Anglica Germanica Series 2 – serie

This study analyses the emergence of aesthetic theory in eighteenth-century Germany in relation to contemporary theories of the nature of language and signs. As well as being extremely relevant to the discussion of literary theory, this perspective casts much light on Enlightenment aesthetics. The central text under consideration shows that the extended comparison of poetry and the plastic arts contained in that major work of aesthetic criticism rests upon a theory of signs and constitutes a complex and global theory of aesthetic signification. His analysis of Laocoon is preceded by chapters which establish the underlying structure and influence of the Enlightenment metasemiotic - that is, the place and function of the sign concept in the culture of the early eighteenth century. As an important reinterpretation of Lessing's Laocoon and of the development of German aesthetic theory, this book will be of special interest to students and scholars of German literature. Moreover, as a significant chapter in the history of semiotics, it will be read with profit by all those concerned with the history of literary criticism and aesthetic theory.

This 1982 book examines the novels of Theodor Fontane, one of the most important German novelists of the nineteenth century. He has been well served by English translations and is now regarded as a writer of international standing. Professor Bance begins by setting Fontane's work in the context of nineteenth-century Europe in general, and Germany in particular, which was struggling with its late modernization. The increasing materialism of modern industrial society found its literary correlative in the rise of prose fiction to supplant poetry as the predominant literary mode. Fontane's career reflects this development: beginning as a writer of ballads and balladesque novels, he gradually developed into a realistic novelist capable of treating the most complex social relations. Professor Bance argues that Fontane's œuvre can be seen in terms of a tension between a desire to present the facts and a desire to assert some transcendent poetic truth.

A study of the nineteenth-century German writer Friedrich Hebbel, concentrating on his tragedies in prose, and examining in particular the way in which the language is used to convey Hebbel's beliefs, attitudes and intellectual preoccupations and also the dramatic effects. The three tragedies Judith, Maria Magdalene and Agnes Bernauer are studied in turn.

This book, originally published in 1982, was the first monograph in English to offer a critical study of an important twentieth-century German novelist, Arno Schmidt. Schmidt, who died in 1979, was a controversial figure on the German literary scene. His early work, which began appearing immediately after the Second World War, attracted attention by virtue of its stylistic eccentricity and aggressive stand against all forms of organized authority. As an experimenter with language, much influenced by Joyce and Freud, Schmidt aroused large-scale public interest with the publication of a gigantic prose work, Zettel's Traum, in 1970. He developed a cult following which survived his death. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Schmidt, and the broader development of post-war German literature in general.

This 1981 book is concerned with the part which the visual arts played in Goethe's life and thought from his earliest years to the end of his visit to Italy. Among his multifarious preoccupations this interest in the visual arts was one of the most urgent and consistent. The extent of his preoccupation with the practice of the visual arts has been underestimated by scholars and this book is intended to do something to redress the balance. The book is best described as a kind of artistic biography, tracing chronologically the poet's development, as far as the visual arts are concerned, from his childhood in Frankfurt to the aesthetically decisive experience of Italy. The book should be of interest both to students of German literature and to students of the history of art. With this in mind the quotations from German have been translated into English throughout.

Although Adalbert Stifter (1808-68) has long been recognised as a key figure in nineteenth-century German prose writing, his literary reputation has been curiously volatile. This major study, first published in 1984, was a reassessment of Stifter's work within the context of the tradition of nineteenth-century European fictional prose. The authors pay close attention to features of style, structure and narrative perspective in order to suggest that Stifter's heavily stylised prose expresses a profound and significant irresolution. On the one hand, Stifter seeks to assert that the natural world is a divinely ordained creation; on the other, he recognises that nature is a self-regulating mechanism, a totality that is scientifically explicable. Stifter emerges as a writer of European stature. This tightly organised, lucid study will prove of interest to students of German literature and serve as an introduction to Stifter for those who take an interest in European prose fiction.

Wolfram von Eschenbach's Willehalm and the Old French chanson de geste, La Bataille d'Aliscans, on which it was based, recount the tale of how Guillaume de'Orange eventually defeated the Saracens at the battle of Aliscans. This 1972 book examines Wolfram's use of his source material, concentrating on the episodes in which Rennewart figures. He discusses the theories about the original source of Rainouart in the French chansons de geste, and suggests that the figure sprang from traditional fairy tales, and was incorporated into the courtly cycle, in which he assorts rather oddly with the other characters, threatening to take over centre stage from the primary hero, Guillaume. He indicates the ways in which Wolfram made his poem a more consistent narrative by relegating Rennewart to his proper place, and giving him some of the courtly virtues expected of a hero by his audience. Finally, he considers whether Willehalm is a fragment.

Friderich von H-sen, twelfth-century Minnesinger, was a knight from Kreuznach in Rhine Franconia. He was in the entourage of the Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, and died on a crusade to the Holy Land on 6th May 1190. His surviving poetry, consisting of a corpus of love poems and a group of crusading songs, is preserved in two manuscripts in Middle High German. Professor Mowatt's edition comprises a diplomatic reprint of both manuscripts, together with introduction, commentary and glossary. The introduction offers a theoretical justification for this procedure by dealing in detail with the bases of the text, what is known about the poet, and the principles of interpretation and textual emendation. Professor Mowatt adopts a literary critical standpoint; the contributions of scholarship and textual criticism must be subordinates to and regulated by a critical analysis of the structure of the poems under consideration.

The Gedichte an die Nacht is a collection of 22 poems composed between January 1913 and February 1914, which Rilke copied into a manuscript book for his friend Rudolf Kassner in about 1916. The importance of the poems as a collection lies in the fact that they were written during the period of composition of Rilke's most outstanding work, the Duinese Elegien, and they show the poet at work on ideas and motifs which are central to the elegies. The first part of the book analyses the poems thematically, whilst the second part gives the results of this analysis wider application. During the period Rilke was writing Gedichte an die Nacht, the meaning of 'night' in the Elegies often approaches that of 'angel', whilst at other times it is quite different. Dr Stephens traces the genesis of this ambivalence in other poems, revealing the incomplete and sometimes contradictory nature of his poetic thought.

At a time when German was generally despised as a barbaric tongue, Salomon Gessner was hailed in Europe as a poet of universal significance. Yet today he is scarcely known. John Hibberd sets the writer in context, traces the story of his impact, and stresses his significance as a key to the taste of his age. He finds the reasons for Gessner's remarkable success in his appeal to the feeling for nature and natural simplicity nascent in the mid-eighteenth century, and in his ability to be many things to many men by reconciling the main cultural trends of that time - Pre-Romanticism and Neo-Classicism. Originally published in 1976, this was the first book on the subject in English. It went beyond previous books on Gessner in both detail and scope; it called for a greater appreciation of Gessner's historical importance, but also assesed his achievements as a writer, engraver and painter.

Kudrun is a German epic poem extant in only one manuscript, the Ambraser Handschrift of the early sixteenth century. It is thought, however, to have been composed within the decade 1230-40, and is thus contemporaneous with other epics of the classical age of Middle High German literature, such as the Nibelungenlied, Parzival and Tristan. Scholars have done Kudrun a disservice, however, by presenting it as a conscious imitator and rival of the Nibelungenlied. In this 1978 book, Dr Campbell sets the record straight and secures proper recognition for Kudrun. Regarding the epic as a unity, he pays particular attention to the language of the text, and past emendations. He also examines the degree to which characters in Kudrun impress as individual creations. Dr Campbell's conclusion is that the Kudrun poet had a keen understanding of human nature which enabled him to present his characters with impressive accuracy, consistency and vitality.

The essays reprinted in this 1980 book were first published at various times between 1951 and 1972. They deal largely with medieval German heroic and epic poetry, emphasising the way the basic language and imagery of that literature were rooted in a deep understanding and appreciation of the natural world. Professor Hatto presents these essays in the hope of enabling readers to recapture the significance of early poetry, the understanding of which is of increasing importance in an age where man is divorced from his natural setting.

In making this selection of twelve essays spanning the period 1953-77 for this 1980 volume, Professor Pickering bore in mind that many of his recent readers are not students of German, but of comparative literature, art, history or theology, and translated three of the twelve for the occasion. He grouped them according to their 'approach' and introduced each with reference to his other writings. The essays in the volume concern medieval ideas of fate, fortune and history, and the persuasive influence of the Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius. One essay in the selection invites further discussion of 'the Western image of Byzantium'. Of more exclusive interest to students of German are an essay on Goethe's use of emblem-book motifs and images in his idyll Alexis und Dora, and reflections on the academic study of German.

Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945) was a German-Jewish poet who died in exile in Jerusalem. This 1974 book was the first full-length treatment of her poetry in English. The aim of the author, a practising psychologist at the time of this book's original publication, in this study of the poet's life, was to see poetry as an expression of the deeper urges of the psyche. The book takes as a point of departure Peter Hille's remark that Lasker-Schüler was a 'Sappho whose world had broken apart'. Her world of experience was a constant swing between extremes: an intense longing for communication which, thwarted, led back to isolation and despair. The wish for contact and withdrawal from reality often coexist in irreconcilable conflict, only resolved by the poet's own acceptance of things as they are. She came closest to such acceptance in her search for God, which led to her religious poetry.

This 1981 text is a study of the narrative techniques in two important thirteenth-century German romances: one by Wolfram von Eschenbach, considered by many as the greatest poet of medieval Germany; the other by a lesser-known but highly skilled follower of Wolfram. This analysis of narrative technique contributes to the trend towards a broader perspective in medieval literary studies, in which critical modes developed in the study of modern works are applied helpfully to older literature. The conclusions reached should prove important for the understanding of modern conceptions of narrative as well.

When Roy Pascal died in 1980 he had all but completed a book on narrative viewpoint in Kafka's shorter fiction: the stories and sketches, as well as the numerous fables and parables. It was for Pascal a genuine voyage of discovery from which he believed he was bringing back significant observations that would contribute to a richer and more accurate assessment of Kafka's art. Prepared for publication by professors Martin Swales and Siegbert Prawer, the book was originally published in 1982 in the confident expectation that it had achieved the author's aim. Although it contains detailed analyses of individual works, the book is more than simply one further addition to the bewildering corpus of secondary literature on Kafka. For it is a study which manages to cut through many previous critical controversies by paying scrupulous attention to matters of literary and stylistic technique.

Georg Büchner is one of the most important dramatists of the nineteenth century, both intrinsically and on account of his enormous influence on the drama of our own time. Professor Benn attempts a comprehensive study of the art and thought of this distinguished writer, emphasising throughout that attitude of revolt which is so characteristic of Büchner. After a brief introduction in which he pinpoints the positive nature of Büchner's revolt and establishes links between his thought and that of Hölderlin and Camus, Professor Benn discusses in the first three theoretical chapters Büchner's revolutionary political principles, his sceptical and iconoclastic philosophical speculations and his fierce attacks on classical theories in art. He then examines each of Büchner's major works - Dantons Tod, Leonce und Lena, Lenz and Woyzeck - analysing the genesis and interpretation of the last in detail. A short concluding chapter summarises the results of the inquiry and assesses the value of the methods used.