mountains in the German imagination from the middle ages to the twenty-first century
Published:
2012
Publisher:
Camden House, Rochester, NY
Includes bibliographical references and index Mountains have always stirred the human imagination, playing a crucial role in the cultural evolution of peoples around the globe and becoming infused with meaning in the process. Beyond their...
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Includes bibliographical references and index Mountains have always stirred the human imagination, playing a crucial role in the cultural evolution of peoples around the globe and becoming infused with meaning in the process. Beyond their geographical-geological significance, mountains affect the topography of the mind, whether as objects of peril or attraction, of spiritual enlightenment or existential fulfillment, of philosophical contemplation or aesthetic inspiration. This volume of essays by European and North American scholars examines the lure of mountains in German literature, philosophy, film, music, and culture from the Middle A
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Frontcover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Meaning of Mountains: Geology, History, Culture; Prelude: Classical Mountain Landscapes and the Language of Ascent; Part I: First Forays: Mountain Exploration and Celebration from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century; Terra Incognita? Mountains in Medieval and Early Modern German Literature; From Meadows to Mountaintops: Albrecht von Haller's "Die Alpen"; Interlude: Geo-Poetics: The Alpine Sublime in Art and Literature, 1779-1860; Time and Narrative in the Mountain Sublime around 1800
Faust's Mountains: An Ecocritical Reading of Goethe's Tragedy and ScienceSpectacular Scenery and Slippery Descents: Narrating the Mountains of Tropical Polynesia; Part II: Beckoning Heights: Summits Near and Far in the Nineteenth Century; Fascinating Voids: Alexander von Humboldt and the Myth of Chimborazo; From Eros to Thanatos: Hiking and Spelunking in Ludwig Tieck's Der Runenberg; Geology, Mountaineering, and Self-Formation in Adalbert Stifter's Der Nachsommer; "An Apparition from Another World": The Mountains of the Moon and Kilimanjaro from the Perspective of Nineteenth-Century Germany
Part III: Modern Expeditions and Evocations: Climbing from the Twentieth into the Twenty-First CenturyLeaving the Summit Behind: Tracking Biographical and Philosophical Pathways in Richard Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie; Elevation and Insight: Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg; "The Essence of the Alpine World Is Struggle": Strategies of Gesundung in Arnold Fanck's Early Mountain Films; "Mountain of Destiny": The Filmic Legacy of Nanga Parbat; Spatial Orientation and Embodied Transcendence in Werner Herzog's Mountain Climbing Films; W. G. Sebald's Magic Mountains
Conflicting Ascents: Inscriptions, Cartographies, and Disappearance in Christoph Ransmayr's Der fliegende BergWorks Cited; Notes on the Contributors; Index; Backcover
