
A Companion to the Works of Adalbert Stifter
Sean M. Ireton(Editor)
Camden House Inc (Publisher)
Published on 18. March 2025
Book
Hardback
356 pages
978-1-64014-107-0 (ISBN)
Description
Presents Stifter's multi-faceted oeuvre to both a German Studies and non-specialized Anglophone audience, showing today's readers the relevance of its concerns.
The canonical nineteenth-century Austrian writer Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868), long considered a staid stylist - if not mannerist - and a conservative-bourgeois apologist, has recently become the subject of more vibrant literary-theoretical approaches. While Stifter is primarily known for his fictional prose, including two lengthy novels (Der Nachsommer [Indian Summer] and Witiko) and numerous novella-length narratives, he also wrote dozens of cultural-political and scientific essays. Moreover, his professional activity in the Austrian school system and his diverse publications in the realm of pedagogy not only shed interpretive light on his literary production but also inform enduring debates on education reform and the intellectual-historical question of Bildung. This volume covers a wide range of texts and topics within Stifter's oeuvre. With respect to literary-historical coverage, it extends from his earliest tale Der Condor (The Condor, 1840) to his posthumously published chronicle Aus dem bairischen Walde (From the Bavarian Forest, 1868); in terms of genre, it embraces his novels and novellas, his essayistic work, and even his landscape paintings; finally, it pursues a host of deeper problems and thematic strands that permeate his texts and make them relevant to readers today. These include (neo-)conservatism, social unrest, law and order, ecology, climatology, bioregionalism, and the Anthropocene.
The canonical nineteenth-century Austrian writer Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868), long considered a staid stylist - if not mannerist - and a conservative-bourgeois apologist, has recently become the subject of more vibrant literary-theoretical approaches. While Stifter is primarily known for his fictional prose, including two lengthy novels (Der Nachsommer [Indian Summer] and Witiko) and numerous novella-length narratives, he also wrote dozens of cultural-political and scientific essays. Moreover, his professional activity in the Austrian school system and his diverse publications in the realm of pedagogy not only shed interpretive light on his literary production but also inform enduring debates on education reform and the intellectual-historical question of Bildung. This volume covers a wide range of texts and topics within Stifter's oeuvre. With respect to literary-historical coverage, it extends from his earliest tale Der Condor (The Condor, 1840) to his posthumously published chronicle Aus dem bairischen Walde (From the Bavarian Forest, 1868); in terms of genre, it embraces his novels and novellas, his essayistic work, and even his landscape paintings; finally, it pursues a host of deeper problems and thematic strands that permeate his texts and make them relevant to readers today. These include (neo-)conservatism, social unrest, law and order, ecology, climatology, bioregionalism, and the Anthropocene.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Columbia, MD
United States
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
16 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
666 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64014-107-0 (9781640141070)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
SEAN IRETON is Associate Professor of German in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Missouri. SEAN FRANZEL is Professor of German at the University of Missouri. SAMUEL FREDERICK is Professor of German at Penn State University. ALEXANDER ROBERT PHILLIPS holds a PhD in German Studies from Cornell University and is Assistant Professor of English, Ashoka University, India.
Editor
Royalty Account
Contributions
Customer
Contributor
Content
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works
Introduction: Stifter's Life and Works
Sean Ireton
Part I: Genre and Style
1. Stifter's Epic Style - Tove Holmes
2. Stifter and the Genre Conventions of Cultural Journalism - Sean Franzel
3. All Eyes on the Streets: Transformations of Public Work, Leisure, and Ritual in Wien und die Wiener - Vance Byrd
4. Stifter's Late Style - Samuel Frederick
Part II: Texts and Contexts
5. The Birth of Realism out of the Spirit of Melodrama: Stifter's Feldblumen - Erica Weitzman
6. Backward Glances: Registers of the Past in Stifter's Die Mappe meines Urgrossvaters - Jessica C. Resvick
7. Lessons from Stifter's Bunte Steine - Zachary Sng
8. Absence and Omnipresence: On the Significance of Waste in Stifter's Der Nachsommer - Lars Rosenbaum
Part III: Elements and Environments
9. Stifter's Stones - Jason Groves
10.Stifter's Glaciers - Matthew H. Birkhold
11.Cheerful Terror: Stifter and the Aesthetics of Atmosphere - Alexander Robert Phillips
12.Stifter's Bavarian-Bohemian Bioregionalism - Sean Ireton
Selected Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works
Introduction: Stifter's Life and Works
Sean Ireton
Part I: Genre and Style
1. Stifter's Epic Style - Tove Holmes
2. Stifter and the Genre Conventions of Cultural Journalism - Sean Franzel
3. All Eyes on the Streets: Transformations of Public Work, Leisure, and Ritual in Wien und die Wiener - Vance Byrd
4. Stifter's Late Style - Samuel Frederick
Part II: Texts and Contexts
5. The Birth of Realism out of the Spirit of Melodrama: Stifter's Feldblumen - Erica Weitzman
6. Backward Glances: Registers of the Past in Stifter's Die Mappe meines Urgrossvaters - Jessica C. Resvick
7. Lessons from Stifter's Bunte Steine - Zachary Sng
8. Absence and Omnipresence: On the Significance of Waste in Stifter's Der Nachsommer - Lars Rosenbaum
Part III: Elements and Environments
9. Stifter's Stones - Jason Groves
10.Stifter's Glaciers - Matthew H. Birkhold
11.Cheerful Terror: Stifter and the Aesthetics of Atmosphere - Alexander Robert Phillips
12.Stifter's Bavarian-Bohemian Bioregionalism - Sean Ireton
Selected Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index