Schiller: National Poet – Poet of Nations: A Birmingham Symposium(61 Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik)

To mark the 200th anniversary of Schiller’s death, leading scholars from Germany, Canada, the UK and the USA have contributed to this volume of commemorative essays. These were first presented at a symposium held at the University of Birmingham in June 2005. The essays collected here shed important new light on Schiller’s standing as a national and transnational figure , both in his own lifetime and in the two hundred years since his death. Issues explored include: aspects of Schiller’s life and work which contributed to the creation of heroic and nationalist myths of the poet during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; his activities as man of the theatre and publisher in his own, pre-national context; the (trans-)national dimensions of Schiller’s poetic and dramatic achievement in their contemporary context and with reference to later appropriations of national(ist) elements in his work. The contributions to this volume illuminate Schiller’s achievements as poet, playwright, thinker and historian, and bring acute insights to bear on both the history of his impact in a variety of contexts and his enduring importance as a point of cultural reference.

Table of Contents:
Nicholas MARTIN: Introduction: Schiller After Two Centuries T. J. REED: Wie hat Schiller überlebt? Lesley SHARPE: A National Repertoire: Schiller and the Theatre of his Day Norbert OELLERS: Schiller, der “Heros”. Mit ergänzenden Bemerkungen zu einigen seiner Dramen-Helden Jochen GOLZ: Monumente zu Lebzeiten? – Schiller als Herausgeber seiner Werke K. F. HILLIARD: “Nicht in Person sondern durch einen Repräsentanten”: Problematik der Repräsentation bei Schiller David HILL: Lenz and Schiller: All’s well that ends well Steffan DAVIES: Schiller’s Egmont and the Beginnings of Weimar Classicism John GUTHRIE: Language and Gesture in Schiller’s Later Plays Francis LAMPORT: Virgins, Bastards and Saviours of the Nation: Reflections on Schiller’s Historical Drama Ritchie ROBERTSON: Schiller and the Jesuits Alexander KOŠENINA: Schiller’s Poetics of Crime Jeffrey L. HIGH: Schiller, “merely political Revolutions”, the personal Drama of Occupation, and Wars of Liberation Maike OERGEL: The German Identity, the German Querelle and the Ideal State: A Fresh Look at Schiller’s Fragment “Deutsche Größe” David PUGH: Schiller and the Crisis of German Liberalism Nicholas MARTIN: Images of Schiller in National Socialist Germany Paul BISHOP: The “Schillerbild” of Werner Deubel: Schiller as “Poet of the Nation”? Anhang/Appendix: Schillerjahr 2005. Selected Events and Publications Personenregister/Index of Names Register der Werke Schillers/Index of Schiller’s Works

Review :
"…a worthy memorial to the author…" – in: Modern Language Review 102 (2007), 1177-78
"…[ein] sehr lesenswerte[r] Tagungsband…" – in: literaturkritik.de 1 (January 2007)
"This is an important book." – in: Forum for Modern Language Studies 43 (2007), 193-94
"The volume is beautifully edited and printed. […] it is a welcome addition to other publications celebrating the Schiller bicentenary. It contains contributions that will be cited for years to come." – in: German Quarterly 80 (2007), 254-56