De Gruyter - The Modern Restoration: German Literary History

The Modern Restoration: Re-thinking German Literary History 1930-1960 offers a fresh perspective on twentieth-century German literature. This scholarly work moves away from the traditional focus on the political shifts of 1933 and 1945. Instead, it explores a restorative aesthetic mood that existed between 1930 and 1960, crossing through major political boundaries. The book is structured into two distinct parts to provide a comprehensive view. The first part examines a wide range of literary journals to identify shared aesthetic trends during this period. The second part looks at the individual careers of five significant writers: Gottfried Benn, Johannes R. Becher, Bertolt Brecht, Gunter Eich, and Peter Huchel. By looking at these authors against the backdrop of the prevailing restorative climate, the text provides a new way to understand the development of German literature during these decades.