Robert C. Holub

The Terms of Cultural Criticism: The Frankfurt School, Existentialism, Poststructuralism

Despite their differences in origin, the three influential schools of twentieth-century continental cultural criticism--the Frankfurt School, existentialism, and poststructuralism--have long been treated as an ensemble and with critical hesitancy. Examining these schools as responses to the apparent collapse of Western civilization in the twentieth-century and as formidable intellectual challenges to the cultural legacies of the Enlightenment, this book provides a productive base for criticism and broadens our understanding of their histories and reception.

Reception theory: School of Constance

Introduction Reception theory is commonly used to designate a direction in literary criticism developed by professors and students at the University of Constance in West Germany during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The School of Constance advocated turning to the reading and reception of literary texts instead of to traditional methods that emphasize the production of texts or a close examination of texts themselves. To this extent its approach is related to reader-response criticism as it appeared in the United States during these same years, although the School of Constance for a time was much more homogeneous in its theoretical presuppositions and general outlook than its American counterpart. Also known as ‘The Aesthetics of Reception’ ( Rezeptionsasthetik ), the approach developed by the School dominated literary theory in Germany for about a decade. It was virtually unknown in the English-speaking world until around 1980 when it was made more readily accessible by a number of translations of the most seminal works. Hans Robert Jauss (1921– ) and Wolfgang Iser (1926– ) are the two most original theorists of the Constance School, although several of Jauss’ students, among them Rainer Warning, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Wolf-Dieter Stempel and Karlheinz Stierle, also made important contributions to this branch of theory. In response to the writings of Jauss and Iser, scholars from the German Democratic Republic such as Robert Weimann, Claus Trager, Manfred Naumann, and Rita Schober raised objections to some propositions and suggested Marxist alternatives, and the most productive East–West postwar dialogue in literary theory involved issues of reception and response.

Nietzsche and the Jewish Question

One of the most striking features about the reception of the nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is that he is so rarely viewed in the context of Germany and Europe in the nineteenth century. Perhaps because of his self-proclaimed untimeliness1 he has been regarded almost exclusively as a harbinger of political, aesthetic, and philosophical tendencies of a later era. On the political front, he has been considered a proponent of such widely divergent tendencies as fascism, anarchism, libertarianism, liberal democracy, and socialism. In the realm of culture, he has been viewed as an inspiration for aestheticism, impressionism, expressionism, modernism, dadaism, surrealism, and postmodernism. In philosophical circles, he has allegedly influenced phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, poststructuralism, and deconstruction. Occasionally we do find him situated in a larger philosophical or cultural tradition. But in these studies he is usually placed in relationship usually an antagonistic one to the great thinkers of the Western heritage. What is thus unusual about the vast majority of secondary work on Nietzsche is that it has remained so resolutely ahistorical, even though there is a wealth of material available that would connect Nietzsche with his times. Indeed, if we read Nietzsches notes and letters, examine his

Reflections of Realism: Paradox, Norm, and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century German Prose

Spend your time even for only few minutes to read a book. Reading a book will never reduce and waste your time to be useless. Reading, for some people become a need that is to do every day such as spending time for eating. Now, what about you? Do you like to read a book? Now, we will show you a new book enPDFd reflections of realism paradox norm and ideology in nineteenth century german prose that can be a new way to explore the knowledge. When reading this book, you can get one thing to always remember in every reading time, even step by step.

Heinrich Heine's contested identities : politics, religion, and nationalism in nineteenth-century Germany

Contents: Jeffrey L. Sammons: Who Did Heine Think He Was? - Christhard Hoffmann: History versus Memory: Heinrich Heine and the Jewish Past - Bluma Goldstein: Heines Hebrew Melodies: A Politics and Poetics of Diaspora - Robert C. Holub: Confessions of an Apostate: Heines Conversion and Its Psychic Displacement - Hinrich C. Seeba: Keine Systematie: Heine in Berlin and the Origin of the Urban Gaze - Susanne Zantop: Columbus, Humboldt, Heine, or the Rediscovery of Europe - Jennifer Kapczynski/Kristin Kopp/Paul B. Reitter/Daniel Sakaguchi: The Polish Question and Heines Exilic Identity - Jost Hermand: Tribune of the People or Aristocrat of the Spirit? Heines Ambivalence Toward the Masses - Peter Uwe Hohendahl: Heines Critical Intervention: The Intellectual as Poet.

Grillparzer's 'Der arme Spielmann': New Directions in Criticism

Collects the most distinguished and innovative commentary of the last fifteen years on the novella that is Grillparzers most engaging today.

Realism, Repetition, Repression: The Nature of Desire in Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe

Wenn ich nicht uberzeugt ware, daB die Kindheit schon ein Vorspiel des ganzen Lebens ist und bis zu ihrem Abschlusse schon die Hauptzuge der menschlichen Zerwurfnisse im kleinen abspiegele, so daB spater nur wenige Erlebnisse vorkommen mogen, deren UmriB nicht wie ein Traum schon in unserm Wissen vorhanden, wie ein Schema, welches, wenn es Gutes bedeutet, froh zu erfullen ist, wenn aber Ubles, als fruihe Warnung gelten kann, so wurde ich mich nicht so weitlaufig mit den kleinen Dingen jener Zeit beschaftigen.

Placing Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche in the Crosshairs

Abstract In the postwar era Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche has been held responsible for the reputation her brother acquired during the Third Reich as a prophet of National Socialism. In scholarly writing and popular accounts Forster-Nietzsche’s manipulation of her brother’s writings and letters, as well as her philologically unsound editorial practices, has led most observers to the hasty assumption that she intervened in his texts in order to fashion the image of Nietzsche as a German nationalist and anti-Semite. Recently Christian Niemeyer has renewed these attacks on Nietzsche’s sister, fearing that contemporary scholarship has forgotten the violations of her brother’s legacy. His philological accounts are flawed, however, and his arguments are contrived and unpersuasive. In fact, if we look closely at the evidence and Forster- Nietzsche’s editorial practices, we find that she consistently included letters and passages that demonstrated Nietzsche’s intense opposition to the anti-Semitism of his era and to conservative Wilhelmine politics. In Niemeyer’s article Forster-Nietzsche is once again unfairly blamed for Nietzsche’s favorable reception as a proto-Nazi. Zusammenfassung In der Nachkriegszeit machte man Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche fur den Ruf ihres Bruders als eines Propheten des Nationalsozialismus wahrend des Dritten Reichs verant wortlich. In wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten und in der breiten Offentlichkeit fuhrten Forster-Nietzsches Manipulationen der Schriften und Briefe ihres Bruders und ihre philologisch fragwurdigen Editionspraktiken die meisten Beobachter zu dem ubereilten Schluss, dass sie in Nietzsches Texte eingriff, um ihren Bruder als Nationalisten und Antisemiten darzustellen. Zuletzt hat Christian Niemeyer diese Vorwurfe gegen Nietzsches Schwester erneuert, in der Besorgnis, die Entstellungen des Erbes ihres Bruders seien in der gegenwartigen Forschung vergessen worden. Niemeyers philologische Methode ist jedoch nicht akzeptabel, und seine Argumente scheinen weit hergeholt und nicht uberzeugend. Schaut man sich die Texte und Forster- Nietzsches Editionspraktiken genauer an, findet man in der Tat, dass sie mit groser Regelmasigkeit Briefe und Passagen veroffentlichte, die gerade Nietzsches heftige Gegnerschaft gegen den Antisemitismus seiner Zeit und gegen die konservative Wilhelminische Politik bewiesen. In Niemeyers Aufsatz wird Forster-Nietzsche wieder einmal unfair die Schuld fur die bereitwillige Rezeption Nietzsches als Proto-Nazi gegeben.

Zur amerikanischen Rezeption der Rezeptionsästhetik

In den Vereinigten Staaten der siebziger Jahre, also noch bis vor kurzem, war die Rezeptionsasthetik als solche unbekannt, ganz zu schweigen von einzelnen Rezeptionsasthetikern. Wahrend man zum gleichen Zeitpunkt in der Bundesrepublik im Zusammenhang mit der Rezeptionsasthetik von einem literaturkritischen Paradigmenwechsel monumental-revolutionaren Ausmases sprach, war es in den USA diesbezuglich bedenklich still. Zu einer Zeit, da Literaturtheorie in Verbindung mit Strukturalismus, Poststrukturalismus und Dekonstruktivismus viel Aufmerksamkeit erhielt, fiel kaum ein Wort uber diese literaturkritische Methode. Wenn hierzulande ausnahmsweise einmal ein Rezeptionsasthetiker zur Debatte stand, fabulierte man von einer „neuen, sich in der Bundesrepublik anbahnenden Perspektive“,1 oder der Betreffende wurde schlicht eingereiht in die etwas fragwurdige Kategorie,,publikumsorientierte Kritik. “2 Rezeptionstheoretische Texte in Ubersetzung fehlten ebenfalls bis Ende der siebziger Jahre, so das selbst den einflusreichsten deutschen Rezeptionsasthetikem nicht auf die Spur zu kommen war. Das Wolfgang Iser dennoch rezipiert wurde, ist vor allem der Tatsachen zu verdanken, das er eigene Beitrage selbst ubersetzte.3 Zudem sollte man bedenken, das Isers Position nicht als Beispiel einer spezifisch deutschen Literaturkritik, sondern vielmehr als Fortfuhrung einer amerikanischen literaturkritischen Tradition, der Erzahltheorie, verstanden wurde, der bekanntlich viel Erfolg nachgesagt werden kann.

The Romantic School and Other Essays

The German Library is a new series of the major works of German literature and thought from medieval times to the present. The volumes have forewords by internationally known writers and introductions by prominent scholars. Here the English-speaking reader can find the broadest possible collection of poetic and intellectual achievements in new as well as great classic translations. Convenient and accessible in format, the volumes of The German Library will form the core of any growing library of European literature for years to come.