An important resource for undergraduates, postgraduates at the beginning of their research, and established colleagues wishing to refresh their knowledge of the period.. There is a surprising amount of detail in a book of little more than 200 pages, and Parkes is skilled in condensing broad trends and key issues into short, digestible paragraphs with apt and illuminating examples.
... Read moreMODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW
The author's particular achievement lies in the thorough treatment of the increasing cultural and ideological division of FRG and GDR perspectives, developments, and interactions.
MONATSHEFTE
[A] comprehensive and thorough study that provides an excellent overview of the relationship between literature and politics over more than 60 years in post-war Germany.
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN STUDIES
At the end of the Second World War, Thomas Mann described how many German intellectuals, including him, had tended to look down on politics and retreated from the real world into an abstract realm of inwardness. Stuart Parkes's useful survey of post-war German writers and politics examines how, against the background of the shadow cast by the Nazi past, German writers have since 1945 attempted to overcome this quintessentially German schism between Geist (intellect) and Macht (power).
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
[A] detailed, informative study, which traces writers' involvement with politics [and] probes how intellectuals have shaped public debates. . [A] comprehensive overview of the main literary and political lines.
CHOICE
An amazing accomplishment in a new, standard work on a difficult topic . . . Judicious in its balanced assessments of political positions . . . It is at the same time well written and rich in content. . . Exemplary.
GERMANISTIK
Show Less