The essays collected in this volume highlight the narrative as a phenomenon inherent in human nature. They examine the likely purpose of artistic and literary expression and its contribution to survival in an early human environment. They also consider the developing interest in shaping experience through the narrative, and investigate the consequent significance of traits acquired throughout the ages for the production and reception of texts. In doing so, the book provides a highly diverse overview of the latest research and debates in this innovative field of research.

This collected volume aims to generate a concise theoretical presentation of the "perturbation principle" in the humanities and the natural sciences. Incorporating findings from natural scientific research, the contributors attempt to take further steps along the way to a general "theory of perturbation."

The contributions in this volume are based on a conference that was held at the University of the South in Tennessee (USA) in 2008. The papers investigate the impact Berlin's cityscape had on its artistic representation. In the first part, the impact of Berlin's city planning with its monumental Wilhelmine symbolism is explored in flaneur characters, e. g. in Georg Hermann's work. The main focus of the volume is on the second part with an investigation of the impact city planning had on Weimar Berlin's art and literature. In this section, a number of contributions show the interaction between space and art, e. g. in Walter Ruttmann, Hans Fallada and Alfred Doblin. The volume concludes with essays about the continuation of Weimar's modernism in contemporary culture.

Captured by the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Heinrich Gerlach wrote a novel based on his experiences. In 1949, however, the KGB confiscated his 600-page manuscript. Gerlach returned to Germany in 1950, and, under hypnosis, recalled parts of his narrative. In 1957, it was published under the title The Forsaken Army and became a bestseller.

In 2011 Carsten Gansel, an academic, made a sensational find in a Moscow archive: the original manuscript of Gerlach's novel. Breakthrough at Stalingrad differs sharply in tone from the novel published in 1957. Here, a coruscating emphasis on German war crimes and the author's feelings of guilt form a descant to his narrative of the battle and reflections on the pointlessness of war.

Breakthrough at Stalingrad includes an appendix by Carsten Gansel, telling the story behind both the 1957 edition of the novel and discovery of its original version. After 70 years, a classic of 20th-century war literature can be enjoyed in its original version.

Die Beitragsautoren dieses Sammelbandes gehen der Frage nach, welche Rolle das Erinnern in der deutschsprachigen Literatur nach 1945 und sodann nach dem Umbruch des Jahres 1989 spielt. Dabei werden unterschiedlich Formen der literarischen Konfiguration von Erinnerung untersucht und das Verhaltnis von Fakt und Fiktion diskutiert. In den Blick geraten unterschiedliche Poetologien, Schreibweisen und Konzepte beim Umgang mit Geschichte.

Die Entwicklungen ab 2000 vertieften innerhalb der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur einen Prozess, der sich bereits seit den 1970er Jahren abzeichnete: Die Annaherung von Allgemeinliteratur auf der einen und Kinder- und Jugendliteratur auf der anderen Seite. Diese Annaherung, die auch eine Grenzuberschreitung bedeuten kann, war nur moglich, weil inzwischen samtliche jener Darstellungsweisen, die ursprunglich der Allgemeinliteratur vorbehalten blieben, auch im Bereich der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur ihren Platz haben. Die Beitrage des Bandes stellen die Frage, wie weit die noch existierenden Grenzen aufgelost werden (konnen) und welche Folgen, ja moglicherweise Storungen, sich daraus fur das Symbol- und Handlungssystem Literatur ergeben. Die Frage nach Storungen betrifft vor allem das "Was" und "Wie" der literarischen Darstellung. In Verbindung damit gerat auch der Trend zum sogenannten All-Age-Buch bzw. zu Cross-Over-Titeln in den Blick, die Tabubruche in realistisch gezeichneten Welten wie auch in der Fantasy inszenieren konnen.