000			a
999			_c33260 _d33260
008			240428b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780521433303
082			_a830.9 _bSTE
100			_aStern, J. P.
245			_aThe dear purchase : a theme in German modernism
260			_bCambridge University Press, _c2006 _aCambridge :
300			_axxii,445 p. ; _bill., _c21 cm
365			_b36.99 _c£ _d110.10
490			_aCambridge studies in German
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aThis book studies individual works by twelve major writers of German modernism, including Thomas Mann, Musil, Brecht and Rilke, in relation to the history of the twentieth century. It explores the theme of the 'dear purchase', an ideal of moral strenuousness and sacrifice seen as characteristic of Germany after Nietzsche, and reveals the underlying flaw in this notion as a self-justifying value. In this context, it considers the renaissance of German poetry after 1900, the impact of the War of 1914, its aftermath in uncertainty and relativism, and attitudes to the Hitler period, and finally juxtaposes Mann's Felix Krull and Kafka's story Josephine as a deliverance from the value-system of the title. The Introduction, partly autobiographical, traces J. P. Stern's preoccupation with this interpretation of his material in many of the books he published (especially those concerned with Nietzsche and Hitler), and pays tribute to Wittgenstein's influence on his thinking.
650			_aGerman literature
650			_aThe Great War
650			_aRendering account
650			_aRelativity
650			_aReality
650			_aGerman poetry
942			_2ddc _cBK