The pen confronts the sword : exiled German scholars challenge Nazism / Avihu Zakai.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zakai, Avihu, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Exiles' writings, German--History and criticism.

Exiles' writings, German.

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

German literature.

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

Authors, German.

Philosophy, German--20th century.

Philosophy, German.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 pages)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2018]

Summary:

"During 1942, the decisive battles of Stalingrad and El Alamein raged and the Nazi genocide was at its lethal peak. The Pen Confronts the Sword examines the shared motives behind four remarkable texts German exiles began writing that year: Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus (1947); Ernst Cassirer's The Myth of the State (1946); Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946); and Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944). Each identified a specific danger in Nazi ideology and mustered new theories, approaches, and sources to combat it. The books aimed to expose the encompassing catastrophes of German culture (Mann), politics (Cassirer), philology (Auerbach), and philosophy and sociology (Horkheimer and Adorno). Their scope, mastery, and sense of urgency constitute a comprehensive Kulturkampf (culture war) against Nazi barbarism. Avihu Zakai cogently analyzes each work, explains the context of its creation, and draws connections between these four landmark books in Western intellectual history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The age of catastrophe : the struggle for the humanist soul of Europe

Apocalypse and eschatology in Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus : the "secret union of the German spirit with the demonic"

Ernst Cassirer and The myth of the state : portrait of the disillusioned philosopher

Erich Aauerbach's Book of books and the rational representation of reality in Western literature / with David Weinstein

Enlightenment and its enemies : Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and the dialectic of dialectic of enlightenment

Trauma, exile, and interpretation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438471655

1438471653