The representation of war in German literature
Subtitle: from 1800 to the present
By: Elisabeth Krimmer.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521198028
Subjects: German literature -- History and criticism; War in literature
Description: "The history of literature about war is marked by a fundamental paradox: although war forms the subject of countless novels, dramas, poems, and films, it is often conceived as indescribable. Even as many writers strive towards an ideal of authenticity, they maintain that no representation can do justice to the terror and violence of war. Readings of Schiller, Kleist, Jünger, Remarque, Grass, Böll, Handke, and Jelinek reveal that stylistic and aesthetic features, gender discourses, and concepts of agency and victimization can all undermine a text's martial stance or its ostensible pacifist agenda. Spanning the period from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to the recent wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq, Elisabeth Krimmer investigates the aesthetic, theoretical, and historical challenges that confront writers of war"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars; 3. The First World War; 4. The Second World War; 5. Yugoslavia and Iraq; 6. Conclusion.