You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
There is growing interest in the internationality of the literary Gothic, which is well established in English Studies. Gothic fiction is seen as transgressive, especially in the way it crosses borders, often illicitly. In the 1790s, when the English Gothic novel was emerging, the real or ostensible source of many of these uncanny texts was Germany. This first book in English dedicated to the German Gothic in over thirty years redresses deficiencies in existing English-language sources, which are outdated, piecemeal, or not sufficiently grounded in German Studies.
Pathbreaking examination of the prominent 19th-c. motif with an eye toward literature as social commentary.
"The past three decades have witnessed a decline in the number of Roman Catholic priests in Europe and North America, the result of resignations from the priesthood and of fewer people entering seminaries. A major cause contributing to this situation has been the ambiguity surrounding the role and identity of the priest in light of new theological paradigms. This book attempts to restore clarity to that matter by drawing primarily, although not exclusively, on the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, postconciliar theology and the pronouncements of Pope John Paul II." "The first chapter probes the relationship of the priest to Christ and the church. This is the basic theme of the book, s...
Ghosts have made an unexpected reappearance in German literature since 1989. Catherine Smale reads this as symptomatic of writers' attempts to renegotiate their personal and collective identity in the wake of German reunification. Focusing on two major authors from the former GDR, Christa Wolf and Irina Liebmann, Smale examines the ways in which their work adopts notions of haunting in its creative engagement with the double legacy of Socialism and National Socialism. The ghost has long been regarded as a vehicle for making manifest taboo or unauthorized memories. However, Smale goes further, demonstrating how the human subject is destabilized by the return of the phantom and is itself rendered insecure and spectral. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical reference, from the psychoanalytic concept of intergenerational phantoms to Derridean hauntology, Smale's study highlights the particular challenge which Wolf and Liebmann pose to the familiar understanding of how German writers have confronted their country's troublesome past.Catherine Smale is Lecturer in German at King's College London.