Literary Skinheads? Writing from the Right in Reunified Germany
JAY JULIAN ROSELLINI
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=purduepress_ebooks
Contents
PREFACE // ix
Thinking about contemporary Germany against the backdrop of cultural history.
CHAPTER 1 // 3
Predecessors and Predilections: A Problematic Legacy
Novalis and Political Romanticism. Nietzsche and the elitist as outsider. Stefan George’s
project of cultural renewal. Thomas Mann’s re¶ections on politics and culture. Hugo
von Hofmannsthal on literature and national identity. The antidemocratic warrior
Ernst Jünger. Gottfried Benn’s ill-fated ¶irtation with National Socialism.
CHAPTER 2 // 27
Long Forgotten, Now Feisty: Reuni¤cation and
the Right’s Quest for Respectability
Views of the literary right in the postwar period. Christian von Krockow on Jünger,
Schmitt, and Heidegger, Armin Mohler on the Conservative Revolution, HansPeter Schwarz on Jünger. East meet West on the right—the collaboration of Ulrich
Schacht and Heimo Schwilk. Attempts to in¶uence public opinion ¤fty years after
the German capitulation. Early writings by Schacht and Schwilk. The volume Die
selbstbewußte Nation as the manifesto of the intellectual New Right. An attempt to
reorient post-Wall Germany: For a Berlin Republic by Schacht and Schwilk.
CHAPTER 3 // 79
An Unexpected Detour on the Way to the Pantheon:
Strauß, Handke, and the Vagaries of High Culture in Germany
The “Literature Debate” and littérature engagée. Botho Strauß, his 1993 essay “Impending Tragedy” (Anschwellender Bocksgesang) and the mass media as arena.
Comparisons with Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Martin Walser. Peter Handke,
the poet’s perspective and the Bosnian con¶ict. Critical reactions to Strauß and
Handke. Royal reveries, political critique, and utopia on stage: Strauß’s Ithaka and
Handke’s Preparations for Immortality (Zurüstungen für die Unsterblichkeit). The
battle in the media, part two. Recent works by Strauß and Handke. The prospects
of a new generation of conservative writers.
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EXCURSUS // 137
Attacks on Americanization and Westernization and
One Problematic Line of Defense
German/American culture. European intellectuals and America. German analyses
of anti-Americanism. Herzinger/Stein and one way to defend liberalism. Rightist
anti-Americanism: one characteristic example. Questioning reeducation and the
American model. Resisting cultural and linguistic in¤ltration, homogenization, and
mediocrity. Liberalism as old and new enemy. Heimo Schwilk, the Gulf War, and
dreams of German resurgence.
CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS // 155
The Conservative Revolution: Reassessment and warnings. German developments
in European context. The former GDR as present staging area and possible longterm home of the New Right. Esthetics, ethics, and politics. Literature and democracy. From intellectual discourse to political platform. From literature to political
polemic. De¤ning left and right: beyond dichotomies? Ernst Jünger: end point or
inspiration? Germany, Enlightenment, Romanticism, and the future.
EPILOGUE // 173
Schröder, Walser, Bubis, and the Ongoing German Quest for Normalcy
The 1998 German elections and the generational shift. New manifestations of xenophobia. Martin Walser, Ignatz Bubis, and German-Jewish dialogue. Handke’s
crusade against the West. German troops in Kosovo and images of the past. The
Holocaust memorial and the new citizenship law.
NOTES // 195
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY // 271
INDEX // 29
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