E-Book Overview
The Age of Enlightenment, an intellectual and social reform movement, was based on the use of reason, common sense, and "natural law," and was paralleled by an emphasis on feelings and the emotions in religious, especially Pietist circles. Progressive thinkers in England, France, and later in Germany began to assail the absolutism of the state and the orthodoxy of the Church; in Germany the line led from Leibniz, Thomasius, and Wolff to Lessing and Kant, to the advocacy of religious toleration, the demand for the emancipation of the bourgeois individual, and the rise of an educated upper middle class. Literary developments encompassed the emergence of a national theater, literature, and a common literary language. This became possible in part because of advances in literacy and education, especially among bourgeois women, and the reorganization of book production and the book market. This major new reference work provides a fresh look at the major literary figur! es, works, and cultural developments from around 1700 up to the late Enlightenment in new scholarly essays that trace the eighteenth-century literary revival in German-speaking countries: from occasional and learned literature under the influence of French Neoclassicism to the establishment of a new German drama, religious epic and secular poetry, and the sentimentalist novel of self-fashioning. The volume includes the new, stimulating works of women, a chapter on music and literature, chapters on literary developments in Switzerland and in Austria, and a chapter on major reactions to the Enlightenment from the nineteenth century to the present. The recent revaluing of cultural and social phenomena affecting literary texts informs the presentations in the individual chapters and allows for the inclusion of hitherto neglected but important texts such as essays, travelogues, philosophical texts, and letters.Contributors: Kai Hammermeister, Katherine Goodman, Helga Brandes, Ros! marie Zeller, Kevin Hilliard, Francis Lamport, Sarah Colvin, Anna Richar.
E-Book Content
The recent revaluing of cultural and social phenomena affecting literary texts informs the presentations in the individual chapters and allows for the inclusion of hitherto neglected but important texts such as essays, travelogues, philosophical texts, and letters.
Camden House
CAMDEN HOUSE
History of German Literature
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
Full set ISBN 1-57113-103-5 The most detailed history of German literature in English
Vol. 1: Early Germanic Literature and Culture Edited by Brian Murdoch and Malcolm Read, University of Stirling, UK
Volume 5
Vol. 2: German Literature of the Early Middle Ages Edited by Brian Murdoch, University of Stirling, UK
Vol. 4: Early Modern German Literature Edited by Max Reinhart, University of Georgia Vol. 6: The Literature of the Sturm und Drang Edited by David Hill, University of Birmingham, UK Vol. 7: The Literature of Weimar Classicism Edited by Simon Richter, University of Pennsylvania Vol. 8: The Literature of German Romanticism Edited by Dennis Mahoney, University of Vermont Vol. 9: German Literature of the 19th Century, 1832–1899 Edited by Clayton Koelb and Eric Downing, University of North Carolina Vol. 10: German Literature of the Twentieth Century Ingo R. Stoehr, Kilgore College, Texas
Volume 6, The Literature of the Sturm und Drang: “An important addition to the secondary literature.... In his magisterial introduction Hill provides an excellent overview that paves the way for the more specialized contributions. The 20-page bibliography is a valuable tool for anyone interested in the Sturm und Drang.” CHOICE Volume 8, The Literature of German Romanticism: “Among the beautifully written essays are studies of terminology, genre, gender, politics, the natural sciences, folklore,