An Introduction to German Literature, 1871-1990

The breaching of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the unification of Germany later were thrilling events which focused world attention on that country which, for good or ill, has radically altered the course of world history in the twentieth century. Germany, defeated in two world wars, has nevertheless come to rule over vast areas of the world's mind, with Nietzsche, Kafka, Rilke, Hesse, Thomas Mann, Brecht, Boll and Grass as emissaries or spokesmen of a modern age. Whoever wishes to understand Europe must understand Germany and its writers, for it is they who bring messages disturbing, bewildering, unsettling and fascinating. Austria and Switzerland also provide a literature which is very much of our time. The hammering and dynamiting of Nietzsche, the elegant obfuscations of Kafka, the fuming of the Expressionists, the magisterial poise of Thomas Mann, all dominated the literary scene of Europe until 1945; since then the writers of both West and East Germany tell of worlds conditioned by ideological confrontation, an overcoming of the past and a realism both social and magical. Equally fascinating is the attitude of writers to the recent events in German history, their responses, deliberations and reservations. This book provides an excellent guide to the German-speaking writers of the last 120 years, enabling the reader to understand the literary responses to those momentous events which have altered so many lives.