Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Genesis: The Making of Literary Works from Homer to Christa Wolf

Genesis: The Making of Literary Works from Homer to Christa Wolf

Reed, T. J.

Hardcover

Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture, Book 213

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 1640140824
ISBN13: 9781640140820
Publisher: Camden House Inc
Published: Sep 15 2020
Pages: 314
Weight: 1.55
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.10 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
Illuminates how selected great works of literature arose, leading to deepened understanding of the works and harking back to what we still call the humanities.

This monumental study seeks the roots of great literary works and the processes by which they arose. It first illuminates the process from idea and inspiration through intention, formulation, revision (and sometimes frustration) to publication and reception. The textual studies that follow range from single poems to epic and dramatic works, from the genesis of new genres to that of a whole career. T. J. Reed sets the scene by going back to Homer's epics and the Bible, refreshing familiar scholarly material with new insights. Two early modern chapters then treat Montaigne, the founder of a new self-confidence, and Shakespeare, the beginner shaped by and shaping history. In the book's second half Reed concentrates on his specialty, modern German literature: Goethe, Büchner, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Brecht, Celan, and Christa Wolf. A sense of the origins of literary meaning in each case is a firm foundation for understanding, staying close to the quick of human communication. Against the depersonalized, skeptical, theory-laden readings of literature that have been dominant in recent decades, this study harks back to what we still call the humanities.

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