German Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #178

by Nicholas Boyle

German literature in all genres and from all historical periods has exerted an enormous influence on the history of western thought. From Martin Luther, Frederick Schiller, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Gunter Grass, Germany has produced an impressive number of great writers and great works. In German Literature: A Very Short Introduction, Nicholas Boyle illuminates the particular character and power of German literature and explores its impact on the larger cultural world. Boyle presents an engrossing tour of German literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, focussing especially on the last 250 years. He examines key themes like idealism, modernism, materialism, trauma and memory, showing how they have imbued the great German writers with such distinctive voices. Indeed, this brief introduction offers broad coverage of German literature, revealing the links between German literature and the German nation, examining the literary and philosophical responses of German writers to social, political, and economic change, and seeking out the connections between Germany's intellectual traditions and its often violent and tragic history.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, German Literature, Germany, History, Literary Criticism, Philosophy

171 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2008

About the author

Nicholas Boyle is Schröder Professor of German Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow and former President of Magdalene College.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction into German literature - with the typical flaws!

Until the very last chapter, I was willing to give the introduction highest marks for doing what it is supposed to do: giving an overview of German literature from the Medieval beginnings over the classical age of Goethe, Schiller, Kant and Lessing to the modern classics from Theodor Fontane, Thomas Mann and Brecht to Böll, Grass and Wolf. For whoever is new to German literature, it may still be the best possible way to get a decent introduction, including the strange nation building process in the 19th entury and the self-inflicted wound of 20th century history.

What spoiled the reading pleasure for me on the last pages was the author's quite late realisation that he needed to include a woman, and a judgement on East Germany, before closing the introduction. Used to the fact that literary scholars swipe past women with a word or two while analysing men's short stories in detail, I was not bothered until I read the following classic statement of literary sexism, describing Christa Wolf's transition "to the later standpoint, from which she tries to write". Call me over-sensitive, but after having read almost her entire works this year, I think I know Christa Wolf deserves better, and the author could give her credit for WRITING, like her male counterparts, not just TRYING to do it.

As this introduction was written two years before she published her major work on the Wende, Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud, I will forgive him for the arrogant comment:

"Those, like Christa Wolf, who had already once rebuilt their lives on those hollow foundations could not be expected to reconstruct themselves after a second trauma. But for established Western writers and younger writers from the East a new degree of honesty became possible."

No, actually. I won't forgive a scholar for not doing his homework. In 2008, Christa Wolf had published a whole collection of honest reflections on the three consecutive Germanys she had lived in, and there is absolutely no need in the world to believe that "established Western writers" would be more honest in their novels.

Well, apart from the obvious bias and the tendency to judge literature as being either "Protestant" or "Catholic" (sometimes, it is just human, actually!), it was worth reading for the overview it gave and the insight into the choosing process of a specialist picking from the whole of his field.

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course and from the very title of this book, I did not in any manner actually expect author Nicholas Boyle to be presenting in his German Literature: A Very Short Introduction a detailed and as such intensive presentation of German literature and literary history. And yes, as someone with a PhD in German literature I am also in my opinion not even the intended audience here, for obviously German Literature: A Very Short Introduction has been penned and conceptualised first and foremost as a basic and indeed very much general overview of German literature from the Middle Ages to modern times, and which indeed Nicholas Boyle has for the most part successfully and adequately achieved, introducing to his readers Germany’s most well-known authors (individuals such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller, Theodor Fontane, Thomas Mann, Berthold Brecht, Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll), a little too on the proverbial surface for my academic reading tastes, but as a general introduction, exactly what the proverbial doctor has ordered (although I do indeed and even strongly believe that the bibliography section of German Literature: A Very Short Introduction is rather lacking, in so far that it should be listing not only English language tomes on German literature, that there really should also be German language books on the subject included, and I certainly have been quite disappointed that Boyle has not bothered listing even one German language literary history).

But even though I do appreciate the general intent and set-up of Nicholas Boyle’s text, I still have to consider parts of German Literature: A Very Short Introduction rather a strange and even majorly dismal failure. For one, I do not at all agree with Boyle’s in my opinion rather simplistic and judgmental division of German literature as somehow either thematically Protestant or Catholic (as while religion based literature might have been prominent in Germany prior to the 18th century, sorry, but in my opinion, post the Age of Enlightenment, German literature has become ever increasingly secular). And for two (and with this I echo my GR friend Lisa) Nicholas Boyle’s active ignoring of MOST German women authors and his subsequent annoying denigration of Christa Wolf does certainly and personally majorly grate and chafe and has unfortunately also made me lower my original consideration of a solid three star rating for German Literature: A Very Short Introduction to but two stars (and yes, to also consider recommending this book only with some rather major reservations).

[Steven Walle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very concise introduction to German literature from the middle ages up to moddern days. I enjoyed it very much.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond

[ErinBeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seemed a lot harder to read that I think it should have been. I've been reading a bunch of books from this "short introduction series" , and most of them don't feel like an "introduction" to me. I would expect an "introduction" to mean that it is a fairly easy non-fiction read and easily understandable for someone who has no prior knowledge on the subject, and most of these do not seem to be that way. For this particular one, I was able to follow it for the most part, but it was a difficult read. Also, it seemed more like a historical/cultural lesson about germany with literature thrown in as an afterthought, when the title makes it seem like the main subject should be german literature. I do understand that it helps to have a background on the politics and culture to understand the literature, but considering this is supposed to be a "short introduction to german lit", i guess i would expect the majority of the book to talk about german lit. But it felt like maybe 3 quarters of the book was about german history/culture. I did learn some things from the book, just wasn't what i would have expected.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serviceable overview. It was a good idea to include Wagner, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer.. But where are Musil and Broch? Also - and this is rare for me in reading a book about books - I am not inspired to read any of the books he mentions. Overviews should be more inspiring/motivating

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this difficult to read, and not very helpful as an overview of German literature. To see my review please visit
http://anzlitlovers.com/2017/03/12/ge...

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many routes we can take when giving a brief description of a national literature. We can focus on highlights and personalities, on cultural curiosities and peculiarities or on specific effect of the "terroir" and homegrown mythology of that nation. Readers usually prefer approaches that place the writers and books they admire into a context, that can then serve to lead them to more great books to read. Nicholas Boyle, a Goethe expert and Professor of German at Cambridge University, here takes a rather tectonic A to B approach, looking at the shifts in German history chronologically and using them to enlighten us as to their effects on German literature, and viceversa. In doing so, he first makes clear that he is not talking about literature in German, so no Kafka (Czech), Musil, Zweig, Broch, Schnitzler (Austrians) or Walser (Swiss), to name but a few. The upside of this approach is that it gives you a true overview that the discussion of a handful of great writers would not. The downside is that it is unashamedly academic, opting for the dry and persuasive over the inspired and inspiring.

The fault line under German literature, according to Boyle, is the antagonism between the nobility (and its staunchly supportive bureaucracy) and the bourgeoisie. On the one hand tradition and rectitude, on the other pluralistic disruption, with or without self-interest attached. This divide drove the creation of Art as the defining mark of literature, essentially what we all file it under, keeping the written word under the control of the guardians of divine right and innate superiority.

Boyle neatly and scrupulously (albeit rather dryly and donnishly, as mentioned above, which will surely lose him many readers at an early stage) follows this strand through the different movements throughout history, alighting on the major figures of Goethe and Schiller (co-opted by the nobility for their own "classicist" purposes) and then the attempts to break free of the strictures of the bureaucracy's stranglehold on the German take on Art.

He does pick up on a number of main figures, often illuminating how their personal circumstances affected their place in this pantheon. (Kleist, for example, apparently committed suicide in his infamous pact because he was unable to see how he could devote his life to literature.) Boyle looks at the important works by Thomas Mann and how they delineated the German dichotomy, in particular the return to the legend of Dr. Faust, which bestrides German literary history like a colossus indeed. He also finds plenty of time in the middle section for the 19th century philosophers, led by Immanuel Kant, and their influence. He ends, just after having dismissed Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass with a combination of backhanded praise for early works and a forehanded haymaker aimed at their work as a whole, with the sadly departed W. G. Sebald. At this point the aftermath of WW2 (and the exaggerated fist of officialdom in the form of the Nazis having rather overplayed their hand) still hangs like a pall over German letters and their response to Germany's place in the cultural world. Unfortunately, ending his arc here, while more or less neatly closing his argument, ignores the works of younger writers who we might term to be outside of that war-tainted generation, such as Daniel Kehlmann. Pointing towards the (or at least "a") future beyond the war might at least serve to give a clearer-headed view of where German literature is at today.

One quibble of mine is over his use of translations into English of some German terms that have already gone into the language. Thus we get "Storm and Stress" for "Sturm und drang", which, while conventionally acceptable, doesn't work for me at all. Indeed, I believe this translation tends to get passed over in most usage (at least in layman's usage). There has to be some kind of criterion applied, though. After all, can we imagine anyone seriously trying to translate the word "Blitzkrieg" into English? Or "schadenfreude"? Or "doppelgänger"?

To summarise, this is a cogently argued piece that serves to give some real shape to the field, which is essentially what we ask of these introductions. Boyle allows the bigger picture to prevail without sacrificing the smaller details, completing a deceptively solid introduction for such a short book, which nevertheless takes longer to read than one might expect.

[bermudianabroad]

So drrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyah.
I'm going to try it again with more focus but my eyes just slid over the page without taking in any of the words. I didn't learn anything about German Literature, but I won't let it defeat me.

[Dario Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Em geral esses livros da coleção "A very short introduction", da Oxford são bem interessantes e cumprem o seu papel de uma vista geral sobre um Uma boa introdução, apesar de breve, da literatura alemã desde Lutero.

[Ben Craik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boyle is clearly a man very much in command of his subject, a fact that shows itself in his ability to unite such a broad theme in a single compelling narrative. Perhaps appropriately, this takes the form of a dialectic, here between the two expressions of middle class life in Germany: officialdom and the bourgeoisie. The official class and the ethos of 'Bildung' that united it is fairly unique to German intellectual life, and it is really its contributions to the struggle that mark German writing and thinking out from the rest. Nevertheless, the conflict (or wavering between) the two makes for some interesting readings of the German Enlightenment or the Sturm und Drang, which produced Goethe's 'Ur-Faust' and Schiller's Robbers. The same goes for a number of individual works, including what Boyle argues is (an attempt at) the synthesis of official and bourgeois thought in Kant's Critique. This is probably the best Very Short Introduction I've read.

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author starts with the reformation and brings us to the development of ideas to the present time. It would be interesting to read an updated version of this book since it covered adequately the period ending in 2008 when the book was published. I found the book hard going and was happy that I was familiar with many of the names and the Basic philosophy is spending that time period. My strengths lie in the 20th century history though I was probably least familiar with the literary names of that time period. I found myself skimming through the book because the ideas are very abstract, at least in his presentation of them. I would understand the ideas more hopefully from reading the actual works and this was the main reason I picked up this book was to become more familiar with the work titles so that I could investigate them on my own. I have to admit I have read some of Thomas Mann and put the books down because I found them very dark. However, this was many years ago and I didn’t read his most famous work so I can try again. I would recommend this book and hopefully out there someone has written a less dense treatment of the subject matter. It is my experience that most books that cover Germany, German history, philosophy and no literature tend to write a very dense and abstract ideas. I don’t think I’m the one to change that. But maybe someday.

[Ursy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt - well, maybe a nice way of putting it would be ‘poorly marketed’. As a Germanist myself, I expected to feel quite at home in this ‘short introduction’ that seems to be aimed at a market with no or little prior knowledge of the subject. As I think another review mentioned, this book read less like a mini guide and more like a PhD thesis with sentences that haven’t been edited yet. It was a real shame to find a writer who still seems keen to keep German literature to a purely intellectual sphere - this is just written at a far higher level than could be expected of the market of this book. And by higher level, I mean being a German academic.

It was a shame to feel this book was more likely to put a new reader off German literature, rather than advocate the stuff.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really what I expected.

The author took such a judgmental tone at times that I wondered if he actually liked German literature at all. He seemed intent on pointing out how German literature had developed differently than English literature and thus was bad.

I have to agree with the other reviewer who said you came away from this book without a feeling that you had found other authors that you might want to read. Boyle made you feel that German literature was a thing best avoided.

[RKanimalkingdom]

DNF
I feel these books should be “let’s see how much info I can pack into a tiny book with tiny font” aka “we say it’s an introduction but really we assume you already have in-depth knowledge on all the topics we cover”.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chaotic, and, from what I know, quite incorrect.

[Cephalopodophil. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little book packed with a concise cultural history of German literature.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had great hopes for German Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Nicholas Boyle, with the core expectation being that the text and author would help clarify and summarise the panoply of important German writers and their texts, whilst also giving me more reason to explore particular texts and authors. As someone who has some familiarity with some major German composers, such as Goethe, Schiller, Thomas Mann, Gunther Grass, Herman Hesse, Alfred Doblin, Berthold Brecht, Hans Fallada etc, I thought that Boyle would make these writers and their works accessible. Instead, for so much of the book one is mired in a highly obtuse critical dialectic that focuses on how bourgeoise German literature has been, thus battering the reader with a Marxist literary reading that seriously discourages one from reading both this book and the authors and the works that Boyle cites. Throw in either the belittling of popular books that have had a significant effect on German and international (literary) consciousness, and the ignoring of certain writers, and one is left rather disappointed with this Oxford University Press book.

Boyle does start off reasonably well in that he makes it clear that his book ignores the work of writers outside of the territories of those states and cities that, over the last four to five centuries have become the basis of German nations and/or empires. By excluding Austrian, Swiss and other German-language writers who have not been integrated into the socio-political history of Germany Boyle ensures that both he and the reader are focused on more narrowly relevant terms of reference than if this book tried to engage with the wider scope of German as a Pan-European language. It goes without saying that the likes of Durrenmatt, Kafka and Zweig are great German language writers, but they are not German per se.

Also, Boyle does a decent job through the entirety of German Literature: A Very Short Introduction when it comes to speaking to the political, economic, social and philosophical aspects of German history, and these have informed and interacted with the development of German literature. For example, in his chapter on the period when German Romanticism could be said to have been at its peak, Boyle does a very good job at speaking to the work of Goethe, Schiller, Holderin, Hegel and Kleist, with some very useful notes on how many of these writers coalesced around Jena and Weimar, whilst also responding to or reacting against English and French influences or interventions. The same can be said when the book considers the broad historical underpinnings of the divided post-war countries of the FRD and GDR (West and East Germany respectively).

Having said that, as mentioned previously the obsession with the bourgeoise nature of German literary culture and society becomes tiresome and too dense for readers who may be less interested in the political-economic theories that Boyle pivots his narrative around. It gets bloody tiring reading Boyle's more dense passages of literary and philosophical criticism, when more often one would've preferred some more prosaic details and opinions. It's also disappointing that popular and what might be considered mass market literature is given short shrift. Boyle dismisses All Quiet on the Western Front as a pot boiler, ignores children's literature entirely (for example nothing is said of Erich Kastner), makes no mention of the pulp westerns of Karl May and somehow forgets to reference Hans Fallada. Even though it might not be considered high literary art, to exclude Anne Frank's diary also seems either absurd and/or elitist. Oh and why are the Brothers Grimm given way less coverage than Martin Heidigger?

Perhaps I came to German Literature: A Very Short Introduction with the wrong expectations, and Boyle and his editor and publisher were looking to have this book read by academics or German literature specialists. If the brief for the author was to meet the latter audiences' expectations it probably does the job. However, for a relative dilettante such as myself, let alone a newbie who has never heart of Faust etc, this is a bit of a missed opportunity.

[Frank Keizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voor een introductie veronderstelt dit boek een behoorlijke vertrouwdheid met de Duitse geschiedenis en haar specifieke retorische en historische debatten. Bij momenten leest het daardoor wat droog, al kreeg ik wel zin om de auteurs te lezen om mijn eigen interpretaties te toetsen aan die van de auteur. Boyle neemt methodologisch een nogal anglocentrisch standpunt in ten aanzien van de Duitse literatuur, waarbij de laatste, op grond van de strijd tussen de twee grote hoofdstromingen en klassen van de Duitse maatschappij, de burgers en de aristocraten, degenen die in de markt leefden en zij die door een prinselijk hof of bureaucratische staat ondersteund werden, bijna automatisch in compromissen moet existeren die in Engeland, zogezegd, zonder strijd zijn gefuseerd. De auteur steekt zijn voorkeur voor het realisme, tegenover het idealistische bouwwerk van het Duitse denken, met zijn "suprahistorische Bildung" als klassensamenwerking die uiteindelijk aan zijn contradicties ten onder gaat, niet onder stoelen of banken. Toch zijn de besprekingen van de verschillende auteurs zijn vaak prikkelende mini-essays, soms polemisch, soms ronduit bevooroordeeld, zoals wanneer hij Christa Wolf verwijt een carrière te hebben gebouwd op een vals bewustzijn waarvan zij, na het ineenstorten van de DDR, nooit bekomen is. Vrouwelijke auteurs zijn in dit overzicht sowieso gemarginaliseerd. Zo is de vraag misschien breder of deze geschiedenis, met zijn verzelfstandiging van deze twee hoofdrollen, burger en ambtsdrager - hier tot een schematische weergave van de geschiedenis geworden - de subjecten die zich niet aan deze indeling kunnen of willen conformeren een te geringe plek toekent?

[Ruby Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This low-key made me feel a bit dumb because there were so many writers and so much history that I’d never heard of. It was definitely a short introduction rather than a simple introduction it’s fair to say. Even if I didn’t understand everything it’s given me a good overview and introduced me to way more connections between classics and german that I ever would have expected. From this I’m gonna try and read about Hölderlin who sounds like a german Keats, i’ve ordered a book about German history and I’m gonna read up on German philosophy. It was cool though to see all the links between my interests like Theology and Martin Luther and Kant and Classics and poetry. :).

[Tom Ashton-Davies · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt like me writing an essay but would prefer to answer a different question, then I put the occasional line in to show that I do know what the question actually is. A lot of classism, history etc but not literature. Also mentions a woman I think once - feel like more than one German woman might have written a book …

[A. B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather dry. Felt more like a history lesson on German culture than a history of German literature. While I recognize the importance the social and historical background has for literature, I would have preferred a cleaner account focused on literature. The book felt unnecessarily denser than it needed to be.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The English-born scholar of German Literature Nichlos Boyle published German Literature in 2008. Boyle’s book is focused on the literature of the country of Germany starting within that geographic area of the present-day country of Germany around the time of Martin Luther until 2001. The last significant writers that Boyle covers in his introduction to German Literature are the late writer W.G. Sebald and the poet Durs Grübein. The first chapter is an essay on the relationship between the middle class, the government, and literature from the 16th Century until modern-day Germany. The second chapter is on German literature from Martin Luther until 1781. Boyle believes that 1781 was an important year in German literature. In 1781, Fredrich Schiller published Die Räuber (The Robbers). Boyle writes, “With The Robbers, an independent modern German literary tradition begins” (Boyle 56). Also, in 1781, the philosopher Immanuel Kant published his Critique of Pure Reason, which Boyle writes had a significant impact on German culture (Boyle 58). The remaining three chapters of the book follow German Literature through the late 18th Century, 19th Century, and 20th Century. The book has illustrations and an index. The book has a section entitled “further reading” (Boyle 160-162). I read the book on my Kindle. I found Boyle’s book to be a good introduction to German Literature. I learn a lot from reading this book.

[paperbackfruit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful! A good introduction to German Literature.

Excited to read more in-depth books on this topic & honestly cannot wait to study this at further education.

[Stephen Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book gives an adequate scholarly survey of what has since taken place in German literature, properly speaking, up to the author W.G. Sebald (whose book After Nature (1988, English tr 2002) I read in 2013), whether comprised of reactions to literature elsewhere (English and French, say) or as original projects having distinct German roots (such as Bildung), or having unique German determinations (the works of remembrance and memory and the working of traumas). There are references to poetry, lyric, drama, plays, the novel, and letters, which all give rich texture to what has a very distinct philosophical treatment by the book of an already philosophical writing tradition. The word "tradition" itself, which arises from a restoration perspective from the Latin traditio, receives such treatment, for instance.

The book's exposition is formal and concise, following a structured prose that I am sure many readers will find much too dense, which however only strikes me as very German in grammar and layering. Not enough books in English are written in this way. The author will sometimes read to be jumping from writer to writer without giving the reader a clue that he is doing so until well into the exposition, which only makes a small demand in attention from the otherwise distracted or casual reader. It is a bargain which works to benefit the attentive reader, most assuredly.

The author succeeds in imparting to the reader the long-term themes of German society (the bourgeois Enlightenment and the bureaucratic or official Enlightenment, for instance) as well as keeping open those very themes to probing and interrogation. In spite of those themes, Bildung being of significance, as well as the invention of the idea of Art, there are some anecdotes and particular biographical details which attach to the writers and thinkers, poets and playwrights mentioned in the survey, enough to whet interest in the personality and lives of those specific individuals.

While the survey takes place over a quite tight period of what is today considered German (as idea, as geography, as people, as language), I could read no attempt to project or to propose what the future must or might hold for German literature in Europe or in the world or in translation. What indeed follows from the introversion to resolve the undisclosed traumas of the 20th century, or to re-enact a bourgeois Romanticism, or to embody materialism and revolution anew? Could something so ordinately originated not have for an end some promise beyond its very telling, its manner and its frame?

[Daniel Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this enthusiastic and detailed overview, Nicholas Boyle closely links Germany literary history to German social and political history, thus providing a fascinating analysis of the subject. I defy anyone to read this without at least wanting to dip into Goethe. On the other hand, the author does let his garrulity get the better of him at times leading to long stretches of somewhat dense and impenetrable prose (many paragraphs spanned multiple pages), but overall this is as low-level an introduction as one can hope for.

[Keeko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. I learned a lot about German literature, and I had no idea that I knew so little.

[Rosa Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and nice introduction to something much too complex to be written in so few pages.