The First World War in German Narrative Prose

ISBN 10: 1487598947 / ISBN 13: 9781487598945

Published by University of Toronto Press, 1980

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26387049442

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The First World War in German Narrative Prose
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication Date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1487598947
• ISBN 13: 9781487598945
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This collection of eight essays in honour of the distinguished Canadian Germanist G.W. Field treats themes in German narrative prose of the First World War, the pre-war era, and the earliest of the Weimar Republic. The aim of the book is not to present a comprehensive study of the field, but rather to shed new light on specific problems.

The essays are organized in the historical sequence of the events and situations to which they are related. The topics include discussions of the concept of war as presented by Robert Musil in Der Mann hone Eigenschaften; the treatment of war as a catalyst by the Expressionist writers Carl Sternheim and Leonhard Frank; the preservation of values in the face of war as dealt in Hesse's Demian; and an exploration of the effects of war on the individual and social values in the works of Salomo Friedländer and Alfred Döblin. An essay on H.G. Well's Mr. Britling Sees It Through helps to clarify the ways in which the reaction of German writers to the war may be viewed as specifically German by providing an outsider's point of view. The final chapter, a survey of the most recent literature on the topic, shows how much World War I lives on in the minds of German writers as the great turning point in German political and cultural history.

About the Author

Charles N. Genno (1935-2012) was a professor emeritus of the Department of German at Victoria College, University of Toronto.
Heinz Wetzel is a professor emeritus of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at University College, University of Toronto.