The German epic in the Cold War : Peter Weiss, Uwe Johnson, and Alexander Kluge / Matthew D. Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miller, Matthew D., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Weiss, Peter, 1916-1982. Ästhetik des Widerstands.

Weiss, Peter.

Johnson, Uwe, 1934-1984. Jahrestage.

Johnson, Uwe.

Kluge, Alexander, 1932-2026. Chronik der Gefühle.

Kluge, Alexander.

Weiss, Peter, 1916-1982--Criticism and interpretation.

Johnson, Uwe, 1934-1984--Criticism and interpretation.

Kluge, Alexander, 1932-2026--Criticism and interpretation.

Johnson, Uwe, 1934-1984.

Kluge, Alexander, 1932-.

Weiss, Peter, 1916-1982.

Ästhetik des Widerstands (Weiss, Peter).

Jahrestage (Johnson, Uwe).

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

German fiction.

Cold War in literature.

Cold War (1945-1989) in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xvi, 237 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2018.

Summary:

Matthew Miller's The German Epic in the Cold War explores the literary evolution of the modern epic in postwar German literature. Examining works by Peter Weiss, Uwe Johnson, and Alexander Kluge, it illustrates imaginative artistic responses in German fiction to the physical and ideological division of post-World War II Germany. Miller analyzes three ambitious German-language epics from the second half of the twentieth century: Weiss's Die Aesthetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance), Johnson's Jahrestage (Anniversaries), and Kluge's Chronik der Gefuhle (Chronicle of Feelings). In them, he traces the epic's unlikely reemergence after the catastrophes of World War II and the Shoah and its continuity across the historical watershed of 1989-91, defined by German unification and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Building on Franco Moretti's codification of the literary form of the modern epic, Miller demonstrates the epic's ability to understand the past; to come to terms with ethical, social, and political challenges in the second half of the twentieth century in German-speaking Europe and beyond; and to debate and envision possible futures.

Contents:

Introduction: A genre for cold times

Modern epic possibilities : tasks and techniques of a genre

Epic's impossible return : Peter Weiss's Die Ästhetik des Widerstands

Time-spaces of epic narration : Uwe Johnson's Jahrestage

Epic storytelling and human survival : Alexander Kluge's Chronik der Gefühle

Epilogue: Epic for the twenty-first century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780810137325

0810137321

9780810137332

081013733X

OCLC:

1005119542