Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Exploring the poem; 2. Poetic roles in early song-lyrics; 3. Devotional poetry; 4. The rhetoric of passion; 5. Classical Antiquity and modern experience; 6. Romantic poetry and the problem of lyric unity; 7. The self and the senses; 8. Modernism and difficulty; 9. Poetry after Auschwitz; 10. The strain of political poetry; Working on the text; Writing up your close reading; German metrics; Index.
Exploring traditional poems alongside new examples, this Introduction conveys the rich rewards that come with reading German poetry.
Judith Ryan is Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
'Judith Ryan's superb new introduction to German poetry is to be
welcomed on any number of fronts: it is unimpeachable in its
treatment of major texts from the German-language lyric canon,
presenting these with a richness and verve which should appeal both
to the conventional readership of an 'introduction' and to those
with a serious existing interest in German poetry; it combines
formidable scholarship - ranging from medieval to contemporary
poetry - with an admirable lightness of touch.' Ian Cooper, Modern
Language Review
'This is an exceptional book: despite being billed as an
introduction, it has as much to offer to specialists as to novice
readers, and it combines a clear sense of literary and historical
context with nuanced readings of individual poems, allowing those
not familiar with them to get a first taste of the real thing
rather than second-hand descriptions, while also setting out the
reasons why particular texts are chosen and offering brief but
illuminating comments on their textual history.' Seminar: A Journal
of Germanic Studies
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