Patrick Bridgwater – författare

Originally published in 1985, this book provides a full survey of the best and most significant work of German writers to the First World War. Including (in both German and English) the texts of all the main poems discussed, this book contains many not readily available elsewhere. Authors discussed include Trakl, Rile and George as well as less familiar names . The book not only corrects the distorted view of the subject perpetuated by most histories of German literature, but will also help to English First World War poetry into perspective.

Originally published in 1985, this book provides a full survey of the best and most significant work of German writers to the First World War. Including (in both German and English) the texts of all the main poems discussed, this book contains many not readily available elsewhere. Authors discussed include Trakl, Rile and George as well as less familiar names . The book not only corrects the distorted view of the subject perpetuated by most histories of German literature, but will also help to English First World War poetry into perspective.

Originally published in 1988 Arthur Schopenhauer’s English Schooling examines the famous German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, and his image of England and the influences and experiences which formed that image, notably his visit to England in 1803. His philosophy, when he came to formulate it, showed the pervasive influence of his English reading, was riddled with allusions to his three months at Wimbledon School, and was indeed in many ‘English’ style; above all it was a philosophy designed as a refutation of ‘Christianity’ as understood and practised by his English headmaster, who is the invisible bête noire behind it. In the course of the book two major figures who have hitherto been known only by name are identified and their lives related. The book also examines many background figures in Schopenhauer’s English diary and the letters addressed to him in 1803. This book, which is based on a wide variety of hitherto unknown material from many different sources, will permanently modify our view of his philosophy; it also has important implications for educationalists and for all interest in the history of ideas.

Originally published in 1988 Arthur Schopenhauer’s English Schooling examines the famous German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, and his image of England and the influences and experiences which formed that image, notably his visit to England in 1803. His philosophy, when he came to formulate it, showed the pervasive influence of his English reading, was riddled with allusions to his three months at Wimbledon School, and was indeed in many ‘English’ style; above all it was a philosophy designed as a refutation of ‘Christianity’ as understood and practised by his English headmaster, who is the invisible bête noire behind it. In the course of the book two major figures who have hitherto been known only by name are identified and their lives related. The book also examines many background figures in Schopenhauer’s English diary and the letters addressed to him in 1803. This book, which is based on a wide variety of hitherto unknown material from many different sources, will permanently modify our view of his philosophy; it also has important implications for educationalists and for all interest in the history of ideas.

This is a study of what the main "aesthetic" writers of late 19th-century Britain made of German literature, and of how Germany in turn reacted to them. The impact of Anglo-Scottish art nouveau in fin-de-siecle Austria and Germany made it predictable that Keats, Pater and Rossetti, among others, would be well received, but no one could have known in advance that by the time of their deaths, Swinburne and Wilde would be more highly regarded in Germany than in Britain. Bridgwater's documented study casts light on the central cultural issues of the day, including ideas of morality, truth and subjectivism in art, comparing Pater and Wilde with Nietzsche, and George Moore, that chameleon of the decadent 90s, with Schopenhauer.

Kafka's three novels, to be understood as an ever more intricate portrayal of the inner life of one central character (Henry James's 'centre of consciousness'), each reflecting the problems of their self-critical creator, are tantamount to dreams. The hieroglyphic, pictorial language in which they are written is the symbolic language in which dreams and thoughts on the edge of sleep are visualized. Not for nothing did Kafka define his writing as a matter of fantasizing with whole orchestras of [free] associations. Written in a deliberately enhanced hypnagogic state, these novels embody the alternative logic of dreams, with the emphasis on chains of association and verbal bridges between words and word-complexes. The product of many years' preoccupation with its subject, Patrick Bridgwater's new book is an original, chapter-by-chapter study of three extraordinarily detailed novels, of each of which it offers a radically new reading that makes more, and different, sense than any previous reading. In Barthes' terms these fascinating novels are 'unreadable', but the present book shows that, properly read, they are entirely, if ambiguously, readable. Rooted in Kafka's use of language, it consistently explores, in detail, (i) the linguistic implications of the dreamlike nature of his work, (ii) the metaphors he takes literally, and (iii) the ambiguities of so many of the words he chooses to use. In doing so it takes account not only of the secondary meanings of German words and the sometimes dated metaphors of which Kafka, taking them literally, spins his text, but also, where relevant, of Czech and Italian etymology. Split, for ease of reference, into chapters corresponding to the chapters of the novels in the new Originalfassung, the book is aimed at all readers of Kafka with a knowledge of German, for the author shows that Kafka's texts can be understood only in the language in which they were written: because Kafka's meaning is often hidden beneath the surface of the text, conveyed via secondary meanings that are specific to German, any translation is necessarily an Oberflächenübersetzung.

Kafka, Gothic and Fairytale is an original comparative study of the novels and some of the related shorter punishment fantasies in terms of their relationship to the Gothic and fairytale conventions. It is an absorbing subject and one which, while keeping to the basic facts of his life, mind-set and literary method, shows Kafka’s work in a genuinely new light. The contradiction between his persona with its love of fairytale and his shadow with its affinity with Gothic is reflected in his work, which is both Gothic and other than Gothic, both fairytale-like and the every denial of fairytale. Important subtexts of the book are the close connexion between Gothic and fairytale and between both of these and the dream. German text is quoted in translation unless the emphasis is on the meaning of individual words or phrases, in which case the words in question are quoted and their English meanings discussed. This means that readers without German can, for the first time, begin to understand the underlying ambiguity of Kafka’s major fictions. The book is addressed to all who are interested in the meaning of his work and its place in literary history, but also to the many readers in the English and German-speaking worlds who share the author’s enthusiasm for Gothic and fairytale.

De Quincey's Gothic Masquerade is what has long been needed, a study of Thomas De Quincey's Gothic and Gothic-related texts by a Germanist working on Gothic and specializing in Anglo-German literary relations. Variously identified as Gothic Hero, Gothic Parasite, and author of a Gothick sport, De Quincey is the dark horse of Gothicism, for while his work has, increasingly, been associated with Gothic, not one of the recent companions to Gothic so much as mentions his name. Definitions of what is meant by 'Gothic' have changed, of course, and are still evolving, claiming more territory all the time, but Gothic specialists also have their blind spots, of whom De Quincey is one. One reason for this state of affairs will be the fact that in his work the Gothic is interwoven with the German, to which modern English studies all too often turn a blind eye. In this timely study of his work in relation to Gothic convention the author addresses the question of De Quincey's reputed knowledge of German 'Gothic' Romantic literature and the related question of supposed German influences on his Gothic work, and shows that his fiction is not less but more original than has been thought. The texts examined are those on which, for better or worse, his reputation as a writer both of autobiography and of fiction depends. Focusing on the Gothic takes one to the heart of his literary masquerade, and more especially to the heart of his masked autobiographical enterprise. Gothic, because of its formulaic nature, represents a place where he belongs, a place where his sense of guilt can be seen as part of a wider pattern, thus countering his pariah self-image and enabling him to make some sort of sense of the Gothic ruin of his life. Addressed to all who are interested in De Quincey's work and its place in literary history, and to the many readers in the English and German-speaking worlds who share De Quincey's and the author's enthusiasm for Gothic, this book adds considerably to the scope of De Quincey studies, which it enables to move on from some of the main unanswered questions of the past.