Art and its Uses in Thomas Mann's Felix Krull
Ernest Schonfield
Bithell Series of Dissertations 32 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 70•1 August 2008
- ‘Concerning freedom, play, and Mann’s appeal to a community, Schonfield makes a persuasive case in his lucid and admirable study.’ — Steve Dowden, Modern Language Review 103, 2010, 905-06 (full text online)
Being and Meaning in Thomas Mann's Joseph Novels
Charlotte Nolte
Bithell Series of Dissertations 22 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 44•1 January 1996
Benedikte Naubert (1765-1819) and her Relations to English Culture
Hilary Brown
Bithell Series of Dissertations 27 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 63•1 May 2005
- ‘A detailed bibliography [rounds] out this meticulous, scholarly work. Brown’s thorough and perceptive investigation of Naubert’s fiction and English literature makes previous work on the author obsolete. It takes Naubert’s oeuvre out of the niche of gender studies and places it squarely in the mainstream of German literary history and in the rich tradition of Anglo-German literary and cultural cross-currents.’ — Barbara Becker-Cantarino, Modern Language Review 102, 2007, 565 (full text online)
Bridal-Quest Epics in Medieval Germany: A Revisionary Approach
Sarah Bowden
Bithell Series of Dissertations 40 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 85•30 May 2012
- ‘Bowden’s style is clear, lively, and elegant. As well as making a definitive statement, this book also offers insightful interpretations that are likely to make the texts in question more accessible and appealing to students.’ — Annette Volfing, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 534-35 (full text online)
The Correspondence of Edward Gordon Craig and Count Harry Kessler, 1903-1937
Edited by L. M. Newman
Bithell Series of Dissertations 21 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 43•1 January 1995
Crisis and Form in the Later Writing of Ingeborg Bachmann: An Aesthetic Examination of the Poetic Drafts of the 1960s
Áine McMurtry
Bithell Series of Dissertations 39 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 84•30 May 2012
- ‘There is precious little in McMurtry’s approach and textual interpretation that invites criticism. In fact, one so often feels compelled to applaud the subtlety of these examinations, the comprehensiveness of argument, and sheer erudition of the author... With this study McMurtry has positioned herself in the forefront of contemporary Bachmann scholarship.’ — Rüdiger Görner, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 1144-45 (full text online)
- ‘The study’s solid grounding in Bachmann research, and modern European literature in general, means that it provides a useful starting point for readers who are new to Bachmann’s work, academics interested in modern literature or philosophy, and Bachmann scholars in search of a new perspective on her work.’ — Lina Fisher, German Quarterly 2013, 110-12
Dialogue and Narrative Design in the Works of Adalbert Stifter
Brigid Haines
Bithell Series of Dissertations 17 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 34•1 January 1991
Divided Loyalties: East German Writers and the Politics of German Division 1945-1953
Peter Davies
Bithell Series of Dissertations 24 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 49•1 January 2000
E. T. A. Hoffmann and Alcohol: Biography, Reception and Art
Victoria Dutchman-Smith
Bithell Series of Dissertations 35 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 75•19 February 2010
- ‘Clearly written in a jargon-free style, Dutchman-Smith’s study offers an illuminating discussion of a dimension of Hoffmann’s work that has received relatively little scholarly attention up until now, and which will be of interest to specialists and advanced students alike.’ — Birgit Röder, Modern Language Review 106, 2011, 904-05 (full text online)
The Ethics of Narration: Uwe Johnson's Novels from Ingrid Babendererde to Jahrestage
Colin Riordan
Bithell Series of Dissertations 14 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 28•1 January 1989
Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s
Jon Hughes
Bithell Series of Dissertations 30 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 67•30 July 2006
- ‘Hughes’s readings of Roth’s texts are fresh and compelling. One may disagree with certain details, but undeniably this new study considerably expands the scope of the discussions about Roth and his intellectual environment in the light of current critical debates and theories. Hughes presents his arguments clearly and succinctly. The scholarly documentation is impeccable, and the book, equipped with a comprehensive bibliography and an extensive index, is as user-friendly in its organization as it is sophisticated in its scholarly narrative.’ — Dagmar C. G. Lorenz, Modern Language Review 102.4, 2007, 1188-90 (full text online)
- ‘A book-length study in English of the writings of Joseph Roth is greatly to be welcomed... Hughes’s principal thesis — that Roth is not simply the author at odds with his times, as which he is often represented, but one who finds his own ways of confronting the experiences of cultural fragmentation that the twentieth-century world brings — is engagingly presented and makes the volume as a whole a serious contribution to Roth scholarship.’ — David Midgley, Austrian Studies 15, 2007, 190-191 (full text online)
- ‘A substantial, original, and methodologically sound piece of work... This is a well-written and thought-provoking study and will be of interest to students and academics alike.’ — Helen Chambers, Modern Austrian Literature 40, 2007, 101-03
Günter Grass's Use of Baroque Literature
Alexander Weber
Bithell Series of Dissertations 20 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 41•1 January 1995
Hamann's Prophetic Mission: A Genetic Study of Three Late Works against the Enlightenment
Timothy Beech
Bithell Series of Dissertations 34 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 74•23 April 2010
History, Fiction, Verisimilitude: Studies in the Poetics of Gottfried's 'Tristan'
Mark Chinca
Bithell Series of Dissertations 18 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 35•1 January 1993
Horace's 'Epistles', Wieland and the Reader: A Three-Way Relationship
Jane V. Curran
Bithell Series of Dissertations 19 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 38•1 January 1995
Phantom Images: The Figure of the Ghost in the Work of Christa Wolf and Irina Liebmann
Catherine Smale
Bithell Series of Dissertations 41 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 97•27 September 2013
Private Lives and Collective Destinies: Class, Nation and the Folk in the Works of Gustav Freytag (1816-1895)
Benedict Schofield
Bithell Series of Dissertations 37 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 81•30 May 2012
- ‘Schofield’s unprecedented and skillful incorporation of the author’s entire oeuvre has made a real and lasting contribution to nineteenth-century scholarship.’ — Alyssa Howards, German Quarterly 86, 2013, 489-90
- ‘Represents a valuable contribution to the field and enhances our understanding of Freytag’s strategy and agenda in no small measure.’ — Florian Krobb, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 556-58 (full text online)
- ‘This is the only comprehensive work on Freytag that I know of, at least in our time. It is thoroughly researched... The criticism is exacting and precise.’ — Jeffrey L. Sammons, Monatshefte 106, 2014, 312-15
The Problem of Christ in the Work of Friedrich Hölderlin
Mark Ogden
Bithell Series of Dissertations 16 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 33•1 January 1991
The Reception of English Puritan Literature in Germany
Peter Damrau
Bithell Series of Dissertations 29 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 66•30 July 2006
- ‘Damrau’s study is a well researched and exceptionally well documented inquiry into the relationship between Puritanism and Pietism that reaches beyond the theological into the linguistic and literary disciplines. The extensive bibliography offers dictionaries, primary and secondary literature of relevant works in both the English and German literatures and a refreshingly new approach.’ — Helene M. Riley, Germanic Notes and Reviews 30.1, 2007, 56-59
- ‘This book makes a valuable contribution to current understanding of the presence of British thinking and texts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Germany and is to be commended for its detailed analysis, its cross-disciplinary approach and its clear argument.’ — Nils Langer, Modern Language Review 103, 2008, 267-68 (full text online)
Room for Manoeuvre: The Role of Intertext in Elfriede Jelinek's Die Klavierspielerin, Günter Grass's Ein weites Feld, and Herta Müller's Niederungen and Reisende auf einem Bein
Morwenna Symons
Bithell Series of Dissertations 28 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 64•7 December 2005
Sacramental Realism: Gertrud von le Fort and German Catholic Literature in the Weimar Republic and Third Reich (1924-46)
Helena M. Tomko
Bithell Series of Dissertations 31 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 68•14 January 2007
- ‘Helena Tomko’s impressive dissertation on Gertrud von le Fort may very well inspire at least a younger generation of German literature scholars to investigate religious themes and motifs, as well as important but often unjustly overlooked texts by authors, such as le Fort, whose works were influenced by their religious beliefs.’ — Gregor Thuswaldner, Modern Language Review 104, 2009, 604 (full text online)
Sexuality and the Sense of Self in the Works of Georg Trakl and Robert Musil
Andrew Webber
Bithell Series of Dissertations 15 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 30•1 January 1990
Single Combat and Warfare in German Literature of the High Middle Ages: Stricker's Karl der Grosse and Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal
Rachel E. Kellett
Bithell Series of Dissertations 33 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 72•1 August 2008
- ‘The thoroughness of [Kellett's] restudy is a welcome reinforcement of many of the more impressionistic inferences drawn by previous scholars. The work will prove essential reading for those interested in the variegated oeuvre of the man who referred to himself (perhaps rather too modestly) as ‘Der Stricker’.’ — Neil Thomas, Modern Language Review 105, 2010, 270-71 (full text online)
Space in Theodor Fontane's Works: Theme and Poetic Function
Michael James White
Bithell Series of Dissertations 38 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 82•30 May 2012
- ‘The book is exceptionally well written, precise, compact, and lean. It has been well edited with very few faults.’ — Jeffrey L. Sammons, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 277-79 (full text online)
Troubling Maternity: Mothering, Agency, and Ethics in Women's Writing in German of the 1970s and 1980s
Emily Jeremiah
Bithell Series of Dissertations 26 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 58•1 January 2003