Collection of essays on German and European literature.

The essays on German and European literature assembled in this volume view literary works in their broader cultural contexts - as, for example, from the vantage point of the history of science, of political life, of patterns of taste in the arts, or as viewed in the framework of broad anthropological issues. Sometimes the most interesting viewpoint has to do with conventions of everyday life. In these essays a literary text poses a puzzling question inviting inquiry; pursuing it, Professor Guthke takes his readers on an expedition into regions of the terres inconnues of human life and thought and sensibilities.
The essays include, among others: Poetry in an Age of Science: Albrecht von Haller and the Crisis of the Enlightenment; A Delicate Balance: Lessing and the Jews; The King of the Weimar Republic: Hauptmann's Role in Political Life; In Search of B. Traven, Mystery Man; Last Words: A Convention in Life and Letters; Life from the End: Last Words in Narrative Biography; and Last Words in Shakespeare's Plays.