Macpherson's Ossian caused a sensation on its first appearance in the early 1760s. Contrary to the impression often conveyed in literary histories, enthusiasm for the Ossianic poetry cannot be dismissed as a short-lived fad, for its appeal lasted a century or more, both in Britain and Continental Europe. There is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom it failed to make a significant impact. And as may be seen from the contributions to this volume, its influence was ubiquitous, from Poland to Portugal, from Paris to Prague. The essays brought together here consider the reception of Ossian in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, as well as in a wide range of European countries. In some the focus is on an individual writer (for instance, Goethe, Schiller, Chateaubriand), in others there is a broader sweep and a survey of reception in a national literary culture is offered (for instance, Hungary, Russia, Sweden). One of the two essays on Ossian in Italy at last gives Macpherson's influential epigone, John Smith, his due. Consideration is also given to Ossian's significance for the rise of historicism, and to nonliterary forms of reception in music and art.

The aim of this book is to revisit Ossian, whilst broadening the scope of oral literature and translation to embrace cultural contexts outside of Europe. Epics, ballads, prose tales, ritual and lyric songs, as genres, existed orally before writing was invented. Serious debate about them, at least in modern Western culture, may be said to have begun with James Macpherson and Thomas Percy. Considering the ongoing debate on orality and authenticity in the case of Ossian, this book includes ground-breaking, previously published essays which provide essential information relating to orality, Ossian and translation, but have been frequently overlooked. Its contributions focus on the aspects of authenticity, transmediation, popular poetry and music, examining Scottish, German, Portuguese, Brazilian, African, American Indian, Indian and Chinese literatures.

James Macphersons Ossian zahlt im spaten 18. und fruhen 19. Jahrhundert zu den wichtigsten Werken der Weltliteratur. Dabei stilisiert man den keltischen Barden zum "Homer des Nordens" (Madame de Stael) und seine Poesie zur "Mutter der Romantik" (Uhland, Jean Paul). Indem Ossian mit 'susser Wehmut' auf die Vergangenheit zuruckblickt und die Distanz zum Ideal asthetisch kompensiert, stellt er zugleich das'Urbild' des sentimentalischen Dichters dar. Die vorliegende Arbeit unternimmt erstmals eine Gesamtdarstellung der deutschen "Ossianomanie" und macht wichtiges Textmaterial zuganglich. Grundlage hierfur bietet eine poststrukturalistische Vermittlung wirkungsasthetischer und diskursanalytischer Modelle. Band 1 behandelt die Poems of Ossian, die zeitgenoessischen Diskurse sowie die Fruhphase der Rezeption; Band 2 befasst sich mit der Haupt- und der Spatphase der Rezeption. Die Bande 3 und 4 prasentieren die rezeptionssteuernden deutschen UEbersetzungen sowie die wichtigsten Rezeptionszeugen.

Carefully focused essays on major aspects of one of the most significant German literary movements, the Storm and Stress. Sturm und Drang refers to a set of values and a style of writing that arose in Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century, a particularly intense kind of pre-Romanticism that has often been represented as marking the beginning of an independent modern German culture. The circle of writers around the young Goethe, including Herder, Lenz, Klinger, and later Schiller, felt frustrated by the Enlightenment world of reason, balance, and control, and turned instead to nature as the source of authentic experience. Inspired by Rousseau and Herder, by Shakespeare, and by folk culture, they rebelled against propriety and experimented with new literary forms, their creative energy bursting through conventions that seemed staid and artificial. The Sturm und Drang has often been cited by those attempting to legitimate nationalism and irrationalism, but scholars have more recently emphasized the diversity of the movement and the links between it and the Enlightenment. This volume of essays by leading scholars from the UK, the US, and Germany illuminates the guiding ideas of the movement, discussing its most important authors, texts, and ideas, and taking account of the variety and complexity of the movement, placing it more securely within late-eighteenth-century European history. The main focus is on literature, and in particular on the drama, which was of special importance to the Sturm und Drang. However, the essays also outline the social conditions that gave rise to the movement, and consideration is given to different currents of ideas that underlie the movement, including areas of thought and bodies of work that traditional approaches have tended to marginalize. Contributors: Bruce Duncan, Howard Gaskill, Wulf Koepke, Susanne Kord, Frank Lamport, Alan Leidner, Matthias Luserke, Michael Patterson, Gerhard Sauder, Margaret Stoljar, Daniel Wilson, Karin Wurst. David Hill is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of German Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK.

This is a collection of international research surveying the reception of James Macpherson's Ossian poems in European literature and culture.The intellectual scope and cultural impact of British writers cannot be assessed without reference to their European fortunes. This collection of 20 essays, prepared by an international team of scholars, critics and translators, records the ways in which Macpherson's Ossian has been received, translated and published in different areas of Europe.The Ossian poems caused a sensation on their first appearance in the 1760s. Indeed, there is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom they failed to make a significant impression. The essays brought together in this volume explore the reception of Ossian in a wide range of European countries, in both literary and non-literary forms of reception and in the work of both individual writers and national literary cultures.Our knowledge of British and Irish authors is incomplete and inadequate without an understanding of the perspectives of other nations on them. Each volume examines the ways authors have been translated, published, distributed, read, reviewed and discussed in Europe. In doing so, it throws light not only on the specific strands of intellectual and cultural history but also on the processes involved in the dissemination of ideas and texts.

Macpherson's Ossian aroused enthusiasm and considerable controversy in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. This volume provides a modern edition of Macpherson's Ossianic poetry. It is an annotated version, based on the 1765 text of the Works of Ossian which is republished here in its entirety. Major variants from other editions are included, together with a descriptive register of Ossianic names. Ossian expert, Fiona Stafford, provides a critical introduction explaining the genesis of the work and its impact on 18th-century culture. All Macpherson's Ossianic poetry is included - Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Fingal and Temora - as well as his accompanying prefaces and dissertations and Hugh Blair's influential Critical Dissertation of the Poems of Ossian