The future of German literature, like the future of united Germany, is a fascinating and vigorously debated question. In this first English-language study on the subject, Keith Bullivant analyses the main aspects of German literature since 1945 from the perspective of the 1990s. He pays particular attention to the periodisation of the literature, the major developments in the 1980s, the social role of writers as intellectuals, and the treatment of the 'German Question'.

Some of the leading German scholars from the British Isles, the USA and Australia have contributed to this volume, the first in English, which addresses itself to West German literature of the 1970's. It covers major writers and themes of the period, including - for the first time in English - a study of Alexander Kluge, and offers critical assessments of widely debated issues.

There is at present no standard work in English on the modern German novel; this carefully composed collection of essays by scholars from Britain, the United States and Australasia has been designed to remedy this situation. The volume includes general analyses of the modern and contemporary novel in the various German-speaking countries and of the individual work of the important novelists in these areas.

Analyzes the rich body of contemporary German novels and provides fresh insights into a number of particularly controversial works.