Contemplating violence [electronic resource] : critical studies in modern German culture / edited by Stefani Engelstein and Carl Niekerk.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Engelstein, Sefani.

Niekerk, Carl.

Series:

Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik ; Bd. 79, 2011.

Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik ; 79, 2011

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence--Germany.

Violence.

Germany--Civilization.

Germany.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (286 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume illuminates the vexed treatment of violence in the German cultural tradition between two crucial, and radically different, violent outbreaks: the French Revolution, and the Holocaust and Second World War. The contributions undermine the notion of violence as an intermittent or random visitor in the imagination and critical theory of modern German culture. Instead, they make a case for violence in its many manifestations as constitutive for modern theories of art, politics, identity, and agency. While the contributions elucidate trends in theories of violence leading up to the Holocaust, they also provide a genealogy of the stakes involved in ongoing discussions of the legitimate uses of violence, and of state, individual, and collective agency in its perpetration. The chapters engage the theorization of violence through analysis of cultural products, including literature, museum planning, film, and critical theory. This collection will be of interest to scholars in the fields of Literary and Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Philosophy, Gender Studies, History, Museum Studies, and beyond.

Contents:

Preliminary material / Editors Contemplating Violence

Introduction. Violence, Culture, Aesthetics: Germany 1789–1938 / Stefani Engelstein and Carl Niekerk

Sara’s Pain: The French Revolution in Therese Huber’s Die Familie Seldorf (1795–1796) / Stephanie M. Hilger

The Father in Fatherland: Violent Ideology and Corporeal Paternity in Kleist / Stefani Engelstein

Fractured Histories: Heine’s Responses to Violence and Revolution / Jeffrey Grossman

The Curse of Enthusiasm: William Lovell and Modern Violence / Laurie Johnson

Communion at the Sign of the Wild Man / Lynne Tatlock

Constructing the Fascist Subject: Violence, Gender, and Sexuality in Ödön von Horváth’s Jugend ohne Gott / Carl Niekerk

From the Emancipation of the Jews to the Emancipation from the Jews: On the Rhetoric, Power and Violence of German-Jewish “Dialogue” / Barbara Fischer

The Negro Who Disappeared: Race in Kafka’s Amerika / Mark Christian Thompson

Performing Violence: Joe May’s Indian Tomb (1921) / Claudia Breger

The Violence of the Aesthetic / Lutz Koepnick

Montage and Violence in Weimar Culture: Kurt Schwitters’ Reassembled Individuals / Patrizia McBride

Preserving the Bloody Remains: Legacies of Violence in Austria’s Heeresgeschichtliches Museum / Peter M. McIsaac

Index / Editors Contemplating Violence.

Notes:

Based on the conference "Violence in German literature, culture, and intellectual history, 1789-1938," at University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Oct. 14-16, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-03457-3

9786613034571

90-420-3295-2

OCLC:

712783521

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789042032958 DOI