German Literature?

Oh Koa! It all depends on how the language is handled. There's nothing wrong with German as such. For example, from a purely linguistic point of view, Kafka writes extremely simply and clearly.

I'm a bit surprised that more hasn't been said about Guenther Grass. He's quite popular, at least in translation.

It's widely acknowledged that since the 1980s there has been a very sharp fall in the numbers learning German in the English-speaking lands and this may have had an effect on interest in German literature, too - even in translation. On the whole interest is in 20th century literature.

Incidentally, one of my favourites is Heinrich Mann, "Der Untertan". I think part of it has been translated (as "A Man of Straw" ?) but as far as I know it hasn't been translated in its entirety. Obviously, it's satirical and some background knowledge is useful.

As for the absurd in Kafka's work, surely that's only to be expected as it's one of his central themes.

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Originally Posted by Jekaterina

Does any one of you know Grass?
Sometimes he gets really glaring, some of his stuff is even gross, but he's brilliant.

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Are you refering to Günther Grass? (And his "Blechtrommel"?) Now, I wonder what that's called in English.

I've started to deeply study Romanticism, so I have been looking at the works of Novalis, Goeth, and especially Hegel - I have just finished a rather large essay on his works.

"Die Blechtrommel" has appeared in English translation under the title "The Tin Drum" - and has been quite succesful.

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Originally Posted by Themis

Are you refering to Günther Grass? (And his "Blechtrommel"?) Now, I wonder what that's called in English.

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Yeah, Blechtrommel too, but he's sort of a little gross in other novels too...
It's called The Tin Drum (so blechtrommel it stays...)

i confess i have seldom read the works by those classic german writers such as goethe and schiller.i once gave a try at faust, but after reading a couple of pages i found that i could hardly understand it. but stefan zweig is among my favourite writers. i have read his autobiography, "die welt von gestern" and several of his novellas. "drei meister" is also great, by the way.

@Kaka: I really wonder why. I had to watch the film and read the book. Both are so disgusting.

@rodanho: When I started reading "Faust" the first time, I also didn't understand most of it. That's probably normal but my second attempt was successful and it's really a good play.

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Originally Posted by Schiller

I'm from Germany and so I wanted to ask you wheather you read and discuss classic or modern German literature? Just like Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Fontane, Mann, Hesse (classic) or Kafka, Frisch, Grass, Bernhard (modern). Have you ever heard from these guys?

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Of course. ;)

I have read a lot of Hesse and Mann. I'm going to start on Goethe's Faust here soon once it arrives.

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Originally Posted by Koa

I don't particularly like German Lit... I have a weird opinion: I think that the German language and syntaxis are so complex that even a brilliant German book would result 'heavy' (no offence, but I'm not a fan of the German language)...or maybe I just met bad translations which made me build up this theory...

The main example of this is Thomas Mann's Death in Venice: I liked it, but it was a hard read... (and my mad teacher of German trying to make us read bits in original when our level was so much lower didn't help)... though I liked the concept of the book. I also like Tonio Kroeger. And "The Blue Angel" by Heinrich Mann. But all the time I wasn't excited about the style...

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poor Koa , it's really unfortunate that you had to read Thomas Mann of all German writers... he's notorious for his exceptionally long-winded and complex sentences...
yeah, kaka is perfectly right, but I really sympathize with youKoa, I feel exactly the same about German syntax etc, and I'm a native speaker!!!

I majored in German (and English) at school, so I had to read some German Lit... the only authors I really liked were Lion Feuchtwanger, Fontane and Günter Grass and some Romantic writers like Tiek...
hey Schiller if you wanna discuss German lit in detail i might be persuaded to (re-)read some Fontane or Grass one of these days (very b r o a d l y speaking). what are you reading right now?
I'm from Germany by the way... but I generally prefer English Lit...

Hi Schiller,
I'm also a student of German literature though not in Germany.
I haven't read a lot of Geothe and Schiller. I've read a few short stories by Mann but didnt' really like his work. I liked Demian by Hesse but I didn't like Siddhartha. and I adore Kafka, and Nietzsche is my all time favorite.
I'm becoming more interested in recent German short story authors. There has not bee nmany translations of those in English. For example Kaminer or Schulze. I don't know if you have heard of them.
I just finished reading the novel 'The Reader' by Schlink. Interesting read:D

I've read Goethe's "Faust" and liked it very much. I've also read some Schiller.
I enjoyed Hesse's "Steppewolf", "Narciss and Goldmund" and "Siddhartha".
From Mann brothers unfortunately I've read only Henri Mann's dilogy about Henry IV.
If you consider Kafka german(he was german speaking) then I've read some of his short stories.
Not sure about Zweig either. I think he was Austrian, wasn't he? I love "Impatience of the heart"- one of my favorite novel overall.
The same thing about Meyrink- he was probably austrian. I like "Golem" and "Angel of the West window"
My favorite German writer is probaly Leon Feihtvanger. I've read a lot of his novels: "Spanish ballad", "The Opperman family", "Success" and many others.
Another german author is patrick Suskind. His "Perfumer" is outstanding

Yes, I do study German literature, but that is only because I study German language and literature at university.

I do think German literature AND the language are both fascinating!

I know there are some numbers of great German authors, but so far I've only digged Hesse and Kafka. I'm not sure whether German literature has specific charateristics.

One of my favourites of German literature is "Mephisto" by Klaus Mann. This a great and critical book of which was made a movie later that even got the Oscar.
Another critical author is Heinrich Mann.

hi everybody!
me too, i have problems with the german language, but i like german literature. i love Thomas Mann. i have read The Magic Mountain, Joseph and His Brothers, Buddenbrocks, Lotte in Weimar, and some fo his short stories. i tried to read also Doktor Faustus, but i was lost at the musical part (i am a zero in music, so i could not understand him in that part).
i also like Kafka. i read all his novels and some of his short stories.
from Hesse i only read The Glass Bead Game, and i found it better than the Steppenwolf.
i also read Faust by Goethe and it freaked me out because at the passage of the Walpurgis night the walls of my room began to sing, and everything around was invaded by this symphony. so i decided never to touch Goethe again if i want to keep my mental sanity.