Literature and the Image of Man

by Leo Löwenthal

This volume's predominant theme is bourgeois mentality and its historical development. The works of Lope de Vega, CalderOn, Cervantes, and Shakespeare, among others, are analyzed within the historical framework of the decline of feudalism and the rise of the absolute regimes. Those of MoliEre and Goethe are set against the background of an evolving and consolidating bourgeois society in Western Europe.

Unknown Binding

About the author

Leo Löwenthal (1900–1993) was a German sociologist associated with the Frankfurt School. He joined the newly founded Institute for Social Research in 1926 and quickly became its leading expert on the sociology of literature and mass culture as well as the managing editor of the journal it launched in 1932, the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. When the Nazis came to power, he fled to the USA. After seven years as research director of the Voice of America, he joined the Berkeley Speech Department in 1956 and shortly thereafter the Department of Sociology.