We Are the Machine: The Computer, the Internet, and Information in Contemporary German Literature(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture)

An investigation of attitudes toward -- and unease with -- Information Technology, as reflected in recent German-language literature. Despite our embrace of the sheer utility and productivity it has made possible, the revolution in Information Technology has led to unease about its possible misuse, abuse, and even its eventual domination of humankind. That German culture is not immune to this sense of disquiet is reflected in a broad variety of German-language fiction since the 1940s. This first study of the literary reception of IT in German-speaking lands begins with an analysis of a seminal novel from the beginning of the computer age, Heinrich Hauser's Gigant Hirn (1948), then moves to its primary focus, the literature of the past two decades, ranging from Gerd Heidenreich's Die Nacht der Händler (1995) to Daniel Glattauer's novel Gut gegen Nordwind (2006). Along the way, it analyzes eleven works, including Barbara Frischmuth's novel Die Schrift des Freundes (1998), René Pollesch's drama world wide web-slums (2001), and Günter Grass's novella Im Krebsgang (2003). As wildly different in approach as these works are, each has much to offer this investigation of the imaginary border dividing the human from the technological, a lingering, centuries-old construct created to ease the anxiety that technology has given rise to throughout the ages. Paul A. Youngman is Associate Professor of German at the University of North Carolina-Charlotteand Director of the Center for Humanities, Technology, and Science.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Machines, Computers, and the Liberal Humanist Subject Losing Ground to the Machine: Electronic Brains in the Works of Heinrich Hauser and Friedrich Dürrenmatt Fearing the Machine -- Two Nightmares in the 1990s: Gerd Heidenreich's New Riddle of the Sphinx and Barbara Frischmuth's Hidden Meaning Becoming the Machine: Günter Grass's and Erich Loest's Virtual History, René Pollesch's Postdramatic Imaginings, and "Real" Cyber-Relationships according to Christine Eichel and Daniel Glattauer Conclusion: Questions to Ponder Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Paul Youngman is assistant professor of German at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Review :
An astute study of literary and cultural responses to information technologies. The author investigates the border between the human and the technological -- a border that he sugests is an increasingly imaginary one. The manifold aspects of the relationship between computer and literature treated make the book an extremely promising basis for further discussion.