The Author’s Dimension
Subtitle: Selected Essays
By: Christa Wolf ; introduction by Grace Paley ; edited by Alexander Stephan ; translated by Jan van Heurck.
Contributors: Stephan, Alexander, 1946-
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: April 1993
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 335
ISBN-13: 9780374123024
Description: "The Author's Dimension finally makes Christa Wolf's critical writing available in English. Readers of her fiction will recognize her elegant and demanding prose and the passion with which she continually examines the individual's, in particular the writer's, relationship to his or her society. But this collection also reveals the way in which Wolf approaches her art." "Spanning the past three decades, the essays focus primarily on the role of the writer and literature today. Wolf interviews herself on the development of The Quest for Christa T. In a witty and probing essay on reading, she imagines her life without books and removes each layer of literary influence, from Snow White to All Quiet on the Western Front. There are perceptive essays about other writers, including Thomas Mann, Karoline von Gunderrode, Max Frisch, and Ingeborg Bachmann. Finally, the sections "On War and Peace and Politics" and "The End of the German Democratic Republic" demonstrate the ways in which Wolf's political thinking has evolved and cast light on the political situation in East Germany prior to German reunification." "With its impassioned celebration of literature, this collection will interest not just those already familiar with Wolf's work but anyone engaged in the acts of writing and reading today."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: "Originally published in German, the essays in this book are drawn from Die Dimension des Autors ... ; Ansprachen ... ; and Im Dialog"--T.p. verso.