This study of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) examines the poet's understanding of the malleable nature of identity, while addressing the question of Rilke's place in literary history. In line with contemporary literary theory which views the « self as a societal « construction and strategic narrative device, this study explores Rilke's preoccupations with identity in his work, as he investigates the disintegration of the subjective self in the modern world. Rilke's re-readings of the mythological figures of Orpheus and Narcissus in modern psychological terms, as well as in terms of traditional poetics, are keys not only to his poetics and his changing understanding of « self, but also to his evolving critique of society. This study tracks how Rilke's Orphic work disengages traditional patterns of perceptions, not only to challenge fidelity to history, but also to recover the power of traditional elements from that history to help articulate subjectivity in new terms.

W.G. Sebalds Nach der Natur. Ein Elementargedicht wurde 1988 mit sechs schwarz-weiss Fotografien des Munchener Kunstlers Thomas Becker publiziert. Erst Sebalds spatere Werke Schwindel. Gefuhle (1990), Die Ausgewanderten. Vier lange Erzahlungen (1992), Die Ringe des Saturn. Eine englische Wallfahrt (1995) und Austerlitz (2001) erregten die Aufmerksamkeit der kritischen OEffentlichkeit. Jedoch handelt es sich bei Nach der Natur - im handwerklichsten Sinne - um das Meisterstuck des Autors. Dieses Buch setzt sich in einer konkreten und textnahen Betrachtung mit dem Gedicht Nach der Natur auseinander. Im speziellen hat es sich diese Arbeit zur Aufgabe gemacht, die unzahligen - teils versteckten, teils offensichtlichen - Hinweise, die Sebald in das Gedicht eingebaut hat, literarisch einzuordnen und zu erlautern. Die Analyse folgt dabei der Chronologie des Gedichts. Zusatzlich sind die sechs Bilder von Thomas Becker, die Teil der ursprunglichen Publikation von Nach der Naturwaren, hier reproduziert.

When Germany lost its colonial empire after the Great War, many Germans were unsure how to understand this transition. They were the first Europeans to experience complete colonial loss, an event which came as Germany also wrestled with wartime collapse and foreign occupation. In this book the author considers how Germans experienced this change from imperial power to postcolonial nation. This work examines what the loss of the colonies meant to Germans, and it analyzes how colonialist categories took on new meanings in Germany's « post-colonial period. Poley explores a varied collection of materials that ranges from the stories of popular writer Hanns Heinz Ewers to the novels, essays, speeches, pamphlets, posters, and archival materials of nationalist groups in the occupied Rhineland to show how decolonization affected Germans. When the relationships between metropole and colony were suddenly severed, Germans were required to reassess many things: nation and empire, race and power, sexuality and gender, economics and culture.

This study of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) examines the poet's understanding of the malleable nature of identity, while addressing the question of Rilke's place in literary history. In line with contemporary literary theory which views the � self as a societal � construction and strategic narrative device, this study explores Rilke's preoccupations with identity in his work, as he investigates the disintegration of the subjective self in the modern world. Rilke's re-readings of the mythological figures of Orpheus and Narcissus in modern psychological terms, as well as in terms of traditional poetics, are keys not only to his poetics and his changing understanding of � self, but also to his evolving critique of society. This study tracks how Rilke's Orphic work disengages traditional patterns of perceptions, not only to challenge fidelity to history, but also to recover the power of traditional elements from that history to help articulate subjectivity in new terms.