1927 film Metropolis has justifiably become an icon for the complexities of Weimar culture. Among the important general issues it also raises are the relation between ideology and art, the status and authorship of the film text in the entertainment market, the city, the construction of gender, the relation between the human body and the machine in modernity, and the relation between mass and high culture. This volume provides abroad range of materials and resources for the study of Lang's film, including both well-known, previously published critical essays and contributions appearing for the first time here. The editors provide a two-part introductionthat furnishes context for what follows: Bachmann's part deals with the genesis, production, and contemporary reception of the film, while Minden's defines the problems posed by the text and reviews thesolutions to these problemsas proposed by later generations of critics.The first part of the book proper includes selected contemporaryreviews, commentary by Fritz Lang and others involved in the making ofthe film, and extracts from Thea von Harbou's original novel. In the second part, eight modern scholars provide fresh essays on the genesis, promotion, and reception of the film. Approximately half of the material in the volume has never before appeared in print. The volume will appealto students of German, film, cultural and intellectual history, and social theory.Michael Minden is University Lecturer in German at Cambridge University and a fellow of Jesus College. Holger Bachmann received hisPh.D. from Cambridge on Arthur Schnitzler and film.