Product Description
Accounts of travel to England reached unprecedented levels of popularity in the German states in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Competition therefore increased for travel writers to produce travelogues which offered the most authentic, original and vibrant picture of England. The wider range of narrative strategies which travellers consequently deployed increasingly drew on the emotional responses of their audience whether to serve a political purpose, show concern for the darker side to the Industrial Revolution or simply demonstrate the humanitarian interests of the travellers themselves. In this broad-ranging study, Alison E. Martin draws on a variety of travellers, men and women, canonical and forgotten, to chart the fascinating variety of styles and approaches which mark this highly interdisciplinary genre. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume provides a reference to Anglo-Welsh and Welsh literature. It has been corrected, updated and revised since its original printing in 1986 and includes over 150 new pages, 400 new sections including contemporary writers, and features over 320 contributors and 3300 entries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Thegreatest encyclopedia of Welsh culture ever written
I enjoyed the original edition of this work ('The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales', 1986). This completely revised and up-dated version has increased the content by some 400 new entries (approximately 150 more pages) and all in all there are 3,250 entries. The editor Prof. Meic Stephens needs no introduction. He is one of the greatest scholars and specialists in his field (and not to be confused with the Welsh singer and poet Meic Stevens - for whom there is also an entry in this work). The entries from pages 1-825 range from 'A oes heddwch?' (i.e. 'is there peace' - the cry of the archdruid in the 'Gorsedd' ceremony) to the 'Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie' (Ger. Journal for Celtic Philology).
In addition to the main dictionary entries there is a preface as well as a useful pronunciation guide for non-Welsh-speakers. There is also a list of the 320 contributors. At the end of the work there is a chronologyof important historical and literary events which have marked Wales, culminating in the 1999 elections for the Welsh Assembly. This is followed by a threefold appendix pertaining to the 'eisteddfod' (Welsh festival of literature and culture). Even though many entries are from the Welsh language, the order of the companion reflects the English rather than Welsh alphabetical order. For instance, the 'ffon wen' ('white stick' -the once sick custom of sending a peeled hazel rod to mock the jilted man on the day of his girlfriend's wedding) appears before 'fran wen, y'(the mythical'white crow' invoked when talking to children). However, in a Welsh dictionary words beggining 'ff' would appear after all word with 'f'. Similarly, the 'llatai' ('love messenger' - usually a device in the form of a bird etc. with which a poet conveys his message) would normally appear after not before the entry on the 'London Welsh'.
This work is amazing in its wide range of content matter. The literature of Wales in all its forms is represented in clear, informative and concise entries. The companion deals with boththe literature written in the Welsh-languageand Anglo-Welsh literary forms (i.e. written by Welsh authors or poets in English). Perhaps the most famous Anglo-Welsh writer of international repute was Dylan Thomas (for whom there is a long detailed entry as well as entries on his major works and characters from those works). The writers of Anglo-Welsh literature often use the finest examples of English but also occasionallydialect - forms of 'Wenglish' (Welsh-English). Perhaps the most interesting genre of Anglo-Welsh literature is the short story form. The magazines 'Cambrensis' and 'the New Welsh Review' have pioneered this art form whereas other magazines like 'Planet' have just restricted this form by pandering only to well-known authors or authors of exotic provenance as well as promoting the editor's own work but never giving a voice to new Welsh talent (in the days ofthe original editor Ned Thomas, 'Planet' was a more powerful magazine).As this new companion shows, there is so much fresh talent in Wales today. Many short story writers have become renowned novelists and many Welsh poets have alsogained international fame.For instance, R.S. Thomas (who passed away only a couple ofyears after the publication of this companion) was one of the greatest poets WORLDWIDE and even nominated for the Nobel prize for literature.
By contrast, the Welsh language is marked by different traditions. Welsh-language poetry used literally hundreds of unique forms of poetic verse.An understanding of these poetic forms is essential to an appreciation of Welsh poetry. Thus there are entries on most of the major poetic forms : the 'cynghanedd', 'pryddest' and 'cywydd', 'sangiad' and 'gorchan' etc., to name but a few. All these very subtle terms are carefully explained with clear examples. The only problem I feel is that in the cases of the 'englyn' and the 'cynghanedd', for instance, the metre and alliterative patterns are illustrated by using English-language examples whereas extracts from actual Welsh verse (albeit with a translation provided) would have been better.
Wales was for centuries under English/Saxon rule, analogous with the position of the American Indians in their own homeland(incidentally, one entry of this companion deals with the so-called 'Welsh Indians' theMandan tribe descendants of Prince Madoc who supposedly visited America four centuries before Columbus). It is to be expected that, from the Welsh people'sservitude (and from their hope for freedom and justice) patriotism has alwaysbeen an important element in Welsh literary thought. In the medieval vaticinatory verse, for example, poets often looked tothe coming of a future 'mab darogan' or 'son of prophecy' who would come and redeem their nation. Indeeed, history is invariably inextricably linked with the literature of Wales through all stages of its evolution. It is therefore not incongruous to see a rich selection of political and historical entries that range from the ancient Laws of Hywel Dda (i.e. the Good) to concepts like 'cymhortha'. The political unrest of the C19th saw the activity of movements in Wales like the Rebecca Riots and the Scotch Cattle. Then in the C20th many Welsh people believed that their deliverer had come when Welshman David Lloyd George became prime minister of Britain. However, Welsh Nationalists even today regard him as a traitor to their cause and to the Welsh language which he did nothing to save. He compromised his pristineprofessions of Welsh patriotismfor his own political ambitions. Moreover, his token reforms were nothing compared with what a government of Kier Hardy's Labour Party would have achieved. Even though he is called the 'Welsh Wizard' (a title more aptly given also to the boxer Freddy Welsh) and also 'the man who won the war', he did little to bring Britain's involvement in W.W.1. to an end. The real heroes of this war were not sitting comfortably in Downing Street but being massacred in N. France. I am still moved to tears when I read about the greatyoung poet Hedd Wyn who was awarded the 'eisteddfod' chair posthumously after being killed in that war (see the entry on the 'black chair of Birkenhead').
Contemporary political expressions is also represented like 'Meibion Glyndwr'('Sons of Glyndwr' - i.e. named after the hero Owain Gyndwr) who opposed the trend of English hoiliday homes or 'tai haf' (summer houses)in Wales by committing arson. Unlike certain cultures who have sometimes resorted to violent means to secure independence, the Welsh have never indulged in violence (apart from the wars of history and the aforementioned extreme exception of vandalising property). The Welshman's social grievances have always been best expressed by the poet, journalist or novelist whether writing in Welsh or English.
Wales is the land of myth and culture. This fact is often reflected in the literature. If literature is the art of expressing a people, then to understand that people one must first be acquainted with their culture. The companion contains many entries prertaining to characters and incidents that are taken from the 'Mabinogion' (collection of Welsh mythology). Welsh legends are also represented such as Arthurian material and associated entries such as 'caledfwlch' (i.e. excalibur) and 'Ynys Afallon' (Avallon) etc.
Wales has a very rich folklore and the reader can also find many entries related to folk interest. There are supernatural beings such as the 'afanc' (water monster) and the 'bwci bo' (type of bogeyman), not to mention the 'tylwyth teg' ('fair people' - i.e. fairies) and the 'tanwedd' ( moving light presaging a death). Interesting customs are also included such as the 'ceffyl pren' ('wooden horse' - the Welsh equivalent of rough music/charivari), the 'dyn hysbys' ('wise man' - a type of folk magician), the 'stafell' and 'pwnco' ( wedding customs), 'Calan Gaeaf' ( literaly 'eve of winter' - the Welsh equivalent of Halloween)and the 'calennig' (New year's gift tradition) etc. Old games are also mentioned like 'bando'(a primitive version of hockey), 'cnapan' (a ball game) and the dialect word 'kayles' ( referring to a kind of skittles). Types of food are also mentioned such as 'brwes', 'llymru' and 'siot', etc. While there is so much material from Welsh folklore, in some of the entries the actual Welsh terms could have been supplied. For example, the corpse candle should have been described with its Welsh name 'cannwyl corff'. Similarly, the 'corpse bird' (which is a death omen is called in Welsh 'aderyn corff' and the Welsh equivalent of bundling 'courting in bed' was known as 'caru yn y gwely'. Moreover, the 'love spoon' (made by a man as a form of marriage proposal for his intended) is called either a 'llwy serch' or 'llwy caru'. In this entry the dialectword 'sboner' is used yet the purer Welsh word would be 'naddwr'( or carver).
There are so many other fascinating entries such as the 'coelbren y beirdd' or alphabet devised by Iolo Morganwg and untranslateable terms like 'hiraeth' (almost like a nostalgia, literally a 'longing')etc. This is an indispensable work for all those who loves Welsh culture. It is also a most interesting book for anyone who wants an authentic and detailed cultural insight into the people who were the original inhabitants of Britain. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: G. Bell and sons in 1895 in 237 pages; Subjects: German literature; History / Europe / Germany; Literary Criticism / European / German; ... Read more

Product Description
A complete translation into English of Ludwig Achim von Arnim's four novellas of 1812: "Isabella of Egypt", "Meluck Maria Blainville", "The Three Loving Sisters and the Lucky Dyer", and "Angelika the Genoese and Cosmus the Tightrope-Walker". ... Read more

Product Description
Writing Weimar shows how German literature between 1918 and 1933 is related both to the politics of the time and to longer-term cultural developments. Individual chapters discuss the dominant trends in particular literary genres and the significance of the term Neue Sachlichkeit, as well as the literary representation of the city, technology, and the First World War. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Rilke's great cycle of ten elegies, perhaps his most profound poetic achievement, had its inception on the morning of January 21, 1912, but was interrupted by the First World War and not completed until a decade later. The Duino Elegies are not only the result of an extraordinary kind of contact with the unseen world; they are an attempt to understand that world in its holistic relationship to the visible, tangible world. This powerful rendering of the cycle is a product of the collaboration between a poet, Norris, and a Germanist, Keele. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Breathtaking
"For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror we can just barely endure, and we admire it so because it calmly disdains to destroy us. Every angel is terrible."- Rainer Maria Rilke, First Elegy

The DuinoElegies are quite possibly the greatest work of Rainer Maria Rilke, himselfone of the greatest poets, German language or otherwise, of all time.Theelegies, writen in the cold vast chambers of Duino Castle, deal with allthe greatest issues of human existence:love, death, tragedy, God, andlife's very meaning.Their language reflects their origin:like theCastle's empty stone hallways, the words are perfectly formed; they arefragile and beautiful; weightless and profound.Rilke's first elegy beginswith a reflection on the awesome, terrifying power of beauty.He longs toexperience it, but knows that it would destroy him.As he writes on, thereader grows to understand and feel not only Rilke's longing, but his fear. The terrible beauty, looming behind all the elegies, is present in thetext.The poems inspire wonder, raise profound quetions with ineffableanswers, and fills us with awe as it calmly disdains to destroy us.

TheGerman text is perfect, but MacIntyre's translation is splendid and bestconveys the work's haunting and desolate undertones.While it seems to methat everyone should own and cherish the Duino Elegies, it is an absoluterequirement for anyone seeking to construct a serious collection of greatpoetry. ... Read more

Product Description
Friedrich Schiller was a dramatist and poet for the ages, an important aesthetic theorist, and among Germany's first historians. But he left few works of literary prose behind -- seven short tales and fragments, almost all from early in his career -- and although they include some of his most resonant in his own time, they are largely overlooked today. Several of the pieces -- which include The Ghost-Seer, A Magnanimous Act from Most Recent History, The Criminal of Lost Honor: A True Story, A Curious Example of Female Vengeance, Duke Alba at Breakfast at Castle Rudolstadt, Play of Fate: A Fragment of a True Story, and Haoh-Kiöh-Tschuen -- have never before appeared in English translation. But they are a seminal link in the evolution of the then-nascent German novella. They exhibit the anthropological curiosity and moral confusion that made Schiller's first drama, The Robbers, a sensation, demonstrating an original artistry that justifies consideration of scholars and students today, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth. New translations of the seven works appear here together with introductory critical essays. Contributors: Jeffrey L. High, Nicholas Martin, Otto W. Johnston, Gail K. Hart, Dennis F. Mahoney; Translators: Francis Lamport, Ian Codding, Jeffrey L. High, Ellis Dye, Edward T. Larkin, Carrie Ann Collenberg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

What can we learn from the air wars?
A very troubling book, especially in the wake of the 9-11 events. The author asks why the air war over German in the last years of WWII has not received more attention by German postwar authors. Troubling in the dimensions of the impact of the air war as he relates it: 600.000 civilian lives lost, 400.000 missions (counting single planes) flown by the RAF alone, 20.000 civilians or more killed in a single night's raid, etc. More troubling when one consideres the psychological impact on the survivors (short and long term).
Besides Sebald's question regarding the air war over Germany, it would be important to review the literature, produced by writers of the respective cultures, of air wars over Japan, Vietnam, Iraque or, now, Afghanistan.
It appears mass destructions of civiizations are not the provenance of one people or culture, hence long term morning efforts of affected people or cultures might benefit by being done jointly.
Certainly an important addition to any Holocaust library. ... Read more

Product Description
In a book written during the First World War, Thomas Mann wrote that political activity was alien to the German spirit and that "in fact the political element was absent from the German concept of education." The Politics of the Unpolitical demonstrates the essential unreliability of this generalization by focusing on the political activity of ten of Germany's most widely respected writers in the period from the French Revolution to the founding of the Bismarck Reich in 1871. Gordon A. Craig's book shows how Goethe, Schiller, Heinrich von Kleist, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Holderlin, and Heine were fascinated by the political issues of their day and reacted either by entering public service or threw themselves into efforts to change society for the better. In his study of ten of Germany's most important intellectuals Craig, focuses on their political views and activities and argues that they were not, in fact, representatives of the genre of the "unpolitical German." ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of essays demonstrates across a spectrum of cultural topics the productive intersection of feminism and German Studies. Taking gender as a central analytical catagory, the authors explore German literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, aspects of popular culture and film, and the impact of institutional and linguistic structures on womens's lives. Both in the variety of subjects treated and methodologies deployed, they reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary face of British German Studies today. ... Read more

Product Description
A thoroughly original picture dictionary featuring beautiful artwork. The vibrant pictures encourage the reader’s creativity while learning to identify objects and words. ... Read more

Product Description
While the first decade after the fall of the Berlin wall was marked by the challenges of unification and the often difficult process of reconciling East and West German experiences, many Germans expected that the new century would achieve normalization. The essays in this volume take a closer look at Germany s new normalcy and argue for a more nuanced picture that considers the ruptures as well as the continuities. Germany s new generation of writers is more diverse than ever before, and their texts often not only speak of a Germany that is multicultural but also take a more playful attitude toward notions of identity. Written with an eye toward similar and dissimilar developments and traditions on both sides of the Atlantic, this volume balances overviews of significant trends in present-day cultural life with illustrative analyses of individual writers and texts.

Contributors: Donovan Anderson, Laurel Cohen-Pfister, Birgit Dahlke, Katharina Gerstenberger, Rachel J. Halverson, Patricia Herminghouse, Josef Joffe, Julia Karolle-Berg, Sean McIntyre, Erika M. Nelson, Beret Norman, Sidney Norton, Gary Schmidt, Patricia Anne Simpson, Katya Skow, John Pizer and Aine Zimmerman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Postage
The text is great and provides valuable insights into the world of applied anthropology. The disappointing factor relates to the vacuum packaging of the book. This damaged its spine and means the book will always have a slightly odd appearance as well as some annoying 'waves'. ... Read more

Product Description

In this book, Gaby Thomson-Wohlgemuth explores the effects of ideology on the English-to-German translation of children’s literature under the socialist regime of the former German Democratic Republic. Giving prominence to extra-textual factors, the study undertakes a close investigation of the East German censorship machinery, showing that there was a close correlation between the socialist ideology propagated by the regime and the book selection process itself. Through an analysis of the contents of the print permit (censorship) files and the afterwords found in many books, Thomson-Wohlgemuth demonstrates that literature was re-written not only to placate the censor but also to directly guide the reader down the correct ideological path, both in the selection and interpretation of each translated text.

Thomson-Wohlgemuth begins this engaging study with a concise but thorough historical background of East German children's literature, setting the context for an examination of how the state and party operated to control the development of the genre. She highlights the fact that there was multi-level censorship at work, with the Unity Party propagating certain ideological literary policies, and the publishers self-censoring when selecting suitable texts for translation and publication. This book serves as an exemplary study of how publishers collaborated with the state in all Eastern European countries, and should be of interest to historians and children’s literature scholars alike.