Sharply focused essays on the most significant aspects of German Romanticism. This volume of sharply focused essays by an international team of scholars deals not only with the most significant literary, philosophical, and cultural aspects of German Romanticism -- one of the most influential, albeit highlycontroversial movements in the history of German literature -- but also with the history and status of scholarship on the literature of the period. The introduction and first section establish an overall framework by placing German Romanticism within a European context that includes its English counterpart. Goethe and Schiller are considered, as are the Jena Romantics. The second section is organized according to the traditional distinctions between epic,dramatic, and lyric modes of writing, while realizing that particularly in the Romantic novel, there was an attempt to blend these three. A final group of essays focuses on German literary Romanticism's relation to other aspects of German culture: folklore studies, politics, psychology, natural science, gender presentation and representation, music, and visual art. Contributors: Gerhard Schulz, Arnd Bohm, Richard Littlejohns, Gerhart Hoffmeister, Ulrich Scheck, Claudia Stockinger, Bernadette Malinowski, Fabian Lampart, Klaus Peter, Gabriele Rommel, Martha B. Helfer, Kristina Muxfeldt, Beate Allert, Paul Bishop and R. H. Stephenson, Nicholas Saul Dennis F. Mahoney is Professor of German and Director of the European Studies Program at the University of Vermont.

Der vorliegende Sammelband befasst sich mit der Theorie und Praxis der Literaturvermittlung in der 'nachburgerlichen' Wissensgesellschaft und berucksichtigt dabei verschiedene Aspekte: Es wird untersucht, in welcher Weise 'ausserliterarische' Faktoren wie Macht und OEkonomie die Wertung und Kanonisierung literarischer Werke der Gegenwart steuern, welche Wirkung medialen Bedingungen, z.B. dem Web 2.0, zuzuschreiben ist und wie sich literaturinterne Faktoren auf Wertungsprozesse auswirken. Im ersten Teil werden Modelle und methodische Grundfragen der Wertungs- und Kanondiskussion vorgestellt, wahrend der zweite Teil Kanonisierungsprozesse in Institutionen des Literaturbetriebs untersucht. Die Frage, welche Rolle Wertungshandlungen und der Begriff des Kanons in der gegenwartigen Literaturvermittlung spielen, wird im dritten Teil behandelt. Der Band wendet sich an alle, die sich in Literaturbetrieb und Literaturwissenschaft mit Fragen der Kanonbildung, der Wertung und der Literaturvermittlung beschaftigen.

With his own literary production and his literary scholarship and criticism, Ludwig Tieck (1773?1853) was a determining figure in literature and cultural activity around 1800 and in the epochal situation after the (Goethean) art period . This reference work presents Tieck s life and times, locates his work in its aesthetic tradition and describes his poetics and commitment as a literary critic, editor and literary scholar. Individualtexts are analysed in detail, within the context of his complete work and within the context of their time. Another strong focus lies on the impact and reception of Tieck s work.The articles are complemented by a complete bibliography of research."

Like any engagement with literature that is not part of the established canon, a study dealing with the dramatic work of FouquA(c) (1777-1843) will at the same time be part of the literary history of 'minor works'. The study does not set out, however, to rehabilitate unjustly neglected writings. The material is of interest above all for what it has to tell us about the poetic consequences of (early) Romantic theories of literature and genre. Accordingly, the study concentrates first of all on FouquA(c)'s early dramatic works as an attempt to write an allegorical species of Welttheater, moving from there to examine next his dramatic approach to the New Mythology, then the patriotic and historical dramas against the backdrop of the temporalization of political awareness, the medieval dramas in the context of the institutionalization of Germanic Studies, and finally the problem of the Gesamtkunstwerk with its structural proximity to opera and Romantic drama.

The volume assembles papers delivered at an international conference organized in 1999 to essay a rapprochement between Romantic drama and the latest concerns of research into Romanticism. Central to the joint endeavour is the appropriate appreciation of a generic constellation frequently neglected in comparison with the contemporary 'classical' tradition, a constellation whose specific constitutive features call for adequate perspectivization in terms of literary history. The studies address the problem of the constitution of subject-matter, the theory of Romantic drama, and structures in Romantic comedy. They comprise interpretations centering on works and authors (Novalis, Tieck, Brentano, Arnim, Eichendorff), consideration of the historical context of the dramas (Schiller, Kleist) and of aspects of the history of their impact (Nestroy, Keller, Hofmannsthal, Pirandello).

- Epochenbegriff und Epochengrenzen: Periodisierung und zeitgenossische Selbstpositionierung - Autorschaft und Literaturbetrieb zwischen Kommerzialisierung und Kunstanspruch - Literatur im Kontext von Industrialisierung, technischer Innovation, Verburgerlichung und Nationenbildung - Konzepte des Realismus: Abbild der ausserlich sichtbaren Wirklichkeit oder Veranschaulichung der 'eigentlichen ' Sinndimension? - Das Gattungssystem: realistische Darstellungsverfahren in Roman, Novelle, Lyrik und Drama"

Uwe Japp verfolgt in den hier gesammelten Aufsatzen die von ihm entworfene "Hermeneutik der Entfaltung": Dass die Erschliessung des vielfachen Sinns von Literatur nur als unabschliessbares Projekt gedacht werden kann, wird in seinen Beitragen zu Goethe, Kleist, Tieck, Arnim, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Stifter, Valery, Hildesheimer und Thomas Bernhard in der interpretatorischen Praxis erprobt. Wie die Vieldeutigkeit der Texte dennoch zum Gegenstand philologischer Erkenntnis werden kann, legt er in theoretischen Uberlegungen zur Hermeneutik dar, die um die Leitbegriffe literaturwissenschaftlicher Forschung kreisen: Fiktion, Ironie, Modernitat der Literatur und Methodik der Interpretation heissen die Koordinaten, die Uwe Japps breit gefacherte und stilistisch anspruchsvolle Auseinandersetzungen mit der deutschen und europaischen Literatur bestimmen.