The Dear Purchase: A Theme in German Modernism

by J. P. Stern, Nicholas Boyle

Overview

Completed shortly before Professor Stern's death in 1991, this book studies works by twelve major writers of German modernism, including Thomas Mann, Musil, Brecht and Rilke, in relation to the history of the twentieth century. It explores the theme of the "dear purchase," an ideal of moral strenuousness and sacrifice seen as characteristic of Germany after Nietzsche, and reveals the underlying flaw in this notion as a self-justifying value. Finally, it juxtaposes Mann's Felix Krull and Kafka's story "Josephine" as a deliverance from the value-system of the title.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521433303
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/02/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in German
Pages:	468
Product dimensions:	5.67(w) x 8.74(h) x 1.14(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by Nicholas Boyle; Editor's preface; Introduction; 1. The theme; 2. Reality; 3. Relativity; 4. The Great War; 5. The purchase of poetry; 6. Rendering account; 7. A deliverance of sorts; 8. Postscript: the divided self; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Stern is a brave traveller, and—on the subject of literature as distinct from the events of history—a magnanimous observer, more disposed to understand than to accuse." D.J. Enright, German Literature

"This book has historical value, documenting a critical as well as loving reception of twentieth-century German literature by one who was deeply affected by the upheavals of this century caused by Germans. It engages the reader when Stern, though basically conservative, transcends so many shopworn conventions. The reader is enriched by it, even when he or she disagrees." Herbert Lehnert, Journal of English and Germanic Philology

From the Publisher