Cult of the Will: Nervousness and German Modernity by Michael Cowan

Abstract

900 Reviews famous uncle in Dresden in 1943: 'Alt ist er geworden und dennoch [. . .]wie jugendlich' (p. 335). Sprengel also frankly admits that it isnot always easy to read Hauptmann's mind or to find convincing answers to some of the problems raised by works such as theAtriden-Tetralogie, the set of plays based on ancient Greek myth which he began towrite in 1940: 'wer auf eindeutige Antworten dringt, ist bei diesem Autor sicher an der falschen Adresse', he observes (p. 294), and, as the writer of this absorbing study,he should know. Rich inmaterial, much of ithardly known, and illustrated with twenty-three finely reproduced photographs, most of which are equally unfamiliar, Sprengel's welcome study addresses the complexities of a great writer who could enjoy a joke, but whose view of lifewas essentially tragic. It leaves us with the realization thatHauptmann must have found ithard to view what was taking place all around him without deep misgivings; indeed in the epilogue to this sensitive and informative book Sprengel aptly quotes his lastwords as he sank into unconsciousness: 'bin ich noch inmeinem Haus?' (p. 337). Sprengel is certainly at home with his subject and has done Hauptmann and his readers a good service bywriting a book which illustratesHauptmann's short comings yet enhances his stature. On page 251 he refers to the consort of King George VI in 1938 as 'Queen Mum': in fact her title as from 1952 was 'Queen Mother'. If the book runs to a second edition, as itdeserves, this solecism should be removed. Bristol Peter Skrine Cult of theWill: Nervousness and German Modernity. ByMichael Cowan. Uni versity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 2008. xi+343 pp. $65. ISBN 978-0-271-03206-1. After Foucault, in the context ofwhose theoryMichael Cowan situates his account of the will in German modernism, any history of the self has to recognize the paradoxical nature of