Six Essays on the Young German Novel

In this study of the prose fiction of "Das Junge Deutschland", the internal stresses and paradoxes of specific texts are examined and special attention is devoted to the unfulfilled strivings toward realism. Following an introduction to the young German problem, with special reference to Wienbarg, there are essays on Gutzkow, Mundt, Kühne, and, as a contrast, the major novels of Immermann. The essays attempt to enhance the understanding of the post-Romantic crisis in German literature

The Schiller Centennial: 1859 — Some Themes and Motifs

On November 10. 1859, the fledgling writer Wilhelm Raabe recited a sincerely bombastic poem at the celebration of Schiller\u27s hundredth birthday in WoIfenbüttel. Eleven or twelve years later, at the time of the founding of the Reich, he was to take a more ironic view of the occasion in his comic political novel Der Dräumling. However, his skepticism about the motives and the alleged unanimity of the celebration did not extend to the significance of the centennial itself. Although his narrator spares us the droning speeches, he allows us to hear from the end of one of them: Er lebe hoch als Freund und als Vorbild, der Paraklet unseres, des Beraters, HeIfers, Vermittlers oft so sehr Bedürftigen Volkes! Friedrich von Schiller lebe hochl Er lebe dreimal hoch! Raabe shared the widespread view that the centennial had been a major step toward the achievement of national unity. To the second edition in 1892 he wrote, in reference to his novel of the 1860 convention of the Nationalverein in Coburg, Gutmanns Reisen: Die Familien Gutmann und Blume wiirden sicherlich nicht in Koburg sich so rasch zur gemeinschaftlichen Aufrichtung des neuen deutschen Reichs die Herzen und die Hfulde geboten haben. wenn nicht vorher der Rektor Fischarth. der Sumpfmaler Haeseler und Fräulein Wulfhilde in Paddenau im Draumling die Schillerfeier trotz allem zustande gebracht hatten

Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy

This study of German fiction about America in the nineteenth century concentrates in detail on three writers: Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl, 1793–1864), an escaped Moravian monk who came to New Orleans in 1823 and wrote the first major German novels about the United States; Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872), who, among his many experiences in America as a young man, lived as a backwoodsman in Arkansas and who later produced a large body of fiction, travel reportage, and emigration advice; and Karl May (1842–1912), who, though he knew nothing about America beyond what he could read in books, wrote famous adventure stories set in an imaginary West and became the best-selling writer in the German language. Sammons provides biographies of the authors and discusses how each differs in their mimetic and ideological approach. He pays particular attention to how the authors address issues of race, gender and politics in the United States. Sammons interweaves his discussion of these three writers with excurses into the emergence of the German Western and anti-Americanism in German fiction

The Bildungsroman for Nonspecialists: An Attempt at a Clarification

El artículo discute y problematiza el empleo del término “Bildungsroman”, tanto el uso indiscriminado, impreciso, que se percibe en cierta parte de la crítica norteamericana como las visiones restrictivas (y de tendencia nacionalistas) de la Germanística, producto de la canonización guillermina, que pretenden confinar el subgénero al territorio alemán. Con el fin de restaurar el contenido teórico y crítico, además de su utilidad en tanto categoría histórico-literaria, en el presente artículo se circunscribe la aplicabilidad del término Bildungsroman a las novelas que mantengan alguna relación, sea de identificación como de parodia o crítica, con el concepto humanista y temprano burgués de Bildung. De este modo, la definición propuesta abarca desde el arquetipo histórico, Los años de aprendizaje de Goethe, como las denominadas antinovelas de formación románticas hasta las novelas de Herman Hesse y Thomas Mann, ya en las primeras décadas del siglo XX.This article discusses and problematizes the usage of the concept of Bildungsroman; both the indiscriminate, imprecise use perceived in part of the North American critics, as well as the restrictive (and nationalistic-driven) visions of the Germanistic, a product of Wilhelmine canonization, that confine the term to the German territory. With the aim to restore its theoretical and critical contents, in addition to its utility as a historic and literary category, it circunscribes the applicability of the term Bildungsroman to the novels that mantain any type of relation –be that of identification as of parody or refusal– with the humanistic, early-bourgeoise concept of Bildung. In this manner, the definition proposed encompasses the historic arquetype, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship the romantic Antibildungsromane up to the novels of Herman Hesse and Thomas Mann in the first decades of the twentieth century

Ideology, Mimesis, Fantasy: Charles Sealsfield, Friedrich Gerstäcker, Karl May, and Other German Novelists of America

This study of German fiction about America in the nineteenth century concentrates in detail on three writers: Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl, 1793–1864), an escaped Moravian monk who came to New Orleans in 1823 and wrote the first major German novels about the United States; Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872), who, among his many experiences in America as a young man, lived as a backwoodsman in Arkansas and who later produced a large body of fiction, travel reportage, and emigration advice; and Karl May (1842–1912), who, though he knew nothing about America beyond what he could read in books, wrote famous adventure stories set in an imaginary West and became the best-selling writer in the German language. Sammons provides biographies of the authors and discusses how each differs in their mimetic and ideological approach. He pays particular attention to how the authors address issues of race, gender and politics in the United States. Sammons interweaves his discussion of these three writers with excurses into the emergence of the German Western and anti-Americanism in German fiction

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

[Rezension zu:] Charlotte A. Lerg: Amerika als Argument

Rezension zu Charlotte A. Lerg: Amerika als Argument. Die deutsche Amerika-Forschung im Vormärz und ihre politische Deutung in der Revolution von 1848. Bielefeld: transcript, 2011