Publisher's Synopsis
The book is an invaluable guide to the literature of the German-speaking countries of the last one hundred and twenty years. It takes as its starting point the Grnderzeit and its prevailing ethos; it traces the breakthrough of die Moderne (Naturalism), the attitudes of fin de sicle aestheticism, the eruption of expressionism, the literature of the Weimar Republic, of Nazism and exile. The post-1945 division is discussed with regard to the divergent literary preoccupations which it engendered: the authors portray West German society as well as that of the former GDR. Their book is able to take stock briefly of the impact on literature of the events of November 9th, 1989.
