Pretexts for Writing: German Romantic Prefaces, Literature, and Philosophy

Author:   Seán M. Williams
Publisher:   Bucknell University Press,U.S.
ISBN:  

9781684480524


Pages:   278
Publication Date:   01 March 2019
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Pretexts for Writing: German Romantic Prefaces, Literature, and Philosophy


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Overview

Around 1800, print culture became a particularly rich source for metaphors about thinking as well as writing, nowhere more so than in the German tradition of Dichter und Denker. Goethe, Jean Paul, and Hegel (among many others) used the preface in order to reflect on the problems of writing itself, and its interpretation. If Sterne teaches us that a material book enables mind games as much as it gives expression to them, the Germans made these games more theoretical still. Weaving in authors from Antiquity to Agamben, Williams shows how European-and, above all, German-Romanticism was a watershed in the history of the preface. The playful, paradoxical strategies that Romantic writers invented are later played out in continental philosophy, and in post-Structuralist literature. The preface is a prompt for playful thinking with texts, as much as it is conventionally the prosaic product of such an exercise. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Full Product Details

Author:   Seán M. Williams
Publisher:   Bucknell University Press,U.S.
Imprint:   Bucknell University Press,U.S.
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.388kg
ISBN:  

9781684480524


ISBN 10:   1684480523
Pages:   278
Publication Date:   01 March 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

a study of tremendous academic rigor with original insights. it shows deep knowledge of both eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature and philosophy and the many conversations in contemporary literary studies pertaining to them.it is an achievement in scholarship pertaining to the age of Goethe, romanticism, and literary studies at large. --Till Dembeck The German Quarterly Recommended. --Till Dembeck Choice Pretexts for Writing discusses the history of the literary and philosophical self-authored preface in the German speaking world around 1800 with an intensity and analytical depth previously unachieved in scholarship. --Till Dembeck University of Luxembourg This debut book, in short, contains much that is scintillant and surely announces the arrival of an important new scholarly voice in Germanistik. --Till Dembeck Modern Language Review


Pretexts for Writing discusses the history of the literary and philosophical self-authored preface in the German speaking world around 1800 with an intensity and analytical depth previously unachieved in scholarship. --Till Dembeck University of Luxembourg


"""Pretexts for Writing discusses the history of the literary and philosophical self-authored preface in the German speaking world around 1800 with an intensity and analytical depth previously unachieved in scholarship.""— Till Dembeck, University of Luxembourg ""Recommended.""— Choice ""a study of tremendous academic rigor with original insights. it shows deep knowledge of both eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature and philosophy and the many conversations in contemporary literary studies pertaining to them.it is an achievement in scholarship pertaining to the age of Goethe, romanticism, and literary studies at large.""— The German Quarterly ""This debut book, in short, contains much that is scintillant and surely announces the arrival of an important new scholarly voice in Germanistik.""— Modern Language Review ""This book is perceptive, timely, and ambitious: perceptive in that it zeroes in on serious gaps in research, the exploration of which may alter our views of eighteenth-century German literature.""— Lessing Yearbook/Jahrbuch XLVIII ""Pretexts for Writing is an insightful, original, and persuasive work—compelling pretexts for reading.""  — Goethe Yearbook"


Author Information

Seán M. Williams is a lecturer in German and European cultural history in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sheffield, UK, following an appointment as Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow. He was previously lecturer (“wissenschaftlicher Assistent”) in German and comparative literature at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has publishedon German literature and philosophy around 1800, in comparative contexts.

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