Beutin Wolfgang - A History of German Literature

When this book first appeared in 1979, the study of the history of literature was still under the sway of a type of account that had become prevalent in the 1950s under the banner of post-1945 ideological freedom. This had in turn developed out of an intellectual historical approach to German literary developments that had been the norm since Wilhelm Dilthey. The impact on German education of the authors and their generation, and the scholarly shortcomings of this fruitless approach, have been immense. This is attested by the sheer length of time it took for any discussion at all to arise on reasons for elaborating a new way of looking at the whole history of literature. Such a discussion did not even begin to manifest itself until the mid-1970s. The importance of social history as a dimension of literature, now a major area within the discipline besides that of aesthetic values, has since been accorded its rightful place among the subject matter proper to the discipline. The new awareness that has been brought to bear on this History of German Literature over the last decade is regarded by the authors as confirmation of their intention to make a complete break with customary guidelines for the presentation, classification and selection of material, and to bring this newly acquired self-perception of literary study into the clear light of day.

It would be appropriate at this point to restate the two basic principles that have emerged from discussion as the authors shared view of the overall conception and formal structure appropriate to this book. First, a socio-historical basis for the study of literature does not mean embedding it in political, social or ideological processes. What it definitely does mean, however, is interpreting the artistic autonomy of literary creation against this background, so as to be able to describe how literature both reconciles itself with and protests against human relations. The conceptual marriage of literary and social change enables us to uncover the equally fundamental and productive contradiction between aesthetic illusion and social reality, and to conceptualise literature in terms of the dynamic of this contradiction as an organon of history (Walter Benjamin), even in cases where it is ultimately subordinate to it. Second, it seemed only right to allow literature its own voice as a storehouse of historical experience, relating it to the contemporary situation, rather than treating it as a dead historical document that is over and done with. It needs to be borne in mind, however, that knowledge is not lodged in literary works in the form of some fixed truth, concrete substance or statement of meaning, but can only be derived from them through the mediation of the reader, becoming meaningful in terms of his or her own experiences in the present.

The following guidelines consequently emerged for this account of the history of literature: a chronological approach, which nevertheless attaches varying weight to different periods, laying special stress on the concerns of the twentieth century, particularly the literature of both parts of Germany since 1945. The classification of periods has been made on the basis of upheavals in political history, taking into account the non-simultaneous relationship between material and creative productivity. Each section dealing with a different age begins by enumerating and pinpointing issues in the historical dimension of literature, elaborating the key issues and using them as examples with which to interpret the literary historical process. Writers and works are therefore selected on a functional basis, dispensing with the practice of a complete enumeration of authors and works and giving precedence instead to those that are in some way exemplary. Failure to mention an author or work should by no means be taken as a negative value judgement.

Like the second edition, the third has also been substantially revised and expanded. This concerns in the first instance the outward form of the book. The earlier formata mixture of continuous narrative interspersed with original quotations and informative textsseemed outdated. All chapters have been expanded and revised in terms of content and style, although the scope of this Preface precludes a detailed list of alterations. The most recent scholarly developments and research results have been taken into account.

September 1989