Aesthetics and Politics in Modern German Culture

The papers, the appreciation and the poem that are collected in this volume were delivered at the conference, Aesthetics and Politics in Modern German Culture, which was held from 31 August to 2 September 2008 at the University of Wales Conference Centre, Gregynog Hall, in honour of Professor Rhys W. Williams upon his retirement from the Chair of German at Swansea University. The contributions focus on broad themes in modern German culture, all of which reflect Rhys Williams' research interests: Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit; Representing/Resisting National Socialism; West German Writing; GDR Spaces and Voices; Exploring Masculinities in Fiction; Performing Politics, Performing Humour; Intertexts and Difference; and Lives and Letters.

The Editors: Brigid Haines is Reader in German at Swansea University. Stephen Parker is Henry Simon Professor of German at the University of Manchester. Colin Riordan is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex and was Professor of German at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Contents: Mererid Hopwood: Cywydd Ffarwelio Rhys - David Basker: Professor Rhys W. Williams: An Appreciation - Duncan Large: Carl Einstein, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and the Aesthetics of Cubism - Jon Hughes: The (Re)generation Game: Discourses of Age and Renewal between Expressionism and the Neue Sachlichkeit - Christiane Schönfeld: Lion Feuchtwanger, Jud Süß and the Nazis - Moray McGowan: Prodigal Parturition? Walter Bauer's Poem 'Ich bin dein Sohn, Europa' - Paul Cooke: The Limits of Consensual Film-Making? Representing National Socialism on the Screen and German 'Normalisation' - Ian Roberts: Tinker, Tailor, Nazi, Sailor: Generic Stereotypes of German Combatants in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot - Stuart Taberner: The Art of Delay: Protest and Prose in F. C. Delius's Mein Jahr als Mörder - Neil H. Donahue: Suchbilder : Looking for Christoph Meckel - Frank Finlay: Thomas Weiss's 'Polyphonic' Novel Tod eines Trüffelschweins - David Clarke: The Industrial World in the Literary Topography of the GDR - Colin Riordan: Authenticity and Violence in Nicolas Born's Die Fälschung - Brigid Haines: Sport, Identity and War in Saša Staniši-'s Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert - Jim Jordan: Identity, Irony and Denial: Navid Kermani's Kurzmitteilung - Allyson Fiddler: A Political 'Brief ': Performativity and Politicians in Short Works of Austrian Satire - Owen Evans: 'Bloody Germans! They can't take a joke, can they?' The Impact of Humour in Recent German Film - Elizabeth Boa: Snowy Worlds: Kafka's Das Schloß and Pamuk's Snow - Margaret Littler: Cramped Creativity: The Politics of a Minor German Literature - Julian Preece: Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem: On the Theory and Practice of Friendship in Letters - Stephen Parker: The Young Brecht's Predicament in Tagebuch No 10 .