Lives and Deaths of Werther - (British Academy Monographs) by Johannes Kaminski (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- Goethe's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, first published in 1774, has produced a global echo that rivals contemporary bestsellers.
- About the Author: Dr Johannes Kaminski is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences.
- 272 Pages
- Literary Criticism, General
- Series Name: British Academy Monographs
Description
About the Book
An investigation of how interepreations, translations, and literary adaptations of Goethe's novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther have left their mark on the original text. Kaminski situates the text's legacy among Italian, French, Chinese, and Japanese writers, and explores the dynamics of world literature.
Book Synopsis
Goethe's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, first published in 1774, has produced a global echo that rivals contemporary bestsellers. While in the German context, the book was always outshined by its famous author, patriotic writers in Italy and China saw their lives mirrored in Werther's struggle, inspiring them to rewrite Goethe's novel in revolutionary terms. Meanwhile, French Romantics embraced Werther's expressive language to explore the dark corners of their souls. The same happened in Japan, where modernists invoked the text to show that 'the most beautiful moment of life - that is, love - blossoms in the proximity of death.' Kaminski investigates how interpretations, translations, and literary adaptations of Goethe's novel have manipulated the text in ways that left deep marks on world literature.
Review Quotes
Lives and Deaths of Werther is an impressive piece of comparative literary scholarship. Working with and translating original texts in German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese, Kaminski explores how, through what he terms literary embedded "grafting", critical and creative responses to Goethe's novel embedded the the mutable Werther in world literary culture.
-- "Ian Ellison, Times Literary Supplement"About the Author
Dr Johannes Kaminski is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2011 and has held research posts at the University of Cambridge, Taipei, Vienna, and Comenius University Bratislava. As a scholar of comparative literature, Kaminski's research is focused on the literature of Goethezeit, Chinese modernism, and contemporary science-fiction.
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