The Shepherd The Volk And The Middle Class

Analyzes the transformation of German-language pastoral from a portrayal of the idyllic lives of herdsmen into a vehicle for the concerns and aspirations of the middle class.

A Stage for Debate presents a detailed analysis of the repertoire of the leading German-language stage of the nineteenth century, Vienna’s Burgtheater. The book explores the extent to which the Burgtheater repertoire contributed to important political and cultural debates on individual liberty, the role of women in society, and the understanding of national and regional identity. The relevance of the Burgtheater as a forum for political debate is assessed not by the degree to which the performed plays transgressed established norms, but by the range of positions that were voiced on a given topic. Martin Wagner investigates the roughly 1,000 plays from across Europe that were introduced to the Burgtheater’s repertoire between 1814 and 1867 by combining a general overview with detailed interpretations of especially successful plays. Wagner reveals that the Burgtheater was significantly more involved in contemporary debates than the stereotype of this stage as an artistically refined but apolitical institution suggests. Drawing from theatre studies and German and Austrian studies more broadly, A Stage for Debate revises the history of one of Europe’s leading theatres.

Das Lessing Yearbook, offizielles Organ der Lessing Society mit Sitz in Cincinnati, Ohio, ist ein weltweit anerkanntes, wichtiges Forum für alle Wissenschaftler, die sich – in englischer und deutscher Sprache – mit Literatur, Kultur und Gedankengut Deutschlands im 18. Jahrhundert beschäftigen. Guy Stern zum 100. Geburtstag. Mit Beiträgen von Tilman Venzl zum Manuskript und zur Dramaturgie der Minna von Barnhelm; Susan Morrow über Bilder und Illusionen in Lessings Laokoon; Joseph Haydt über Ironie und Wahrheit in Lessings theologischen Schriften; Till Kinzel über Jaspers und Lessing; Katherine Goodman über Luise Gottscheds Panthea und die Freidenker; Gabriel Cooper über anti-jüdische Stereotype im 18. Jahrhundert; Stefanie Stockhorst und Sotirios Agrofylax über Zeitschriften als aufklärerische Praxis; Hamilton Beck zur Rezeption Hippels im 19. Jahrhundert, und ein Forum zu Intersektionalität und Aufklärungsforschung.

In Interrogations of Evolutionism in German Literature 1859-2011 Nicholas Saul offers the first representative account of German literary responses to Darwinian evolutionism from from Raabe and Jensen via Ernst Jünger and Botho Strauß to Dietmar Dath.

"Taking the Hard Road" is an engaging history of growing up in working-class families in France and Germany during the Industrial Revolution. Based on a reading of ninety autobiographical accounts of childhood and adolescence, the book explores the far-re

Challenges traditional views of Kleist by situating his work in relation to the political and philosophical debates of his age. The German writer Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) was an unconventional and often controversial figure in his own day, and has remained so. His ideas on art, politics, and gender relations continue to challenge modern readers, andhis complex and radically open texts remain the object of vigorous scholarly debate. Kleist has often been portrayed as a "poet without a society," whose writing served as escape from the realities of his social environment. Thisnew study challenges such a view by situating Kleist in relation to the central political and philosophical debates of his momentous age. The study first establishes the German--and Prussian--context of Kleist's day, and then provides a short introduction to Kleist's life, here seen in particular relation to the political world. Developing his argument in relation to Kleist's literary work and essays in a series of close readings, Elystan Griffiths showshow Kleist's writings responded to four pressing political issues: the relationship of national culture and the state; education and social reform; the theory and practice of war; and administration and the delivery of justice. Griffiths sheds fresh light on Kleist's writing by placing emphasis on its intricacy and rich ambiguity, which are often simplified or overlooked in political studies of Kleist. Thus Griffiths furthers the critical understanding ofKleist's political thinking by uncovering crucial tensions between a pragmatic readiness for compromise and a utopian longing for freedom and truth. Elystan Griffiths is a Research Fellow in the Department of German Studies at the University of Birmingham.

This is a practical, thoughtful analysis of U.S. policy in Central America. The authors explain the interests of each major actor in the region, with key chapters on the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua, and they examine the Contadora peace proposal by Mexico, Columbia, Panama, and Venezuela. They conclude that East-West conflict is secondary to Central American policy and that diplomacy is the key solution to peace. ISBN 0-394-74453-5 (pbk.): $12.95.

One of the longest-lived communal societies in North America, the Hutterites have developed multifaceted communitarian perspectives on everything from conflict resolution and decision-making practices to standards of living and care for the elderly. This compellingly written book offers a glimpse into the complex and varied lives of the nearly 500 North American Hutterite communities. North American Hutterites today number around 50,000 and have common roots with and beliefs akin to the Amish and other Old Order Christians. This historical analysis and anthropological investigation draws on existing research, primary sources, and over 25 years of the authors' interaction with Hutterite communities to recount the group's physical and spiritual journey from its 16th-century founding in Eastern Europe and its near disappearance in Transylvania in the 1760s to its late 19th-century transplantation to North America and into the modern era. It explains how the Hutterites found creative ways to manage social and economic changes over more than five centuries while holding to the principles and cultural values embedded in their faith. Religious scholars, anthropologists, and historians of America and the Anabaptist faiths will find this objective-yet-appreciative account of the Hutterites' distinct North American culture to be a valuable and fascinating study both of the religion and of a viable alternative to modern-day capitalism.