New essays on the works and themes of Hesse, one of the most perennially relevant and widely-read German authors. Today, forty years after Timothy Leary's suggestion that hippies read Hermann Hesse while "turning on," Hesse is once again receiving attention: faced with ubiquitous materialism, war, and ecological disaster, we discover that these problems have found universal expression in the works of this master storyteller. Hesse explores perennial themes, from the simple to the transcendental. Because he knows of the awkwardness of adolescence and the pressures exerted on us to conform, his books hold special appeal for young readers and are taught widely. Yet he is equally relevant for older readers, writing about the torment of a psyche in despair, or our fear of the unknown. All these experiences are explored from the perspective of the individual self, for Hesse the repository of the divine and the sole entity to which we are accountable. This volume of new essays sheds light on his major works, including Siddhartha, Der Steppenwolf, and Das Glasperlenspiel, as well as Rosshalde, Klingsors letzter Sommer, Klein und Wagner, and the poetry. Another six essays explore Hesse's interest in psychoanalysis, music, and easternphilosophy, the development of his political views, the influence of his painting on his writing, and the relationship between Hesse and Goethe. Contributors: Jefford Vahlbusch, Osman Durrani, Andreas Solbach, Ralph Freedman, Adrian Hsia, Stefan Hoeppner, Martin Swales, Frederick Lubich, Paul Bishop, Olaf Berwald, Kamakshi Murti, Marco Schickling, Volker Michels, Godela Weiss-Sussex, C. Immo Schneider, Hans-Joachim Hahn. Ingo Cornilsis Professor of German at the University of Leeds.

This book-series, initiated in 1992, has an interdisciplinary orientation; it is published in English and German and comprises research monographs, collections of essays and editions of source texts dealing with German-Jewish literary and cultural history, in particular from the period covering the 18th to 20th centuries. The closer definition of the term German-Jewish applied to literature and culture is an integral part of its historical development. Primarily, the decisive factor is that from the middle of the 18th century German gradually became the language of choice for Jews, and Jewish authors started writing in German, rather than Yiddish or Hebrew, even when they were articulating Jewish themes. This process is directly connected an historical change in mentality and social factors which led to a gradual opening towards a non-Jewish environment, which in its turn was becoming more open. In the Enlightenment, German society becomes the standard of reference - initially for an intellectual elite. Against this background, the term German-Jewish literature refers to the literary work of Jewish authors writing in German to the extent that explicit or implicit Jewish themes, motifs, modes of thought or models can be identified in them.From the beginning of the 19th century at the latest, however, the image of Jews in the work of non-Jewish writers, determined mainly by anti-Semitism, becomes a factor in German-Jewish literature. There is a tension between Jewish writers' authentic reference to Jewish traditions or existence and the anti-Semitic marking and discrimination against everything Jewish which determines the overall development of the history of German-Jewish literature and culture. This series provides an appropriate forum for research into the whole problematic area.

Das Warenhaus war uber Deutschland hinaus bis in die 1930er-Jahre einer der kulturgeschichtlich bedeutendsten Ansatzpunkte fur die Auseinandersetzung mit der Moderne und der Konsumkultur. Die Autoren und Autorinnen dieses Bandes zeigen sowohl den Facettenreichtum des Warenhaus-Diskurses in der Literatur, dem Feuilleton, in Musicals und im Film als auch die Bandbreite der teils sozial-und kulturkritischen, teils fortschrittsorientierten Thematisierungen auf. Dabei kommen Romane von Zola, Brecht und Fallada sowie Schriften weniger bekannter Autoren zur Sprache. Das emanzipatorische Potenzial des Warenhausthemas findet ebenso Beachtung wie waren- und konsumasthetische Strategien, die in Literatur, Film und anderen Medien reflektiert werden. Until the 1930s department stores provided, in Germany as elsewhere, one of the focal points of cultural and critical engagement with modernity and consumer culture. The authors of this volume explore the diversity of the discourse on department stores in literature, the feuilleton, musicals and film. They demonstrate the scope of the discourse from cultural criticism to more progress-oriented examinations of the theme. Novels by Zola, Brecht and Fallada are discussed, as well as writings by lesser known authors. Attention is paid to the emancipatory potential of department stores as well as to the aesthetics of consumption as reflected in literature, film and other media.

Dieser Band widmet sich dem Berliner Warenhaus des spaten 19. und fruhen 20. Jahrhunderts. Die interdisziplinaren Beitrage behandeln das Thema im Rahmen der OEkonomiegeschichte, der Frauen- und Antisemitismusforschung, sowie im Hinblick auf Aspekte der Werbung, Stadtplanung und Architektur. Im Zentrum steht die Analyse zeitgenoessischer Diskurse und Debatten um das Warenhaus als Symbol der Moderne. This interdisciplinary volume explores the history of Berlin department stores in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The contributions consider aspects of economic history, gender-related and Jewish studies, advertising, town-planning, design and architecture. All articles focus on contemporary discourses and debates on the department store as a symbol of modernity.