German Literature, History and the Nation: Papers from the Conference 'The Fragile Tradition', Cambridge 2002, Vol. II by Christian Emden, David Midgley

Abstract

9I0 Reviews German Literature, History and theNation: Papers from the Conference 'The Fragile Tradition', Cambridge 2002, vol. ii. Ed. by CHRISTIAN EMDEN and DAVID MIDG LEY. (Cultural History and Literary Imagination, 2) Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang. 2004. 393 pp. E65.70. ISBN 3-039I0-I69-2. Once again the humanities scholar's blessing and curse, the collection of papers from amajor conference, iswith us, bringing the reader its combination of serendipitous juxtapositions and isolated insights, irritation at the arbitrary selection of topics, and regret at not having been there. This book, following Cultural Memory and Historical Consciousness (2004) and preceding Science, Media and theGerman Cultural Tradition, is the second instalment of the papers from the 2002 Cambridge conference 'The Fragile Tradition'. The erudite introduction stresses the idea of the nation, inGermany particularly, as 'the result of a complex interaction between the realm of the political and the realm of the symbolic' and hence 'far less homogeneous than commonly perceived' (p. I2); this volume therefore addresses 'manifold connections between the political culture, the historical self-conception, and the literary imagination of Germans' (p. I3). Though their title eschews any such notion (and the introduction is silent on the point too), the editors have taken four strands which could be subsumed under the heading of 'Cultural Studies'; furthermore, few of the papers address their subject in the way that a traditional historian, linguist, or Literaturwissenschaftler would: most are based in one discipline but open to the attitudes and techniques of others, which is good Cultural Studies. First the editors use Benedict Anderson's 'Imagined Communities' as basis for the study of ideas of nations. In the second strand, 'Cultural Transfers', they group what we used to call foreign influences, but which are now seen less programmatically, with greater sensitivity to changes in thementality of the receiving cultural community; 'Historical Identities' awkwardly groups intellectual contributions to national identity, nationalism in literature, and group identities (Jews and women). In these sections the idea of the nation is, despite the hard-pressed editors' best efforts, more diffuse; it reappears in '(Re)Constructions of Cultural Identity', where various kinds of attempt to set twentieth-century experience in a specifically German tradition are described. We range from I268 (the foundation year, Ulrich Gaier finds, of the Suevia myth) to 2003 (when, Joachim Whaley says, debates about Iraq formed the latest phase of the discussion of the German nation-state); from almost conventional literary studies (Martin A. Ruehl on Mann's Fiorenza and the cult of the Renaissance) to almost mainstream history (Manuela Achilles on the context of Rathenau's murder); from metaphilology (Kveta E. Benes on linguistic history) to theatre history (Ingeborg Cleve on Schiller performances inBauerbach) via history of national economic history (Lothar L. Schneider on liberal historiography). All the participants perform their chosen tasks with breadth and Akribie. Short of listing every contribution, the reviewer can only say what items caught his attention: apart from those mentioned, Manfred Engel on H6lderlin's cultural nationalism and the Greek model, with surprising sidelights on the river odes; Jmrn Steigerwald on the reception of galanterie inGermany; Martina Lauster on the ideal of a gentleman (not a parallel to the foregoing, but more political); Charlotte Woodford on nationalism in Freytag's and Fontane's historical novels; and Simon Ward on an old cultural topos forcibly made topical after I945-ruins. Most contributions are in English, some are left in German where 'the nature of the discussion sits more comfortably in the original language' (p. i6). In papers in English, there is variation about having German titles and quotations in German, English, or both -ven within individual contributions: why 'Ideas on the Philosophy of theHistory of Humanity' (p. 69) but 'Schwdbische Merckwzirdigkeiten oder Kleine MLR, IOI.3,2006 91I Abhandlungen, Auszfige und vermischte Nachrichten von schwdbischen Sachen; Zum Dienst und Vergniigen hoher und nidriger, gelehrt- und ungelehrter Personen' (p. 63)?Why two lines ofWilhelm Muller inGerman with translation (p. [93]), but ahighly allusive key phrase from Robert Spaemann, 'die (natuirliche) Befreiung von der Natur zu der Natur' (p. 96), in German only? The many quotations inManuela Achilles' paper in English translation only are particularly annoying. Should 'A.E.G...