Overview
Goethe's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, first published in 1774, has produced a global echo that rivals contemporary bestsellers. While in the German context, the book was always outshined by its famous author, patriotic writers in Italy and China saw their lives mirrored in Werther's struggle, inspiring them to rewrite Goethe's novel in revolutionary terms. Meanwhile, French Romantics embraced Werther's expressive language to explore the dark corners of their souls. The same happened in Japan, where modernists invoked the text to show that 'the most beautiful moment of life DS that is, love DS blossoms in the proximity of death.' Kaminski investigates how interpretations, translations, and literary adaptations of Goethe's novel have manipulated the text in ways that left deep marks on world literature.
Full Product Details
Author: Johannes Kaminski (Postdoctoral Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow, Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.00cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 24.00cm
Weight: 0.540kg
ISBN: 9780197267554
ISBN 10: 0197267556
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 21 December 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
"Lives and Deaths of Werther is an impressive piece of comparative literary scholarship. Working with and translating original texts in German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese, Kaminski explores how, through what he terms literary embedded ""grafting"", critical and creative responses to Goethe's novel embedded the the mutable Werther in world literary culture. * Ian Ellison, Times Literary Supplement *"
Lives and Deaths of Werther is an impressive piece of comparative literary scholarship. Working with and translating original texts in German, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese, Kaminski explores how, through what he terms literary embedded ""grafting"", critical and creative responses to Goethe's novel embedded the the mutable Werther in world literary culture. * Ian Ellison, Times Literary Supplement *
Author Information
Dr Johannes Kaminski is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2011 and has held research posts at the University of Cambridge, Taipei, Vienna, and Comenius University Bratislava. As a scholar of comparative literature, Kaminski's research is focused on the literature of Goethezeit, Chinese modernism, and contemporary science-fiction.
