Alfred Döblin: Monsters, Cyborgs and Berliners 1900-1933
Robert Craig
Germanic Literatures 2010 September 2021

Confrontational Readings: Literary Neo-Avant-Gardes in Dutch and German
Edited by Inge Arteel, Lars Bernaerts and Olivier Couder
Germanic Literatures 2128 September 2020

Goethe's Poetry and the Philosophy of Nature: Gott und Welt 1798-1827
Regina Sachers
Germanic Literatures 722 July 2015

  • ‘Although the twenty-one poems of the original collection were composed over as many years or more, Regina Sachers rejects the ‘autonomous’ approach taken by Theodor Adorno, David Wellbery, and others, pointing out that by deliberately placing them together, Goethe must have wished the reader to view them as a single entity.’ — Osman Durrani, Modern Language Review 112.1, January 2017, 279-80 (full text online)
  • ‘Each of these poems has a history, and the combination of histories sheds new light on Goethe’s intellectual development, in particular the increased awareness of the image of a self that he was projecting.’ — David Hill, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 77, 2017, 269

Karoline von Günderrode: Philosophical Romantic
Joanna Raisbeck
Germanic Literatures 268 October 2022

  • ‘Joanna Raisbeck has written a wide-ranging, deeply learned, lucid and philosophically stimulating account of the works of Karoline von Günderrode. The book can be counted as one of the crowning achievements of a recent wave of scholarship in English that grasps Günderrode as a key thinker of German Romantic philosophy... It is a groundbreaking book, and one can only hope that the potential she unearths in Günderrode will continue to animate the imaginations of generations of readers to come.’ — Gabriel Trop, Modern Language Notes 138.3, April 2023, 1248-52 (full text online)
  • ‘The scope of this study is vast and ambitious... The book makes a very fine contribution to the scholarship on ideas and conceptualizations in Günderrode's works.’ — Barbara Becker‐Cantarino, German Quarterly 96.2, 2023, 287-89 (full text online)
  • ‘It is hard to review a book as excellent as this one, but at least I can try to recapitulate the main reasons why this book is well worth the read for anyone interested either in the literature of Romanticism (and its philosophical implications), the dissemination of Spinozism, or women philosophers of the early 19th century.’ — Anne Pollok, Symphilosophie 5, 2023, 460-66
  • ‘What is under review here is an outstanding scholarly achievement—a book of great clarity in thinking and presentation, of formidable, impeccable research, a monograph displaying sovereign command of her material as well as an enthusiasm that never obscures but always illuminates what it examines... To sum up: this is indeed a landmark publication not only in Günderrode studies, but, because of its wider implications, in studies in Romanticism generally. It is the summa of Raisbeck’s research, which meets the highest standards of international scholarship and fully deserves the exceptional recognition it has already received.’ — Christoph Bode, European Romantic Review 35.1, 2024, 159-65 (full text online)

The Law of Poetry: Studies in Hölderlin’s Poetics
Charles Lewis
Germanic Literatures 1823 September 2019

  • ‘[D]as zweite Kapitel [erschließt] Neuland: Dass Kleanthes’ Hymne an Zeus für die Eigentümlichkeit des anrufenden Gestus der Ode Natur und Kunst formativ gewesen sein könnte, stellt einen eindrücklichen Befund dar (33, 42 f., 55). Aus den produktiven Differenzen zur Hymne leitet Lewis anschaulich jene Kritik her, die Hölderlins poetologische Ode vollzieht, wenn sie die Anbetung Jupiters an dessen Eingedenken seiner Herkunft knüpft (43 f.). ... Lewis’ Studie beleuchtet durch innovative Ansätze die selbstreflexive Gestaltung poetischer Formen, wie Hölderlins Werk sie zeigt, und nähert sich so dem im Titel exponierten ‘poetischen Gesetz’.’ — Lisa Memmeler, Hölderlin-Jahrbuch 42, 2021, 325-328
  • ‘The achievements of the first part of Lewis’s monograph are complemented by a second part consisting of a new translation into English of both Hölderlin’s “Sophocles-Anmerkungen” and his fragment on “[d]ie Bedeutung der Tragödien,” along with extensive notes contextualizing Hölderlin’s interpretive gestures within his broader œuvre as well as within current debates in classical philology. In this respect, Lewis’s translations mediate not only between Hölderlin’s German and modern English, but also between a poetic commentary from the early nineteenth century and contemporary scholarship, continuing the “poetic logic” that he traces in Hölderlin, whose precise formulations also open to other voices before and after “his” time. The proximity of Lewis’s English rendition to Hölderlin’s German, as well as his erudite commentaries, will also make his translations a resource for future scholars and readers of Hölderlin.’ — Kristina Mendicino, Monatshefte 113.4, 2021, 688-691

Paul Celan’s Unfinished Poetics: Readings in the Sous-Oeuvre
Thomas C. Connolly
Germanic Literatures 1626 February 2018

  • ‘It would exceed the limits of this review to enter further into the many merits of Connolly’s monograph, from his impressive discoveries within an “oeuvre” so thoroughly examined as Celan’s, to the judiciousness of his writing... The “sous-oeuvre” that Connolly broaches can “never” be entirely disclosed: every disclosure leaves traces to be read otherwise. It is for this reason that Paul Celan’s Un nished Poetics: Readings in the Sous-Oeuvre calls for further readings, in every sense.’ — Kristina Mendicino, German Studies Review 42.2, May 2019, 402-404 (full text online)
  • ‘This book constitutes a refreshing approach to the work of Paul Celan... constitutes a sharp and compelling update to Celan criticism.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 55.3, July 2019, 355
  • ‘Paul Celan’s Unfinished Poetics is highly recommended, as it demonstrates that a sous-œuvre opens up a fabulous new source of interest for poetry lovers. This goes far beyond Celan’s writings.’ — Gerrit-Jan Berendse, Modern Language Review 114.4, October 2019, 894-96 (full text online)

Poetry, Painting, Park: Goethe and Claude Lorrain
Franz R. Kempf
Germanic Literatures 227 January 2020

  • ‘Few are the writers who have the competence truly to be interdisciplinary and Franz Kempf is one of them. In Poetry, Painting, Park (Legenda) he carefully lays out the complex intellectual links forged by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from his life-long considerations of Claude’s landscapes. Kempf fluently ranges over the consequences of Goethe’s encounter with Claude— literature and literary theory, painting and drawing, horticulture and garden design, philosophy, natural science and optics, reality and spirituality—to arrive at striking a double portrait.’ — Donald Lee, The Art Newspaper Blog Books of the Year, 25 December 2020
  • ‘This long overdue task [of studying Goethe and Claude Lorrain] has been accomplished in a near exemplary monograph by Franz Kempf, in a finely produced volume that does elegant justice to its subject... It will doubtless become a standard work and will open up broad vistas for future research.’ — Jeremy Adler, The Art Newspaper 334, May 2021
  • ‘Franz R. Kempf’s exciting volume titled Poetry, Painting, Park: Goethe and Claude Lorrain is about each of these forms of art and artists listed in the title, separately and taken together... Kempf really is convincing in his aims of guiding us through the densely interwoven patterns of influences around Goethe.’ — Zoltán Somhegyi, British Journal of Aesthetics 20 October 2021 (full text online)
  • ‘Aufgrund seiner rhetorischen Anlage lädt das vorliegende Buch dazu ein, sich darin auf ähnliche Weise zu bewegen, wie wenn man durch eine Landschaft oder, besser noch: durch einen Park spaziert.’ — Karlheinz Lüdeking, Arbitrium 40.3, 2022, 333-37 (full text online)
  • ‘La richesse du travail de Kempf consiste alors dans le refus d’analyser le rapport entre les deux hommes comme un simple rapport d’influence. [...] Cette audace interprétative est couplée à la précision d’un germaniste soucieux de faire droit à la singularité de chaque mot et qui refuse de se contenter de tracer à grands traits une théorie générale de l’ekphrasis.’ — Francis Haselden, Nouvelle revue d’esthétique 30, 2022, 151-54 (full text online)

Stefan George: The Homosexual Imaginary
Peter Morgan 
Germanic Literatures 3029 January 2024

Structures of Subjugation in Dutch Literature
Judit Gera
Germanic Literatures 1219 December 2016

  • ‘This informative, insightful, confident, and provocative account of Dutch literature, which focuses on the complex ways in which it embodies and embeds subjugation, deserves to be read by any scholar of European literature interested in an intersectional approach to reading literature. To those teaching and studying Dutch literature, Structures of Subjugation in Dutch Literature provides a worthwhile and lively addition to the literary histories available in English.’ — Jane Fenoulhet, Modern Language Review 113.3, July 2018, 675-77 (full text online)
  • ‘Above all, Gera’s analyses are impressive examples of the development and use of new reading strategies. Her analyses gave me a sense of liberation. The fact that messages can be so hidden in the language of social and literary reality gives an explanation of the persistence of the established order in gender and race-biased inequalities. With a growing awareness of our literary heritage, a critical attitude towards ingrained ideas and their wording becomes possible. We enter a new era.’ — Den Haag Agnes Sneller, Dutch Crossing Online, 2018 (full text online)

The Very Late Goethe: Self-Consciousness and the Art of Ageing
Charlotte Lee
Germanic Literatures 523 April 2014

  • ‘The major achievement of this study is to show how simplistic it is to distinguish between clarity and chaos as two distinct types of late style. Neither will serve as an adequate descriptor of Goethe’s late-late writing, which is simultaneously highly patterned and controlled, yet ultimately also inchoate and at times bafflingly lacking in transparency.’ — Osman Durrani, Modern Language Review 110.2, April 2015, 587-88 (full text online)
  • ‘A subtle and complex reflection on the distinctive character of Goethe’s writing in various genres during the last ten years of his life, which is characterized by a tendency towards retrospection, seen in the way that he revisits earlier experiences and earlier writing.’ — David Hill, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 77, 2017, 272

Writing Across Time in the Twelfth Century: Historical Distance and Difference in the Kaiserchronik
Christoph J. Pretzer
Germanic Literatures 257 March 2022