Making Sense in Life and Literature

“The translation of these essays by Gumbrecht on literary theory and history marks the appearance in English of one of Europe’s most learned, productive, and inventive scholars. Their range is extraordinary. They show that Gumbrecht is not only a sophisticated theorist and historian of literature, but a master practitioner of cultural studies.” --Hayden White, University of California, Santa Cruz

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht is professor of comparative literature and chair of the comparative literature department at Stanford university. Glen Burns is a lecturer in English and a freelance translator in Germany. Wlad Godzich is professor of emergent literatures at the University of Geneva and coeditor, with Jochen Schulte-Sasse, of the Theory and History of Literature series.