Cityscapes and Countryside in Contemporary German Literature

The Editors: Julian Preece and Osman Durrani both studied German at the University of Oxford and have published widely on modern and contemporary German literature. They both teach German and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Kent.

• Contents: Stefan Neuhaus: ‘Stadt-Land-Frust’: on the Metamorphoses of a Literary Dichotomy – Ruth J Owen: ‘Germania im Bunker’: German Urban Landscapes in Contemporary Poetry – Chloe Paver: Down and Out in the New Germany: Urban Homelessness in Post-‘Wende’ Fiction – Robert Gillett: An Index and its Chronicle: Hubert Fichte’s Hamburg (Hauptbahnhof) – Alexander Gumz: The Novel as the City’s Body: Georg Klein’s Libidissi – Andreas Kramer: ‘die unerheblichkeit berlins’: Contemporary German Poetry and the Re-Writing of Regionalism – David Rock: Landscapes, Towns, and Cities from the Banat to Berlin in Richard Wagner’s Stories and Novels – Christina Ujma: All Quiet on the Italian Front? The Image of Rome in Contemporary German Prose – Robert Halsall: Phenomenology of the Suburb: Peter Handke’s Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht – Arthur Williams: WG Sebald: Probing the Outer Edges of Nature – Axel Goodbody: Greening the City: Günter Seuren’s Satirical Account of an Urban Conservation Project in Die Krötenküsser – Simon Meacher: Anthropocentrism in Siegfried Lenz’s Exerzierplatz and Die Auflehnung – Owen Evans: Living in the Past? Günter de Bruyn, Prussia, and the Mark Brandenburg – Stuart Parkes: Home Advantage? The Settings of Martin Walser’s Novels and the Question of Heimat – Dieter Stolz: Province as Microcosm or ‘im Kleinen das Grosse aufschreiben’: Christof Hamann’s Debut Novel Seegfrörne – Juliet Wigmore: Crime, Corruption, Capitalism: Elfriede Jelinek’s Gier – Susan Tebbutt: The Politicised Pastoral Idyll in Ludwig Laher’s ‘Heimatroman’, Herzfleischentartung – Gregory Knott: ‘Zwischen Sehnsucht und Vergänglichkeit’: Arnold Stadler’s Concept of Heimat.

«... this collection of essays on place more than adequately accomplishes its mission. Preece and Durrani set out to give the reader an overview of the richly varied representation of city, suburb, exurb, and province in contemporary German literature. The collection does that and more. It provides the reader with the advertised overview, but also affords an in-depth analysis of the history of place, as well as a glimpse of the future.» (Paul A. Youngman, German Studies Review)