German Literary Criticism Research Articles

Discussions on the social role of political lyrics and "tendentious" poetry in German literary criticism of the Pre-Mart era

The article is devoted to the discussion by the German literary community of the 1830s – 1840s of the artistic and social role of political lyrics. The work seeks to present the diverse opinions of prominent publicists, literary theorists and writers of the era, such as Ludwig Berne, Heinrich Heine, Robert Eduard Prutz. The author shares the well-established idea in German historiography that the literary and critical discussion of the Pre-March era gives a more complete picture of the genesis of the political consciousness of the Germans and the socio-political processes that took place in Germany. The author's attention is focused on the discussion concerning the aesthetic and ideological-political ideas of the literary community about the place of poetry in the space of culture, its functions and the claims of writers to direct participation in political life. The methodological basis of this work is the theoretical achievements of the scientific research areas of the "history of concepts" and intellectual history. The central idea of the article is the assumption that the time of the sharp politicization of German artistic culture in the 1830s and 1840s coincided with the revision of the previous principles of artistic creativity, accelerated it and at the same time complicated it, giving both processes a more conflictual and nonlinear character, fixing and exposing the absence among German authors of liberal democratic views that stood at the forefront of literary theory, general, clearly formulated aesthetic guidelines. In these decades, new principles have been approved in the evaluation of literary works affecting socio-political issues. There is a legitimization of political poetry at the theoretical level, but the contradiction between the spheres of politics and aesthetics is not completely removed. And literary discussions are gradually moving out of the artistic and aesthetic sphere into the sphere of practical politics: moderate liberal views collide with democratic radicalism, national patriotic ideas enter into a polemic with cosmopolitan ones.

Концептуальні виміри німецького магічного реалізму

The article outlines the vectors of methodological research of magical realism and identifies the differential features of this literary phenomenon in the theoretical discourse of German literary criticism. The author of the article focuses on the ambivalence of German magical realism, caused by the combination in magical realist texts of two inherently opposite ways of depicting reality – realistic and irreal. In magical realist texts, the magical appeal of reality is emphasized, when the objects of reality only hint at the existence of another world beyond it, acquiring a numinous aureole in the aesthetic focus of realism. The specificity of magical realism lies in its heterogeneity, and therefore requires the appropriate selection of methodological tools that would open the way to the world of magical realist texts, which in many cases has a multi-level structure with polysemantic content. Special attention within the context of the conceptualization of magical realism is paid to the semiotic model of “double conditioning” by A. Koschorke and the concept of “ruderal space” by B. Schaefer. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that magical realism demonstrates the synergistic effect of the emergence of a certain new artistic space with hidden deep meanings and elliptical structures that form the semantic polyphony of the text with a variable multiplicity of meanings. Through liminality and transgression, the semantic potential of the magical is activated, aimed at overcoming the boundary between the immanent and transcendent worlds.

КОНЦЕПТУАЛІЗАЦІЯ ПОНЯТТЯ «МАГІЧНИЙ РЕАЛІЗМ» В НІМЕЦЬКІЙ ЛІТЕРАТУРІ

The article is devoted to the study of magical realism in German literary criticism, the origins of the term and its conceptual principles are considered. The author of the article relies on the research of German scientists, in particular M. Scheffel, D. Kirchner, H. Roland, T.W. Leine, M. Niehaus, J. Schuster and notes the differences and contradictions in the interpretation of the term, the vagueness of the concept and its heterogeneity. It is emphasized that the period of formation of the magic-realistic method of writing in Germany in the historical perspective generally covers the period from 1920 to 1960 and includes the beginning of the era of National Socialism and the Second World War. In German literature, the term was not immediately established, its assertion and dissemination were hampered by several factors: first, its contradiction, because it combines semantically opposite concepts – “realism”, which directly correlates with reality, the true image of reality, and “magical”, based on the supernatural, fantastic, reaching beyond reality; second, the moment of its origin falls on a rather complex and contradictory period of German history, which is reluctantly mentioned or silenced; third, magical realism has sometimes been mistakenly identified with the notion of “Neue Sachlichkeit”. Analysis of all factors shows that the origin and formation of the magic-realistic method in German literature has its own characteristics and uniqueness and differs from the world-famous examples of Latin American or English literature. As a result, the author notes that German magical realism is historically determined and in many of its examples reflects the traumatic postwar experience with a pronounced inrospectivity and humanistic orientation. As an aesthetic concept, magical realism expands the boundaries of realism: by depicting the objective world in its real dimensions, it focuses its gaze on the unreality hidden behind real objects.

О СТАНОВЛЕНИИ НЕМЕЦКОГО РЕАЛИЗМА

The relevance of research. In German literary criticism, there is no unambiguous definition of the phenomenon of literary realism, however, at the empirical level, it is understood as a literary system based on a mimetic-oriented depiction of reality, often critically comprehended and subjectively colored due to the norms and ideas that are taking shape in society. Research methodology. Complex and systematic methods of literature analysis are applied. In this article, the author comes to the conclusion that the realism of the turn of the XIX - early XX centuries. retains its main principles of artistic comprehension of the world, and at the same time the signs that do not allow talking about its dissolution in the eclectic picture of the emerging modernity. The main thing remains the disclosure of "the essence of life phenomena through their individualized generalization (typification)", analysis and specific historical logic of presentation Realism at the turn of the 19th - early 20th centuries. closely associated with such phenomena as regional literature, "new business-like", historical novel. On its basis, workers' and proletarian-revolutionary literature developed in many ways. In German literature of the twentieth century. realistic tendencies intensified in the times following the historical and political catastrophes, primarily after the two world wars lost by Germany. Realism played a significant role in the literature of the Weimar Republic (the works of E.M. Remarque, L. Feuchtwanger, L. Frank and others), while in contact with modernist and avant-garde trends (for example, with "new business-like"). Realism turned out to be no less significant after 1945, having equally influenced the formation of the literatures of West and East Germany (writers of the "group of 47", Erwin Strittmatter, "socialist realism", etc.). German realism, which emerged in the middle of the 19th century, was able to demonstrate its flexibility and ability to enter into alliances with other natural artistic directions, without losing its main specificity - the desire for materiality, the authenticity of personal and collective experience, as well as symbolizing the "obvious" with the goal of approaching the "true".

GÜNTER GRASS’ HUNDEJAHRE: EIN BEITRAG ZUR ERINNERUNGSKULTUR IN DER BUNDESREPUBLIK DER SECHZIGER JAHRE

ABSTRACTThis study considers Grass's Hundejahre as the most important contribution towards the establishment of a cultural memory in the Federal Republic of the 1960s. A brief introduction discusses the concept of ‘Erinnerungskultur’ with reference to international research on memory culture, suggesting that a persistent focus on the Holocaust would neglect important aspects evident in earlier documents in German literature and culture which may have brought about these crimes. My discussion of the ‘Holocaust’ in this novel places less emphasis on the victims than on the collaborators in the crimes and their self‐satisfied lives in post‐war Germany. The portrayal of violence and ‘Mitläufer’ compliance become central aspects, with the ‘Kleinbürger’ mentality featuring as a significant component of the German mindset. By coalescing different time scales, Grass revitalises the past and enhances its relevance for the reader. An ‘Aesthetics of Obscenity’ is employed as a means of illustrating unspeakable Nazi crimes, while fairy‐tale elements and satirical fantasy (the scarecrow ballet) serve as forms of alienation, tasking the reader with unravelling their significance. Compared to the formalism evident in post‐war German literary criticism, Hundejahre must be seen as an eminent contribution to German memory culture which contributed to bringing the debate in Germany closer to international trends.

Redaktor wydawniczy jako tłumacz

Publishing Editor as Translator: On Translating the work of Cees Nooteboom in the Suhrkamp VerlagCees Nooteboom has been the face of Dutch literature in Germany. His photo, which features on the cover of Niederländische Literaturgeschichte [History of Dutch literature, 2006], a volume edited by Ralf Grüttemeier and Maria-Theresia Leuker, is a telling illustration of this. Usually, his successful market position is related to a eulogy to the book Die folgende Geschichte, delivered by the pope of German literary criticism, Marcel Reich-Ranicki in October 1991 in a TV programme „Das Literarische Quartett”. This paper tells the prehistory of Nooteboom’s success in Germany based on unpublished data drawn from the Siegfried Unseld Archive (Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach). The main focus of the discussion is placed on the cooperation between Nooteboom and the publishing editor, Elisabeth Borchers, who exerted a significant influence on the form of his initial publications by Suhrkamp Verlag.

Towards the Understanding of the Concepts “Modernity,” “Modernism” and “Avant-Gardism” in (Post)-Soviet and German Literary Theory (An Attempt of Terminological Unification)

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Генезис и развитие теории жанра идиллии в Германии первой половины XVIII века (от И. Х. Готшеда до М. Мендельсона)

The features of formation of idyll genre theory in Germany in the first half of the 18 th century in the works of I. H. Gushed, S. Gessner, I. A. Schlegel and M. Mendelssohn are considered. The results of comparative analysis of the concepts of German theorists are presented. The novelty of the research is seen in the system covering the approaches to the study of the idyll genre, which have developed in German literary criticism. The research urgency is caused by the consideration of the basic stages of development of idyll genre: (1) utopian modality (the search for “the golden age”) in the concept of I. H. Hatched, (2) social orientation of idylls by S. Gesner, (3) raising the status of the idyll in the genre hierarchy (from the lower to the middle) to the concept of I. A. Schlegel, (4) the rejection of normativity of the genre of idyll in the concept of M. Mendelssohn. The definitions for the terms idyll , eclogue , pastoral are given. The author dwells on the results of the studies described in the major works of these theorists. The fragments of the works inaccessible to the Russian reader are cited and commented. The article represents a synthesis of the experience of the author’s work on this topic. It is concluded that in the writings of literature theorists from I. H. Hatched to M Mendelssohn it is possible to note the rationalistic tendencies and the desire to see in idyll genre the reflection of the ideal (“reasonable”) nature.

Die Vorgeschichte der ‚Brecht-Lukács-Debatte‘

Werner Mittenzwei’s article of 1967, the title of which coined the term “Brecht-Lukács-Debatte”, is widely considered as a milestone in the development of East German literary criticism towards an “emancipation” from party politics. By placing Mittenzwei’s contribution in the wider context of discussions about the literature of the GDR, within the SED and the writers’ union as well as at international conferences, this article attempts to trace the emergence of “Umfunktionierung” both as a key term and in its official approval by the party.

KRATKE EKSPRESIONISTIČKE PROZNE VRSTE KAO ZNAK MODERNIZACIJE U SLOVENAČKOJ KNJIŽEVNOSTI

U ovom radu pokušali smo da predstavimo značaj kratkih ekspresionističkih proznih vrsta za modernizaciju slovenačke književnosti u periodizacijskom okviru od 1914. do 1935. godine kroz osnovne strukturne i morfološke odlike novele, kratke priče, crtice i pesme u prozi. Temeljna ishodišta i kontroverze nemačkog ekspresionističkog pokreta prema modernizmu i avangardi potvrđuju medijalnu poziciju ovog pokreta i u slovenačkoj književnosti. Ova tvrđenja zahtevaju naučnu verifikaciju unutar što obuhvatnije tekstualne baze različitih poetičko-stilskih predstavnika slovenačke ekspresionističke proze.

Typologie, Stilpsychologie, Kunstwollen. Zur Erfindung des ‘Barock’ (1900–1933)

Abstract Scholars have long considered Heinrich Wölfflin a pioneer in ‘Baroque studies’. Surprisingly little attention has been paid, however, to typological patterns and their importance for revising a classic-biased historiography. Reassessing the ‘invention’ of ‘Baroque’ literature and civilization in German literary criticism before, during and immediately after the First World War involves 1) outlining the interdisciplinary conditions and impulses that mark the beginning of ‘Baroque studies’ (before 1900), 2) examining closely the structure of typological approaches (1900–1933), and 3) discussing the problems of ‘Baroque form’ and ‘style’, as well as their anthropological derivatives. Early-twentieth-century critics furthered the invention of a ‘Baroque man’ to describe and to legitimize themselves.

Alfred de Musset's Romantic Irony

The year of 1797, though somewhat arbitrary in terms of historical significance in German and French drama, marks German philosopher and theorist Friedrich Schlegel's initial efforts to establish irony as a philosophical as well as literary concept. The concept of irony was then being rediscovered and redefined by the early Romantics and is now considered by scholars of Romanticism essential to the understanding of the Romantic doctrines. As Friedrich and his brother August Wilhelm Schlegel drew inspiration from the early (Shakespeare and Cervantes) as well as the contemporary moderns (Sterne, Diderot, and Goethe) in analyzing and theorizing art and literature, the French also noticed the dominance of Shakespeare in English and German literary criticism as well as of eighteenth-century sentimentality. Sterne's A Sentimental Journey and Tristram Shandy were widely read in France and gave him a near celebrity status during his visits to numerous literary salons in Paris. Diderot deliberately copied Sterne's model when writing his Jacques le fataliste and prompted the French literary circles to reflect on the use of humor and the role of the author in the creative process and the relation to his work and audience. The transition from the classic to the is most notably fostered by Mme de Stael and her group at Coppet. Under the impact of eighteenth-century sentimentality, the promotion of German literary theory by the Coppet Group as well as the anti-classicist sentiment developed within the French literary circle, a number of writers, such as Hugo, Stendhal, Musset, and Vigny, produced works that recognize the merits of the new Romantic ideals and advocate what their German counterparts had done decades before. In this article, I will examine the dramatic works of Musset in the light of Romantic irony, an irony that synthesizes conflicting forces to produce a universal type of poetry and reveals the nature of artistic creation by a self-critical writing process of the author while preserving the art work's function to describe the author's duty to the society and to reflect his own time. Among the French Romantic dramatists, the theories of Hugo, Vigny, and Musset on modern drama and the role of the author bear most striking resemblance to that of Friedrich Schlegel. This is in no way accidental. The Schlegels' discussions of humor, irony, and poetry are not unfamiliar in the French literary circle thanks to translations of the Schlegel brothers' works, the Schlegels' debates with the French literary and publishing circles about the Romantic/classic contrast, and the publications, Stael's De l'Allemagne in particular, and literary discussions of the Coppet group. Nor has the subject gone altogether unnoticed. At the time when Hugo and Vigny were primarily poets, the younger Musset also started his career writing poetry. However, he found himself lacking passion as a poet, and after the indifferent reception of his first staged play La Nuit venitienne in 1830, he also lost enthusiasm for writing plays for the stag. Instead, as the title of Un Spectacle dans un fauteuil (1832) indicates, he went on to write plays for reading. Most of these were not meant to be performed at the time of their writing, though they were staged later, thanks to the advancement of stage technology. Quite ironically, his place as one of the greatest dramatists of his time was established through these then unstageable works. These works, along with those of Hugo and Vigny, are generally considered the best exemplars of Romantic irony in nineteenth-century French drama. Some personal traits of Musset group him with Hugo and Vigny, while others distinguish him from the latter. On one hand, Musset belongs to a younger generation of the French Romantics (with Gautier, Nerval, and others) than that of Hugo and Vigny (who are his seniors by eight and thirteen years respectively). Yet, though only in his twenties, he produced, contemporaneously with them and all in the short span of two years (1833-34), such brilliant dramatic works as Les Caprices de Marianne, Fantasio, On ne badine pas avec l'amour and Lorenzaccio. …

Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Neubearbeitung des Reallexikons der deutschen Literaturgeschichte. Vol. I: A-G

This text is a dictionary of terms and concepts which provides a comprehensive and systematic inventory of the language of literary criticism. Its principal aim is to provide clarification and precision in academic discourse. Thus, in contrast to other reference works, it distinguishes clearly between information on words, terms, realia and research. In over 900 articles, it provides access to the terminological and conceptual framework of German literary criticism. One of the innovations of the work is the clear schematic arrangement of the articles; they proceed from an initial concise definition through the history of words, concepts, realia and research and conclude with advice on further reading.

Friedrich Nicolai and Johann Jakob Dusch: A Study in Eighteenth Century Literary Criticism

In the second half of the eighteenth century, Friedrich Nicolai stood at the forefront of German literary criticism. He exercised considerable power and authority as the editor of three important critical journals: Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften und der freien Kunste (1757-65), Briefe die neueste Litteratur betreffend (1759-65), and Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek (176592). 1 Nicolai was not solely responsible for the success of his journals, for with him worked Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Pioneers of new methods and different views, the three men often found themselves embroiled in one controversy or another. One such altercation brought Nicolai and his colleagues into conflict with Johann Jakob Dusch. It is a curious case, but one that illuminates eighteenth-century criticism both in theory and in practice. At the same time, the views of Dusch and Nicolai illustrate the changing function of rhetoric as a system of rules governing the production and assessment of literature. While Lessing, Mendelssohn, and Nicolai are well-known as authors, critics, and journalists, Dusch (1725-87) is hardly familiar to scholars today, let alone to a broader audience. He now figures as a minor, if not unheard-of author, whose literary production never gained entry into the canon of German literature (and many would say, rightly so). In his own day, however, Dusch was a popular, much-read author and even had a reputation as an accomplished poet. Already in 1750, he had earned the distinction of gekronter Dichter or poet laureate. He also enjoyed the favour of the Danish king, Frederik V. Apparently, the king considered him worthy of special attention, for he supported Dusch with a monetary gift of 1,000 Taler, so that

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980

A 1951 Dialogue on Interpretation: Emil Staiger, Martin Heidegger, Leo Spitzer

THE ART of interpreting literary works written in German is not an accomplishment for which contemporary literary critics can claim a monopoly; it is an old field, older than formal German literary criticism itself. Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Schiller in his letters about Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Goethe in many reviews, Herder and Lessing in a number of articles produced interpretations of great sensitivity, often using methods that might now be excusably mistaken as modern. Dilthey, Scherer, Haym, and Hehn were also masters in this area, although they themselves might have had different notions about this characterization of their work. There is probably no literary historian of importance who did not address the problem that engages us. To be sure, as a scientific movement with all the usual polemics and the programmatic formulations, interpretation—that is, intrinsic text criticism, the criticism of style—began to assert itself only ten to fifteen years ago. Not until recently has it become clear that the investigator is to be concerned exclusively with the word of the poet and is to attend solely to what is present in language. Biography, for example, is outside the domain of his work. Life is not concerned with art, as Goethe believed and wanted others to believe. Under no circumstances is a poem to be interpreted by the use of biographical data. Similarly, the personality of the poet is also without interest for the philologist who takes his own role seriously; it is psychology that occupies itself with the puzzle of art's occurrence. No less does Geistesgeschichte miss the goal: it surrenders the literary work of art to the philosophers and then only sees what any thinker understands much better than any poet does. The positivist, who inquires about the difference between what is inherited and what is learned, misuses the scientific law of causality and appears to forget that creativity, precisely because it is creative, can never be deduced. Overall, then, the nature and distinctive value of the poetic world are slighted. Only the critic who interprets without looking to the right or to the left and especially not behind the poem does the problem full justice and maintains the integrity of the science of German literary studies.

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980

'First published in Germany in 1985, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur (1730-1980) has been widely recognized as an innovative and ambitious study of the German critical tradition ...an impressive work' - Rocky Mountain Review. 'This effort to grasp literary criticism as a totality is unique, and yields many interesting insights into literary discourse as a political and social phenomenon' - David Bathrick, Cornell University. First published in Germany in 1985, Geschichte der deutschen Literaturkritik was quickly recognized as the most original and comprehensive study to date of a proud critical tradition including such giants as Lessing, Goethe, and Heine. Now translated into English, it will serve as a model for a new approach to literary history in America and elsewhere, one emphasizing the connections of criticism with other public discourse.The editor, Peter Uwe Hohendahl, has provided an introduction and a chapter, 'Literary in the Epoch of Liberalism', translated by Jeffrey S. Librett. Filling in the history of German criticism from the Enlightenment to the present are Klaus L. Berghahn of the University of Wisconsin, 'From Classicist to Classical Literary Criticism, 1730-1806', translated by John R. Blazek; Jochen Schulte-Sasse, University of Minnesota, 'The Concept of Literary in Romanticism'; Russell A. Berman, Stanford University, 'Literary from Empire to Dictatorship, 1870-1933', translated by Simon Srebrny; and, Bernhard Zimmerman, University of Tubingen, 'Developments in German Literary from 1933 to the Present', translated by Franz Blaha. Peter Uwe Hohendahl, a professor of German and Comparative Literature at Cornell University, is the author of The Institution of Criticism (1982) and other works.

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980 edited by Peter Uwe Hohendahl (review)

A History of German Literary Criticism, 1730-1980 edited by Peter Uwe Hohendahl (review)

Book Reviews : DAVID SIMPSON (Ed.) The Origins of Modern Critical Thought: German Aes thetic and Literary Criticism From Lessing to Hegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, IX, 449, £ 10.95 (paperback)

Book Reviews : DAVID SIMPSON (Ed.) The Origins of Modern Critical Thought: German Aes thetic and Literary Criticism From Lessing to Hegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, IX, 449, £ 10.95 (paperback)