Heinrich Heine's Contested Identities
Subtitle: Politics, Religion, and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Germany (German Life and Civilization)
Contributors: Jost Hermand (Editor); Robert C. Holub (Editor)
Publisher: Peter Lang Pub Inc; Lang AG International Academic Publishers, Peter
Published: February 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 199
ISBN-13: 9780820441054
Subjects: Heine, Heinrich; European - German; General; History & Theory - General; German Literature; Political History; Literary Criticism; 1797-1856; 19th century; Congresses; Germany; Heine, Heinrich,; Political and social views; Politics and government; Religion; History: World
Description: This volume collects the papers presented at a conference that took place in Berkeley, California, in October 1997 in honor of Heinrich Heine's two-hundredth birthday. The theme of that conference was Heine's identity, which was formed and reformed, revised and modified, in relationship to the politics, religion, and nationalism of his era. Several speakers focused on Heine's Jewish identity and most contributions touched on his relationship to the politics of his era.

The resulting essays offer a more differentiated understanding of Heine's predicaments and choices, as well as the parameters placed on him by the exigencies of the time. What this volume therefore achieves is not a radically new vision of Heine, but one that recognizes the ambivalences and vacillations, as well as the development and consistency, of his complex identity.