German Literature?

Hello, I' m a new member of your board.

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? wink

German means here German-speaking because Literature from Austria and Switzerland is a very important part of the "German Literature".

I study German Literature at the university, but I'm much more interested in international (english, french, especially russian) literature. And I'd like to know if someone out there reads German literature, or if I study something nobody's interested in?

Hope to hear from you!

Hermann Hesse is on this site.

I am wondering about your list you have Mann and Hesse classified as classic and kafka as modern. Why is this?

Well... Kafka is of course a modern classic. But when I called Mann and Hesse classics I thought mainly about the tradition they come from and the background they have. Hesse is (as individuell as he may be) a neo-romantic writer. And Mann is very much in the tradition of Goethe. So both look backward to the 19th-century which is the classic peroid of German literature.

Kafka is nearly free of such influences by tradition. His stories and novels are so unique and so near to the problems of the modern world. Though Hesse and Mann lived more than 30, nearly 40 years than Kafka, he's in my eyes nearer to our probelems. But he's surely a modern classic.

I read some German literature, but that's also due to the fact that my mum's got a degree in German and one in literature, so I'm kind of surrounded by it. We have a lot of stuff at home (often DTV, Reclam versions) but if someone knows a site like this with German literature I'd be very happy. I do have a copy of 'Die Leiden des Jungen Werther' on my desk asking me to read it. So I might start later today. Since I'm 20 km from Germany getting books isn't hard either.

Did you ever read herman hesses novel Gertrude?

Well, i've read a little of german literature, particularly some of Kafka (Die Verwandlung, The Process, America, A Rural Doctor, and a couple of others) and some of Goethe, but only Faust so far, since i've Werther on my computer, and my 'puter is at the service right now, and reading at a cybercoffee store is somewhat expensive.
I've read some Hesse too, but i didn´t like it .
Aside from those i mentioned above and Schiller and Thomas Mann, i've never heard of the others you named.
Maybe german literature is not as popular as say, english literature, but i think that those kind of clasifications (english, german, french, etc.) is inadequate. I'd rather talk of authors individually or, at best, those that can be identified with a movement (i.e. romanticism, gothic, etc.).

Is there anyone out there who is familiar with these two authors, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter or Novalis? I am a German Literature Buff (Enlightenment and Romanticism only). Looking for someone to discuss any aspect of that genre, but especially the two authors already mentioned.
Please, no Kafka or Hesse or anything modern.

Are you familiar with the other German Romantics, besides Goethe and Schiller? Namely Jean Paul Richter or Novalis?

We read Goethe and Shiller in the secondary school. I've also read Mann's Magic Mountain and Hesse's Glass Bead Game. Both are amazing. Grass has some Polish roots, I believe, so here in Poland he's pretty well known.

I've read some Hesse, some Kafka (with great difficulty, I might add) and very little Goethe (since I lent my only book by him, Faust, to a friend). I also have a novel by Grass somewhere in my bookshelf but I haven't gotten round to reading it yet.

We don't read that much German literature in school, it's always an option but few people choose to read it. I'd love to know more of it but I love to read books in their original language and since I don't know German I've been a bit put off.

I've read a lot of German lit in translation only. Lots of Bernhard, whom I really enjoy: Extinction, The Loser, Woodcutters, Voice Imitator, LIme Works, Wittgenstein's Nephew, others (Extinction is one of the finest novels I've read, btw). Some people are turned off by his unrelenting "misanthropy" (which I think is an inaccurate criticism), but not me. I find it very stimulating and uplifting to read someone so self-critical and probing. Bernhard was like the Lars von Trier of Literature. Love him or hate him! Plus his novels are not so easy to find in the US.

Also I am very impressed by Broch's Sleepwalker's Trilogy. The Anarchist is a stunning novel. I really need to re-read that. I wonder why Broch isnt more highly considered as Kafka and others in literature circles in the US? Death of Virgil is on my "to-read" list.

In addition, I'm a big fan of Musil 'Der Manne und Eigenshaften' (did I get that right? pardon my faux-German). A supremely important novel.

I just re-read Homo Faber, which was a book I really liked in college, but that I had some trepidation returning to. But I wanted to see how well it held up. And I think it stands up to repeated scrutiny, even in the face of the criticisms of "wildly improbable coincidences" in the plot. I have not read "I'm Not Stiller". I hope to.

What else? Mann, Kafka, Grass of course. But I think most people know and love Magic Mountain, Trial, Tin Drum. Include me in that group. I'm not a fan of Hesse. I think his (Damien, Steppenwolf, others) work is marginal at best. Though I have not read Glass Bead Game.

On an aside, have you seen Visconti's film version of Death in Venice? I know some people either love it or hate it (mostly because of his use of Mahler), but I have to admit I have a soft spot for that movie, even though I love the story very much. Dirk what's his name is excellent in the lead role.

Is there anything else I'm missing? Thoughts on the woman who just won the nobel prize this year? I also would like to read more Peter Handke Any suggestions? I have a novella collection "Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick", which I hope to read soon.

Hello, Schiller, welcome to the forum.
For better or worse, I have studied independently some German non-fiction philosophy, such as that by Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, and some psychological works by German-speaking writers, as Siegfried Freud and Carl Jung. Only recently, however, have I begun reading more German literature; I read a few works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which I loved, Franz Kafka, and right now working on some plays, short stories, and essays by Heinrich von Kleist, which I have also thoroughly enjoyed.

Hi ,all.
I`ve started "Also sprach Zaratustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche and read the half of it but then stopped because it became too boring to me.
I haven`t read anything by Geothe but I remember that I`ve read in one of my textbooks that he`s the man with the highest IQ resulsts(over 200). And think I`ll read Faust some day. ;)
I also like Arthur Schopenhauer because of his too pesimistic philosophy.

By the way ,I think you are all mistaking. Although Franz Kafka wrote in German ,he is from the Czech Republic.
He is born in 1883 in Prague, then the capital of a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.He was a German-speaker among Czech-speakers, a Jew among Gentiles-and in himself the loneliest of men. ;) (Am I right, Jay?)

I hope so, I am now reading a collection of short stories of his,including "The Metamorphosis"

[QUOTE=Jantex]
By the way ,I think you are all mistaking. Although Franz Kafka wrote in German ,he is from the Czech Republic.
QUOTE]

I think the author of this thread was pretty clear that he or she meant literature written in German.

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Originally Posted by Jantex

By the way ,I think you are all mistaking. Although Franz Kafka wrote in German ,he is from the Czech Republic.

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I second Surfer, we are discussing German literature, that is literature written in German. Although Kafka wasn't from a German speaking country he still wrote in German (and is geographically quite close) so why should we be mistaken is discussing him here? Besides I think almost all of us are aware that he was from Czech Republic.

I loved The Metamorphosis by Kafka. Also right now studying Existentialism and Nietzche.

I read Hesse's "Steppenwolf" last year, and was impressed enough to read some more of his work. "The Glass Bead Game" (Die Glasperlenspiel) currently sits somewhere in my "to read" pile.

I read a book of Kafka's short stories too, and was a bit disappointed. "The Metamorphosis" was what motivated me to read the book, but I found this story to be flat boring. Some of the other stories in the collection were interesting though.

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Originally Posted by Schiller

Hello, I' m a new member of your board.

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? wink

German means here German-speaking because Literature from Austria and Switzerland is a very important part of the "German Literature".

I study German Literature at the university, but I'm much more interested in international (english, french, especially russian) literature. And I'd like to know if someone out there reads German literature, or if I study something nobody's interested in?

Hope to hear from you!

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Hello Schiller, Of course German Literature is interesting. Some days ago I have downloaded the Kafka's Blue Octavo Notebooks in German Language and I hope I will take a time in summer to learn a little. I really adore a short and extraordinary tale that is in the Notebook Two, about men who have wings and refuse make use of them to fly away from their city, leaving behind their god, their dead and their country, in the hands of their enemies. Do you remember that? I also buyed Sonnets of Rilke, I'm confused now, I don't remember... yeah, Orfeo sonnets, I believe it begins just like this: Das stieg ein Baum... I'll allways remember that, I guess. I'm sorry about non poetical gramatical errors, but I am sure we all can share many things in despite of that.

I like German Literature.
I enjoyed the classics very, very much (I've read Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Lessing, Fontane and some of the Manns). But right now, I'm SO into the modern. By now I've read nearly everything by Kafka (there's a good Geman edition of ALL the stories and even the drafts) and I spend also some time interpreting him, it's great and very very creative...
I also enjoyed some of Lenz's stories. And I quite liked Berlin Alexanderplatz by Döblin.
I'm also very much into Ilse Aichinger and Botho Strauss at the moment. (the latter is SO great!!!)

I must say, (while I of course still think, that Faust (both parts) is SO showing of the genius of Goethe and I like the classics, I like the German Literature after 1850 more. It's more fun, less static. But well, of course, everything had to evolve from something.

Hi Thewinkens.
I'm from Denmark, but I wrote a paper for my Bahelor dergree in literature about Novalis' "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" I also read "Hymnen an die Nacht" and I even think I understood some of it!!!
I have read a bit of literature from the german romantic period, and also some of the more philosofical stuff that layed the ground for it (I began with Kant)
It has been a while since I read all this, but I believe I remember a lot of it though.

I have not read German Literature yet. Now, this thread has made me think about German Literature.

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

I'm an American and I like these German fiction writers: Hesse, Kafka, Mann, Durrenmatt. Nietzsche is my favorite philosopher and the only philosopher I've read who knew how to write well, but I have also read Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Heidegger and Marx. Haven't read Goethe and Heine yet, but I intend to eventually because I've heard very good things about them.

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...

I don't like Hesse's Siddharta. It's exactly the opposite of what appeals to me.

I can't understand Kafka... I find him boring and kinda pointless, or rather I miss his point completely, despite having tried several times... The Metamorphosis has probably a point but I can't read those descriptions about his insect legs and all... I am really insect-phobic!I even tried to read it in German so that I wouldnt understand the details, but the little I understood was enough to make me imagine so I couldnt go on...:rolleyes:

i am german as well
and the above list of yours represents a fundamental aid to add to anyones study (see Daniel Schubart)
I love friedrich schiller, his fine intellect is reconisable even in its masquerade
How Schiller managed to be part of transcendentalism has been amazing I went to a Seminar in Kussel to find out more about metaphysical and logical branches which clearly mark his work in a systematic form

influenced by the Koenigsberg Professor Kant whose work is universally acknowledged, this high pretension of this sytem attracted Schiller foremost

an amazing man
Though short of days, how large the mind of man

Almost every day I pass by cafe Arco, where Kafka used to sit and my thoughts always go to him... He was influenced by Franz Brentano's philosophy and his work tells much truth about the 20th century. He was a prophet in a way..

As for the other German-writing authors, I like Hesse... I think all of his books are good. And of course Goethe and Schiller.

Has anyone of you read something by Grillparzer? He's an Austrian author... When I studied in Vienna, I saw his name almost everywhere..I thought this guy must be so famous.. But I had never heard of him before, so I felt a bit ashamed. Then I came acrros poem of his, which seemed to me pretty mediocre.. So if you know about something really good he wrote, pls let me know..

hey, though I've read Faust by Goethe I haven't read much German Literature. Is there anything you can recommend? I've read a lot of German philosophy- Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hegel... but I'd like to get more involved with it's literature as I'm slightly drifting from philosophy. :)

Can anybody help me find the source of the following piece of German text ?

"Aber jetzt stuermst Du voran, Wanderer durch vergangene Welten in die Zukunft".

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