Bücher der Reihe Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association

Against the background of debates about a revival of humanist values, this volume seeks to recast the question of the viability of the humanities by analyzing their long-disputed premises in German literature and philosophy.

German economic crises from the past two hundred years have provoked diverse responses from journalists, politicians, scholars, and fiction writers. Among their responses, storylines have developed as proposals for reducing unemployment, improving workplace conditions, and increasing profitability when stock markets tumble, accompanied by inflation, deflation, and overwhelming debt. The contributors to Invested Narratives assess German-language economic crisis narratives from the interdisciplinary perspectives of finance, economics, political science, sociology, history, literature, and cultural studies. They interpret the ways German society has tried to comprehend, recover from, and avoid economic crises and in doing so widen our understanding of German economic debates and their influence on German society and the European Union.

Modern religious identities are rooted in collective memories that are constantly made and remade across generations. How do these mutations of memory distort our picture of historical change and the ways that historical actors perceive it? Can one give voice to those whom history has forgotten? The essays collected here examine the formation of religious identities during the Reformation in Germany through case studies of remembering and forgetting-instances in which patterns and practices of religious plurality were excised from historical memory. By tracing their ramifications through the centuries, Archeologies of Confession carefully reconstructs the often surprising histories of plurality that have otherwise been lost or obscured.

Addresses arguably the most important German writer in the period of since World War II until her death in 2011. Scholars across the U.S. and Europe address both the importance of her role in contributing to the cultural life of East Germany and the controversies surrounding her life and works in the aftermath of the collapse of East Germany.

In spite of having been short-lived, WeimarA" has never lost its fascination. Until recently the Weimar Republic's place in German history was primarily defined by its catastrophic beginning and end-Germany's defeat in 1918 and the Nazi seizure of power in 1933...

Taking as a point of departure Martin Luther's redefinition of marriage, the contributors to this volume spin out the multiple ways that the Reformers' attempts to simplify and clarify marriage affected education, philosophy, literature, high politics, diplomacy, and law.

This discerning study analyzes and contextualizes Kracauer's early output, showing how he identified the quasi-theological roots of the era's cultural ferment.

For two centuries, Gesamtkunstwerk-the ideal of the "total work of art"-has exerted a powerful influence over artistic discourse and practice, spurring new forms of collaboration and provoking debates over the political instrumentalization of art. Despite its popular conflation with the work of Richard Wagner, Gesamtkunstwerk's lineage and legacies extend well beyond German Romanticism, as this wide-ranging collection demonstrates. In eleven compact chapters, scholars from a variety of disciplines trace the idea's evolution in German-speaking Europe, from its foundations in the early nineteenth century to its manifold articulations and reimaginings in the twentieth century and beyond, providing an uncommonly broad perspective on a distinctly modern cultural form.

For many years, scholars struggled to write the history of the constitution and political structure of the Holy Roman Empire. This book argues that this was because the political and social order could not be understood without considering the rituals and symbols that held the Empire together. What determined the rules (and whether they were followed) depended on complex symbolic-ritual actions.By examining key moments in the political history of the Empire, the author shows that it was a vocabulary of symbols, not the actual written laws, that formed a political language indispensable in maintaining the common order.

The essays in this volume explore significant physical and psychological aspects of life in the GDR, such as health and diet, leisure and dining, memories of the Nazi past, as well as identity, sports, and experiences of everyday humiliation.

The Holy Roman Empire has often been anachronistically assumed to have been defunct long before it was actually dissolved at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The authors of this volume reconsider the significance of the Empire in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

The Holy Roman Empire has often been anachronistically assumed to have been defunct long before it was actually dissolved at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The authors of this volume reconsider the significance of the Empire in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

Why is Germany imagined as the 'land of music'? How has that image been made over time? Exploring examples that range from Bruckner to the Beatles, from classical song to sex-club dance music, a team of historians and musicologists explores these perennial questions in innovative and exciting ways.

Examining the material aspects of emotion, this volume encompasses technology, photography, aesthetics, and a variety of other historical themes in an innovative application of emotion studies. Feelings Materialized brings together an interdisciplinary group of Germanists to unveil the emotions embedded in the world of things and bodies.

Can one give voice to those whom history has forgotten? The essays collected here examine the formation of religious identities during the Reformation in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany through case studies of remembering and forgetting-instances in which patterns and practices of religious plurality were excised from historical memory.

During the twentieth century, Germans experienced a long series of major and often violent disruptions in their everyday lives. Such chronic instability and precipitous change made it difficult for them to make sense of their lives as coherent stories-and for scholars to reconstruct them in retrospect. Ruptures in the Everyday brings together an international team of twenty-six researchers from across German studies to craft such a narrative. This collectively authored work of integrative scholarship investigates Alltag through the lens of fragmentary anecdotes from everyday life in modern Germany. Across ten intellectually adventurous chapters, this book explores the self, society, families, objects, institutions, policies, violence, and authority in modern Germany neither from a top-down nor bottom-up perspective, but focused squarely on everyday dynamics at work "e;on the ground."e;

This volume offers a coherent and interdisciplinary approach to a wide variety of early modern subjects centered on onomastics, the study of names. Leading scholars in the field seek to explore the dynamics and impact of this naming (or renaming) process in a variety of contexts: social, artistic, literary, theological, and scientific.

Why is Germany imagined as the `land of music'? How has that image been made over time? Exploring examples that range from Bruckner to the Beatles, from classical song to sex-club dance music, a team of historians and musicologists explores these perennial questions in innovative and exciting ways.

The modern vision of historical violence has been immeasurably influenced by cultural representations of the Second World War. This volume takes a historical perspective on World War II museums and explores how these institutions came to define the broader European, and even global, political contexts and cultures of public memory.

Germany's leading role in EU economic policy following the 2008 financial crisis is in a sense only the latest step in a long history of attempts at political unification through economic integration. This volume follows this trajectory in German-speaking lands from the late Renaissance until the close of the 20th century.

The essays collected here reconstruct the experiences of vagrants, laborers, religious exiles, refugees, and other migrants during the last five hundred years of German history. These diverse contributions identify important commonalities between eras and contextualize Germany within broader migration histories.

In this wide-ranging volume's twelve compact essays, scholars from across the disciplines trace Gesamtkunstwerk-the ideal of the "total work of art"-from its foundations in the early nineteenth century to its manifold articulations and reimaginings in the twentieth century and beyond.

A seeming constant in the history of capitalism, greed has nonetheless undergone considerable transformations over the last five hundred years. This multilayered account offers a fresh take on an old topic, arguing that greed was experienced as a moral phenomenon and deployed to make sense of an unjust world. Focusing specifically on the interrelated themes of religion, economics, and health-each of which sought to study and channel the power of financial desire-Jared Poley shows how evolving ideas about greed became formative elements of the modern experience.

This edited volume explores the crossings, permeations, and constructions of cultural and political borders between peoples and territories, examining how walls, borders, and boundaries signify both interdependence and contact within sites of conflict and separation.

David Warren Sabean was a pioneer in the historical-anthropological study of kinship, community, & selfhood in early modern & modern Europe. The significance of Sabean's scholarship is reflected in original research contributed by former students & essays written by his contemporaries, demonstrating Sabean's impact on the discipline of history.

Ranging from the Reformation, through the ages of confessionalization, to the Enlightenment, Mixed Matches addresses the historical complexity of the socio-cultural institution of marriage.

In spite of having been short-lived, "Weimar" has never lost its fascination. Until recently the Weimar Republic's place in German history was primarily defined by its catastrophic beginning and end - Germany's defeat in 1918 and the Nazi seizure of power in 1933; its history seen mainly in terms of politics and as an arena of flawed decisions...

Michel Foucault's seminal The History of Sexuality (1976-1984) has since its publication provided a context for the emergence of critical historical studies of sexuality. This collection reassesses the state of the historiography on sexuality - a field in which the German case has been traditionally central...

This edited volume explores the crossings, permeations, and constructions of cultural and political borders between peoples and territories, examining how walls, borders, and boundaries signify both interdependence and contact within sites of conflict and separation.