Literary skinheads? : writing from the right in reunified Germany / Jay Julian Rosellini.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosellini, Jay.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German literature--20th century--History and criticism.

German literature.

Authors, German--20th century--Political and social views.

Authors, German.

Political and social views.

Conservatism in literature.

Politics and literature--Germany.

Politics and literature.

Germany.

Conservatism--Germany.

Conservatism.

Germany--Politics and government--1900-.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xiv, 311 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press, [2000]

Summary:

In 1989, a new chapter in the long history of German culture began. Reunified Germany is of course not a "new" country, and its culture -- including the political culture -- contains elements whose origins lie in the period before 1945. This provocative study concerns itself with one of these elements: the cultural conceptions and political views of right-wing intellectuals, and places this literature in the context of German history, politics, and society. Reunification and the end of the Cold War have removed the taboos that had made it difficult for German conservatives to bring their views to the marketplace of ideas. A new self-confidence and openly displayed sense of national pride, unthinkable in the divided country, are now the order of the day, and the early 1990s saw an assault against the literary left that continues to this day. Simultaneously, a quite different kind of assault has become all too common on German streets: vicious attacks against non-Germans. These two phenomena can be seen as manifestations of a general malaise, a disorientation that may last for quite some time, and Jay Rosellini approaches his subject with the belief that it would be irresponsible to ignore these disquieting trends.

After an introductory overview of conservatism in German thought beginning with Romanticism, individual chapters focus on Ulrich Schacht and Heimo Schwilk, leading younger representatives of the "literary right"; the rightward drift of Botho Strauss and Peter Handke; the anti-American strain characteristic of the German New Right; and an assessment of the present state and future prospects of the neonationalist cultural project in Germany. The excellent translations from a variety of sources, including German news media, make the latest ideas in Germany accessible to the American reader.

This vividly written and engaging account is highly recommended for the general reader interested in international issues as well as for students and scholars of German, intellectual history, political science, and comparative sociology.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Predecessors and Predilections: A Problematic Legacy 3

Chapter 2 Long Forgotten, Now Feisty: Reunification and the Right's Quest for Respectability 27

Chapter 3 An Unexpected Detour on the Way to the Pantheon: Strauss, Handke, and the Vagaries of High Culture in Germany 79

Excursus: Attacks on Americanization and Westernization and One Problematic Line of Defense 137

Epilogue: Schroder, Walser, Bubis, and the Ongoing German Quest for Normalcy 173.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-295) and index.

ISBN:

1557532060

OCLC:

42882701