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SECTION:
Literature versus Nation in German-Language Artists of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Chair of the section/Suggestions, Abstracts, Contributions to:
Email: Giuseppe Dolei / Alessandra Schininà (Catania)
ABSTRACT: Many German-language authors of the 19th and 20th centuries exhibit a critical, ambiguous, often tormented relationship to a "German" national identity. Historic and social motives are mixed with personal, ethical and aesthetic impulses. The confrontation of individual authors with the national idea led to an often dramatic identity crisis, which, however, proved to be extremely productive on the artistic, literary level. The resulting works reveal a complex relationship of German intellectuals and artists to politics. Their approaches can range from a biting satire to a melancholy flight into the past, from a clear criticism of prevailing circumstances to collaboration, from active engagement to isolation. Although the ideas of nation, national literature and culture changed in the course of decades, the relationship between nation, language and literature remains problematic, since precisely in art multiple identities, mixing of languages and mutual influences between cultures always stand in the foreground. The aim of this section is to show, on the basis of different examples, how artists and authors deal with the various national and nationalistic tendencies, especially in Germany. Austria and Switzerland, and how their continuing search for their own identity led to new insights into the role of literature in society.
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