Im Takt der Liebe - Romantische Lovestorys (German Edition)

---

The result is some horror, a innere[s] Grausen ibid. Mir wurde ganz unheimlich Hoffmann: These lines perfectly illustrate the uncanny as described by Freud: Several moments in the narrative enable the reader as well as Nathanael and other characters to identify Olimpia as a lifeless doll that is set in motion by some mechanism:.

Ihr Spiel, ihr Singen hat den unangenehm richtigen geistlosen Takt der singenden Maschine, und ebenso ist ihr Tanz. Uns ist diese Olimpia ganz unheimlich geworden, wir mochten nichts mit ihr zu schaffen haben, es war uns, als tue sie nur so wie ein lebendiges Wesen Hoffmann: In Schritt und Stellung hatte sie etwas Abgemessenes und Steifes, das manchem unangenehm auffiel; man schrieb es dem Zwange zu, den ihr die Gesellschaft auflegte Hoffmann: The dreadful feeling takes possession of him repeatedly but her non-human characteristics are somehow transformed into the normal human:.

English - Literature, Works. Germanistik - Neuere Deutsche Literatur. English Language and Literature Studies - Literature. Kunst - Computerkunst, Medienkunst. Germanistik - Komparatistik, Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft. Deutsch - Literatur, Werke. Germanistik - Literaturgeschichte, Epochen. GRIN Publishing, located in Munich, Germany, has specialized since its foundation in in the publication of academic ebooks and books. The publishing website GRIN.

Free Publication of your term paper, essay, interpretation, bachelor's thesis, master's thesis, dissertation or textbook - upload now! Register or log in. Our newsletter keeps you up to date with all new papers in your subjects. For Expressionism, by contrast, Huebner comes up with a formula that sounds on the face of it like a contradiction, or at least like a paradox: In this formulation Huebner has implicitly elided the basic distinction between idealism and realism.

And this, in fact, is the point: But, the Expressionists might justifiably retort, anticipating a phrase popularized in the United States during the s, What is reality? First, it presents an early formulation, from within the camp of Marxist thinkers, of what in the thought of Theodor Adorno will blossom into a full-fledged suspicion of all totalizing worldviews as totalitarian constructions. He no longer seeks anything in its totality, a totality that also includes all the natural cruelty of things. Taking as his point of departure the widespread sense of malaise commonly associated with the advent of modern culture, Nietzsche offers a critical analysis of the causes of this discontent.

The malaise of modernity is thus symptomatic of the collapse, for Nietzsche, of the scientific worldview: Ist Wissenschaftlichkeit vielleicht nur eine Furcht und Ausflucht vor dem Pessimismus? Eine feine Notwehr gegen — die Wahrheit? Und, moralisch geredet, etwas wie Feig- und Falschheit? Is reverence for science perhaps nothing but fear of and flight from pessimism?

A refined defense mechanism against — truth? And, moralistically speaking, something like faintheartedness and falsehood? Science is revealed as a deception on the same order as that pursued by any purely Apollinian art: And Nietzsche believes the malaise of modernism derives from the fact that his contemporaries have generally recognized the limits of rational thought but nonetheless refuse to admit or embrace these limits. An art that practices metaphysical mimesis, such as Attic tragedy, becomes an antidote to the deceptions of Apollinian or Socratic culture, a machete that both cuts through the veil of ideological self- deception and offers a form of non-deceptive, non-ideological consolation.

The Expressionists would embrace this view of art as an instrument of cultural and ideological critique. Both, in fact, are clear in their assertion that the will only appears in diverse — but differentially evaluated — forms of semblance. At any rate, when he transfers these artistic drives from nature to the mediating function of the artist, Nietzsche leaves no doubt that in both instances the principle of mimesis is at work: GRAY Dionysian artist of intoxication, or, finally — as is the case, for example, in Greek tragedy — simultaneously an intoxicating dream-artist; Nietzsche thus argues that all art is mimetic, but that one can distinguish three subcategories of mimetic art, one purely Apollinian, one purely Dionysian, and one that melds and intermingles these two, for which Greek tragedy stands as the historical model.

Even at this early stage in his treatise Nietzsche then goes on to provide a first glimpse into how he imagines this interaction occurring in the Attic tragedy he will valorize as the pinnacle of art. The tragic artist is, first and foremost, a Dionysian artist. We note also, confirming a point made above, how the Dionysian artist himself, in his own being, becomes a mimetic representation of this metaphysical ground: But after this wholly Dionysian encounter with the world and its deepest reality, something absolutely non-Dionysian must occur: We recognize once more, then, that Nietzsche frames his arguments as a contribution to the much broader context of aesthetic theory in general, specifically as a redefinition of the applicability of mimesis.

When he shifts from the aesthetic to a more psychological or existential explanation of the interaction between the Apollinian and Dionysian principles of art, Nietzsche proposes a relationship of fundamental interdependence between the horror of Dionysian reality and the concomitant necessity for the redemptive semblance invoked by the Apollinian dream world. We understand in this context precisely what Nietzsche means when he claims that the world — that is, empirical reality and existence — is only justified as an aesthetic phenomenon Geburt 17, 47, Thus in the self-criticism appended to Geburt he unequivocally states: This should not lead one to believe, however, that all semblance, all illusion is by definition good.

On the contrary, the escapism of absolute semblance is precisely what Nietzsche lambastes in Wilhelminian Germany, with its reliance on the deception of science and the fanciful illusionism of its art, represented in Geburt by the genre of classical opera — GRAY good and bad mimesis. On the contrary, it is Dionysian mimesis of the existential horror of the will as filtered through the transfiguring second-order mimesis of Apollinian image that Nietzsche holds up as the high-water mark of artistic achievement, as exemplified for him in Attic tragedy.

And yet in this regard it does not represent a world that is arbitrarily fantasized into the space between heaven and earth; rather, it is a world whose reality and credibility are equal to those that the believing Hellene attributed to Mt. Olympus and all its occupants. The world of tragedy, by contrast, is a creative imitation that exists on the same order of ontic reality as does the world of phenomenal existence itself, and once again Nietzsche turns to the metaphor of the Olympian gods to exemplify this concept.

He goes on to extrapolate from this comment a general maxim about the reality and truth of the poetic world. The contrast between this authentic truth of nature and the cultural mendacity that poses as the sole form of reality is similar to that between the eternal core of things, the thing in itself, and the totality of the phenomenal world. Thus mimesis in Nietzsche takes on positive connotations when it is related either directly to the representation of this metaphysical core, as in the case of music, or when mimesis functions as a palliative that makes this tragic recognition palatable, rather than providing ideological escape from this ultimate tragic insight.

This new dithyramb represents a kind of program music that alienates musical art from its true mission, the direct mimetic representation of the will, by recasting it as the imitator of the phenomenal world. This limitation to mimesis of the phenomenal world of appearances, to the semblance of semblance is, for Nietzsche, the very definition of degeneracy in art, especially in music. In some of his unpublished notes for Geburt Nietzsche is much more lucid on this point.

But just as Nietzsche, as we have seen, distinguished different levels of mimetic representation to which he attributed varied values, here he delineates two basic categories of phenomena: One type reveals itself to us in the form of sensations of pleasure and displeasure and accompanies as a never absent thoroughbass all the other ideational expressions. In other words, feelings of pleasure and displeasure are universal sensations, and as such they are those forms of ideation that link us most closely with the pre-individual ground of existence.

Universality, in short, becomes the measure of authenticity because it points to that realm of experience — the Dionysian — that antedates the principium individuationis, the fragmentation of originary oneness into the manifoldness of distinct individuals. What is perhaps most significant about the cited passage, however, is that immediately after identifying these two genres of ideation, Nietzsche shifts to the manner of their representation, concentrating initially on the way they express themselves in language.

This constitutes, as it were, the music of speech. From here it is but a short step to the pathos, attention to rhythm and meter, and emotionality of Expressionist literary language. The mimetic object of such speech is not the logos, not the conceptual realm of ideation, but the sub-conceptual, psychological domain of primordial emotions.

Or, put another way, why, and in what sense, is music the origin of tragic art and myth? Only because these allegorical images are born of music itself does their semblance contain a dimension of authenticity: Indeed, as Nietzsche explains a few pages later, this allegorical representation itself retains the mimetic capacity inherent in music.

Denn der Mythus will als ein einziges Exempel einer ins Unendliche hinein starrenden Allgemeinheit und Wahrheit anschaulich empfunden werden. Genuinely Dionysian music presents itself to us as just such a universal mirror of the world will; the visual phenomenon refracted in this mirror immediately expands for our emotions into the replica of an eternal truth.

It is, in essence, a kind of synaesthetic metamorphosis, a transformation of what is manifest in rhythm, meter, and sound into the Apollinian sphere of the visual. It is difficult to imagine a more emphatic and powerful defense of the ultimate reality of allegorical portrayal. Apollinian image joins forces with Dionysian truth, individual example merges with universal meaning. But what is this symbolization of particular universality if not allegory? Subjectivism is only the proper word here if we identify it with that core level of experience below the sphere of the phenomenal that Nietzsche identifies with the Dionysian; it is, perhaps, subjective, but it is nonetheless, for Nietzsche and the Expressionists, a shared subjectivism.

The drive to discover a level of universal truth and reality below the everyday dimensions of the phenomenal world was one of the characteristic traits of the Expressionist artists. One began to dissolve the surrounding reality into irreality, and to penetrate beyond the realm of appearances to the essence; , Es wird so lange gesucht in seinem eigentlichsten Wesen, bis seine tiefere Form sich ergibt, bis das Haus aufsteht, das befreit ist von dem dumpfen Zwang der falschen Wirklichkeit. It goes beyond this. It is pursued in its most authentic essence until its more profound form comes to the fore, until a house emerges that is freed from the dull constraints of false reality.

Decades before Husserl, Nietzsche emerged as the philosopher of what we might call a phenomenological aesthetics, an aesthetic theory that exploited the principle of representational mimesis as a revelatory strategy for the essence of existence. In the writers of German Expressionism he found these blood relatives, a group of artists with the analytical and retrospective abilities to grasp and apply the metaphysical mimesis he advocated in this first work of modern aesthetic theory.

Throughout this essay, translations from the German are my own. To my way of thinking, this conception underestimates the special enchantment Nietzsche held for the Expressionist writers. The same can be said for the scientific or Socratic worldview. For Benn Nietzsche is the greatest genius of the German language; Frantz Clement calls Nietzsche the first patheticist of modernism Hillebrand, ; Richard Dehmel and Heinrich Mann revere him as a linguistic innovator Hillebrand, , ; and Otto Flake calls him the master of the German language Hillebrand, Materialien zu einer marxistischen Realismuskonzeption, — Bronner, Stephen Eric, and Douglas Kellner.

Manifeste und Dokumente zur deutschen Literatur —, 42— A Nietzschean Current in Literary Modernism.

Christmas Comes to Main Street

Nietzsche und die deutsche Literatur. Nietzsche und die deutsche Literatur: Texte zur Nietzsche-Rezeption, — Manifeste und Dokumente zur deutschen Literatur, —, — Manifeste und Dokumente zur deutschen Literatur, —, 3— The Expressionist Heritage, 3— The Expressionist Heritage, — Nietzsche und die deutsche Literatur, 35— Nietzsche und die Kunst. In Kritische Studienausgabe, 1: Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. In Anz and Stark, Expressionismus: Manifeste und Dokumente zur deutschen Literatur —, 55— The Invention of Dionysus: Nietzsche, Aesthetics and Modernity.

Benn, Heym, Van Hoddis and Liechtenstein. Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. The Politics of German Expressionism, — Monographien und Texte zur Nietzsche-Forschung, vol. Vietta, Sylvio, and Hans-Georg Kemper. Manifeste und Dokumente zur deutschen Literatur —, — The question is not only vague and ambiguous, but exceptionally difficult to answer, because we do not have criteria that would provide us with the necessary information to correctly pose the question.

Indeed, there exists a general, albeit somewhat tentative, consensus of scholarly opinion that the works of writers published in avant-garde periodicals between and the early s may be termed Expressionist. However, these are purely external and accidental criteria, conveying little about the shared formal, stylistic, and thematic characteristics of these writers.

BUY ON AMAZON'S NEVER EASY

Nevertheless, they do provide a point of departure for subsequent study. Perhaps the question can be posed in this way: What are the inherent or formal characteristics shared by the many writers whose works appeared in avantgarde periodicals, book series, and anthologies between and or that would entitle us to call them Expressionist? Would a characterization that would allow a comparison to Romanticism or Naturalism be preferable? Despite the fact that in these much longer and betterresearched literary movements terminological ambiguity still persists indeed, over-generalization is intrinsic to any definition of genre , the terms Romanticism and Naturalism are nevertheless based upon far more concise and accepted criteria than the constant vacillation found in the term Expressionism.

In this essay, the question of what criteria would be most suitable to define Expressionism will be addressed, specifically in respect to a single literary genre, namely, narrative prose. SOKEL a poetics of narration that would enable us to devise a coherent theory of Expressionist prose. Among the writers of Expressionism there was little theoretical reflection. It is therefore much more difficult to assess the theory of Expressionism than that of Romanticism or Naturalism.

The wellknown commentaries of Kasimir Edschmid, Paul Kornfeld, and Georg Kaiser, among others, have virtually nothing to say about formal, stylistic, and structural aspects of Expressionist literature. In the years between and he had already contributed many concrete and important ideas about Expressionist prose, so much so that we may use it as the basis for an Expressionist theory of epic prose. It is impossible to speak of a single coherent theory of narrative prose in Expressionism.

In short, we meet with a multiplicity of theoretical points of view, and thus we must investigate further to discover a common denominator shared by the various theories of Expressionist narrative prose. However, this also aptly illustrates an important difference in their theories of narrative. Psychological motivation, circumstantial determination, and causality cannot be ascribed to the genre of epic, which is based upon description and naturalistic representation. The nouveau roman is mentioned in this connection to underscore the fact that the two most prominent Expressionists start out from entirely different theories of prose.

This tradition also includes Naturalism and Futurism, as well as Kafka and the nouveau roman. In his opinion, Naturalism employed a very specific narrative technique, namely, the technique of direct or unmediated representation: Indeed, Naturalism sets out to abolish the intervention of the narrator situated between external reality and the reader.

Accordingly, he exhorts the Expressionist to follow in the footsteps of Realist and Naturalist techniques of narration. Edschmid too viewed Expressionism as a further elaboration of Naturalism, but elevated it to a visionary plane. He is less concerned with literary technique than he is with conveying a specific worldview. This is an essential difference between the two authors. He opposes form to idea, but form is more than a mere technique, it is the idea of form based on Platonic philosophy, an existential concept and part of his worldview.

Deeply indebted to Nietzsche, his literary theory is ultimately derived from Romanticism and German Idealism. Not only his idealism, but also his style and sentence structure are reminiscent of Friedrich Schlegel. In general he traced the prevalent ideas of his generation back to Nietzsche. Einstein wished to revive free, creative spontaneity, and sovereignty of mind playfully exploring the multifarious possibilities of thought. In Einstein the narrator is to be present in his reflections and ideas, mediated by a character who constantly ponders and comments upon the narrative.

Indeed, reflection replaces depiction. Instead of Anschaulichkeit or three-dimensional plasticity , scenic evocation and images, we are given intellectual discourse.

The fundamental difference between these two leading tendencies in Expressionist prose is evident in the use of language: They both tend towards structural concision, forcefulness, and terseness of expression. This concise use of speech is a unique quality common to the greater part of Expressionist narrative prose and brings us close to a definition of its narrative technique. However, we find evidence of such syntactic terseness and concision expressed in different ways in the two separate groups of Expressionist writers.

In the former, syntactic brevity and ellipsis prevail, while in the latter an aphoristic sententiousness predominates. However, this distinction is most tentative and must be examined in the context of narrative perspective and structure. Subordinate clauses explaining or describing motivation are missing, and syntax is reduced to its most basic elements.

This entailed a sparseness of words, the rejection of discursive reasoning, and the avoidance of ornamental figuration. His views on narrative technique are essentially anti-psychological. However, he embraces psychiatry, since, in his view, it restricts itself to the simple notation of events and actions as such. The narrative ideal articulated in this opposition between psychology and psychiatry finds clear expression in the sentence structure and language of the short stories and novels in his Expressionist phase; that ideal requires a paratactic style, in which syntactic subordination very nearly ceases to exist.

The stones blackened; the scissors got hot; he let them drop. Even though the subject of the sentence is mentioned only once, each clause is an independent sentence, joined to the other not by subordination, but rather coordination. If the subject er he were repeated, in place of each semicolon we could place a period and this would not impair the syntactic coherence.

Therefore, it is not the brevity of the sentences, but their paratactic coordination that constitutes this style. The elimination of syntactic subordination defines the very essence of Expressionist style. Only what actually occurs gets stated. The absence of any sort of commentary, of any narrative intervention, presupposes the paratactic principle of Kinostil.

It is impossible to make an absolute distinction between naturalistic representation and the perspectives of the figures or persons in a novel, the latter fully developed in the technique of stream of consciousness. He employs a mixture of the two. In these instances, gesture is utilized as an essential compositional technique. It is employed to symbolize the inner life of the character, which conventionally is done by a narrator. Abstractions, sentiments, and ideas are not always successfully transformed into concrete imagery and visual representation.

This transformation can only occur when dialogue and stream of consciousness usurp the conventional function of narration. However, the generous use of similes in the narrative serves to make the narrative point of view more subjective. To be sure, Heym never employs rhetorical commentary. SOKEL intends to influence the reader, as for example in this novella. The authorial rhetoric by images finds a clear illustration in the final sentence of the story: Leonhard Frank — makes more extreme and direct use of rhetorical figures in his prose works.

The narrator judges the action and characters, didactically attempting to influence the reader: Moreover, the interjection of opinions into the narrative invokes generalizations surpassing the limits of the text. The narrator seeks to persuade the reader by a particular choice of words. Thus the narrative depicts a worldview and seeks to demonstrate a truth that the author wants to propagate. We shall refer to this technique, employed by many important prose writers in Expressionism, as parabolic narrative.

The distinction between parables told in the first and in the third person is of little relevance here. The paratactic style is also indebted to the bible. Sentences often begin with Und, a common feature of exemplary prose, and the succession of events and statements suggests a life of wandering on earth, expressing edifying views of the holy figure from the point of view of a devout and loving disciple. Borrowing from Schopenhauer and materialism, Ehrenstein seeks to demonstrate the senselessness and absurdity of existence. It is above all Mynona — who made the most extensive use of the parabolic form.

Like Leonhard Frank, Mynona addresses topics beyond the story, and the interjections of the narrator determine the meaning of the tale. The narrator himself is marked through the use of grotesque irony. His madness is shown from a critical and sovereign point of view. It is a negativity that leads to the spiritual essence of being. His sketches are ironic-grotesque parables, illustrations of nonsense, beyond which lies a deeper spiritual meaning.

Here the reemergence of authorial intention is deemed necessary. As is the case in the works of Jean Paul, E. Hoffmann, Raabe, and later Musil, authorial intentionality prevails. SOKEL narrator absolute status, denies him absolute reality. They all reject the narrative technique of representation, that is, of Bauen as a goal in itself. As for Mynona, parable is effective in two ways, namely, through philosophical dialogue, and grotesque fantasy. These two components characterize the dialogue as well as the circumstances, situations, and figures in the novel.

The dialogue contains opinions and points of view that constitute the content of the novel. The narrative is not objective; it is subjective, intellectual and amorphous, a merely thematic aspect of the narrative structure. Ideas appear and find formulation in the text. In Bebuquin, character development is secondary to the ideas, which are what interested Einstein.

These cogitations are formulated as aphorisms and accompanied by astonishing, absurd, and fantastic events. One example taken from Bebuquin illustrates the interweaving of these aspects in this first Expressionist novel: Es handelte sich um den Gedanken, der logisch war, woher auch seine Ursachen kamen.

Wir sind nicht mehr so phantasielos, das Dasein eines Gottes zu behaupten. Bebuquin, sehen Sie einmal. He felt in this contradiction no animation, but rather release, repose. It was not negation that was fun. He despised these pretentious grumblers.

He despised this uncleanliness of dramatic man. Yet the reasons were secondary. It was the thought that mattered, which was logical, whatever its origins. He wanted to take it a little easy after his death, since he did not yet know anything for sure about immortality. But unfortunately you will probably have no success since you assume only a logical and a non-logical. There are many types of logic, my friend, at war within us and the alogical derives from that battle.

We are no longer so lacking in imagination as to claim the existence of a God. All shameless capitulation to the concept of unity speaks only to the laziness of your fellow humans. Bebuquin, take a look. However, he does not provide guidance or an interpretation, as is often the case in Mynona. That clearly represents an instance of allegorical and parabolic language.

The self-reflections of the main character — in part or totally identified with the narrator — spontaneously transform external events into intellectual or cognitive experience and transmute every action of the plot into stream of consciousness. This narrative technique is employed by Gustav Sack in Ein verbummelter Student An Idle Student, written —13, published , by Gottfried Benn in his collection of stories Gehirne Brains, , and by Flake in Stadt des Hirns City of the Brain; in Flake the title itself clearly expresses this intellectualization of narrative.

We now turn to the use of allegory in Expressionist narrative prose, which is closely associated with the use of fantasy. In this skull things appear silver-plated and wonderfully polished an image obviously symbolizing the intellect. The especially fantastic nature of the image provides a vehicle to convey ideas. With writers who employ allegory, such as Kubin, Meyrink, and Kafka, two fundamental tendencies of epic or prose Expressionism come together: In Kafka, however, the central idea, as expressed through images or material objects, ultimately remains unknown, and his allegories therefore permit an infinite number of interpretations.

In Einstein, Meyrink, and Kubin, the meaning of the allegory is more accessible. With allegorical clarity, these linked ideas appear as the visionary content of the narrated sequence of events. The meaning of the bureaucracies appearing in these works is so multivalent that it remains inseparable from the representation in the work and remains irreducible to any simple equation with specific ideas.

Linguistically speaking, we cannot define any of the Austrian writers using allegory, whether they are from Prague or from Vienna, as Expressionists. The general stylistic features of Expressionist prose parataxis, ellipsis, syntactic distortion do not apply to the narrative styles of Kafka, Meyrink, Kubin, or Musil. Here, syntactic complexity and subordination still remain the rule.

Therefore, those authors cannot be included among the Expressionists. While the aforementioned features cannot be applied to that group of authors, the Expressionist use of narrative perspective, form, and structure certainly can. We have already drawn attention to stylistic parallels and relations between Musil and Einstein. Kafka plays a special role in the development of narrative technique in Expressionism, evident in the way he intensifies the ambiguity of the parabolic-allegorical forms of narration, widely used by Expressionists. In regard to narrative perspective, Kafka develops to an extreme the exclusion of the omniscient narrator.

These prose works, among the most interesting and finest narrative works produced by Expressionism, all convey a distorted view of the world narrated from the very personal viewpoint of the main character, who in three of these works is insane. The petty bourgeois is revealed as a fantastically macabre and grotesque menace.

Mann maintained the same grotesque intensity of narrator perspective through large sections of the book. Nonetheless, there exists between Kafka and the other Expressionists an essential distinction in regard to the use of figural perspective. The internal point of view, the point of orientation for narrated events, is entirely coherent in Kafka, untouched by any reference to an external reality. However, from a linguistic point of view, we cannot consider him a true Expressionist.

This example shows us that we must proceed with nuanced care when seeking to define Expressionist prose. After this discussion of narrative perspectivism, let us now again turn to linguistic features of Expressionism in order to reiterate that the two fundamental features of its prose were the pursuit of the utmost compression of language and syntactic distortion.

We observe that aphorisms predominate whenever naturalistic representation yields to the expression of ideas. Aphorisms deal with generalizations and as such refer to ideas beyond the text, to a region shared by reader and narrator. Events and characters assume secondary importance; the identical relationship of the narrated events to reality external to the narrative is of primary importance. Aphorisms disturb the autonomy of the fictional world represented in the narrative. Aphorism is linked to irony.

The irony of Einstein and Mynona rests upon the keen awareness of the abyss that separates the world of ideas from empirical reality. In the works of Alfred Lichtenstein — , which depict the milieu of the Berlin artistic community, ironic anecdotes, composed of aphorisms, are the most prominent feature of the narrative. In order to live decently, one has to be a scoundrel; Aphorisms convey a philosophy or a truth about life in concise wording of universal applicability.

The escalation of the aphorism from a sentence into a scene, anecdote, or even story by necessity leads to parable. Two flies are drowned in an inkpot, and in this grotesque and trivial event the narrator finds an illustration of the tragic meaninglessness of existence. The distinction between the parables of Lichtenstein and Ehrenstein and those of Mynona is that the latter, despite his use of irony and relativity, permits the Platonic idea to shine through, as the eternal possibility of intellectual freedom. In contrast, the former two writers demonstrate the absurdity of life by grotesquely combining the trite and ridiculous with sorrow and tragedy.

However, in Kafka, the incomprehensible defeats all attempts at interpretation. The sentence structure and linguistic aberrations transform his stories into ironic, or rather, burlesque parables. This widespread tendency toward ellipsis in Expressionist prose has however also an entirely different cause that the admirer of Sternheim, Gottfried Benn, formulates as follows: However, beneath those differences lies a deeper affinity uniting these authors in their shared antipathy toward psychology, namely, the rejection of causality as a sufficient explanation of human behavior and of the world.

In both of these currents of Expressionism, the writers are bent on eliminating the opposition between the self and external reality, between subject and object, between inside and outside. In a formal and linguistic respect, inner monologue achieves the elimination of the subject-object opposition. In these writers, the distinction between inner and external reality ceases to exist.

Get A Copy

A narrative structure of shifting perspectives and absence of narrative orientation makes the reader feel everywhere and nowhere at all. Moreover, such a narrative technique is the ultimate triumph of literary Naturalism; for the narrator by relinquishing the role of reporter allows the characters an unmediated expression of fictional reality. Annulling the distinction between dialogue and narrative achieves complete autonomy of the text. This form of inner monologue is more radical than anything encountered in Naturalism. It deconstructs syntax by means of radical ellipsis and destroys the mimetic representation of reality.

It undermines the coherent narrative logic presupposed in Naturalism, that is, causality, argument, and order. The erosion of syntax gives way to association, which replaces the mimetic principle of representation: As Gottfried Benn described it in the Expressionist period: Developing out of Naturalism, the narrative technique of inner monologue became a normative form and visionary experience in Expressionism, composed of musical leitmotifs.

Instead of sentences expressing a logically coherent world, Broch utilizes sequences of associative appositions. That omission of predicates and the liquefying of sentences into a stream of language suggests a reaching out toward infinity. Translated by Gregory Kershner Notes 1 The original version of this essay appeared in the volume Expressionismus als Literatur: Gesammelte Studien Bern and Munich: Francke, edited by Wolfgang Rothe.

The essays in that volume all followed the same format, with no notes and no page numbers for citations. The current translation now provides page numbers to the most recent available editions, rather than to the edition available when the article was first published. Additional notes are thus from the editor, not the author, as are all English translations. Works Cited Beissner, Friedrich. Autobiographische und vermischte Schriften, ed. Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau: Kurt Wolff, ; Stuttgart: Rolf-Peter Baacke, with assistance from Jens Kwasny.

Der Mensch ist gut. A New History of French Literature. Cambridge, MA and London: Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande und andere Prosa aus dem Nachlass. Christmas Comes to Main Street Author: Mass Market Paperback Series: Briar Creek 5 Reviewed By: Well it seems like Kara is the last sister that is not engaged since now her sister Molly has come home saying she is getting married to Todd.

What was up with that since it seems that a year ago they had Title: What was up with that since it seems that a year ago they had broken up. Now we have Nate who has come to Briar Creek to be with is aunt during this Christmas holiday but he wasn't to happy being there. Now, why was that?

After Kara and Nate meet due to bumping into each other will they be able to form a friendship that could possibly lead to a HEA? This was a very good story of how each one of these two people will have something that they need to 'prove,' This story was so edifying as we see how hard Kara worked in her bakery when all she wanted was to prove to not only to herself but to others that she could stick with 'running her own bakery.

Even with all of that Nate had not really celebrated Christmas holidays like forever. So, when he arrives and his aunt is so excited wanting to win this contest that will involve his help and since its only him there since he had sent his parents on a cruise Nate was left with no choice but to help her out with this contest because she wanted to win. But then the tables will turn because after talking to Kara he even gets her involved in this Christmas contest. Now, how will that involve him? To find out you will just have to pick up the good series to see for yourself how well this author will bring it all out to the readers.

The characters will involve quite a few family members[many from past series] that will make this read so well developed, portrayed and believable giving the reader quite a interesting Christmas read where one may even like to visit this place called Briar Creek. This novel is the fifth in this series and I am not sure if is this is the last but this one was truly one amazing sweet heart-warming romantic reads. Thank you to NOR for giving me this read for my honest opinion. Sep 21, Monique rated it liked it Shelves: September 21, Star Rating: I've been meaning to give Olivia Miles' Briar Creek series a try for ages now so when I saw this on Netgalley I jumped at the chance to give it a whirl.

And I am so glad I did! Christmas Comes to Main Street is book 5 in the series so there is obviously a lot I have missed and sometimes I wondered how Kara came across in the oth Review written: Christmas Comes to Main Street is book 5 in the series so there is obviously a lot I have missed and sometimes I wondered how Kara came across in the other books.

I felt she was very sympathetic in her own book, but there were hints that she might have played fast and loose with friends in previous books, especially since she is supposedly the flibbertigibbet who can't settle down and stick with anything. If she was in those books, then she redeemed herself beautifully here. If she wasn't and she just felt like the screw up, then she grew out of that and proved something to herself.

Either way, Kara was a fun and sweet character who was determined to succeed at her dream. I liked her sass but also her fear, her struggles to deal with her Mom and her disappointment with love. Nate had the more powerful character arc, I think, but it was a bit cliched. He had to learn to ease up, take time to smell the roses, and figure out it was not all about the money.

In fairness, I totally got why he was all about the money - a lack of a sense of security because of his childhood. I think his views of his parents needed to be re-adjusted into adult thinking but I totally got the little boy in him resenting it all. And I loved how his aunt manipulated him into coming to Briar Creek.

I loved how Kara, Nate's aunt, and one heck of a contest reawakened the magic and wonder of the season for Nate. I thought Kara's entry into the competition was the coolest thing and so in keeping the the sense of holiday in the book. Overall, this is a frothy and sweet holiday confection yes, complete with peppermint, Nate and very enjoyable. Nov 28, Hannah rated it really liked it.

The main focus was on the two main characters and what was happening with them with a few side notes from another character which is setting up for her own book. This was an absolutely adorable book. I love books like this because it plays out in my head like a Hallmark Christmas movie. You have the typical grinch type character Nate and a Christmas angel Kara, opposites attract I love it.

Kara is doing something she has dreamed of doing, she has set up a cookie bakery in town and is now trying to prove to the whole town, especially her own mother, that she is not a fickle and that she will stick with it. Her biggest fear is failing, not only because will she lose something near and dear to her but it will prove the town right.

In Kara desire to prove herself she has over working herself for the Christmas holiday, between the everyday workings she has special order gingerbread houses, cookies order for her mother's ballet recital, and a massive order of cookies for the food drive for the needy families in the area.

Nate is only visiting Briar Creek because he felt guilty for sending his parents on a cruise when they had originally to visit his aunt. His Aunt Maggie runs the inn and is getting on in the years Nate agreed to visit and help out around the inn. Coming from a poor background he worked hard to make a lot of money, he's also very good at what he does. Christmas was never a good memory for him and he grew up resentful because it was never a special time for him with his family.

But the little town of Briar Creek and a certain cookie maker has him rethinking everything about his life. Overall, this is probably one of my top favorite Christmas novels for the year. It made me cry and fill my heart with joy. It's a great story for getting in the Christmas spirit and for a lovely romance. Sep 21, Mona rated it it was amazing. First this is an amazing series. Love in a small town. As Kara Hastings follows her dreams on opening her bakery Sugar and Spice, and she's confident in her baking skills. But she's also new to business ownership.

She wants to succeed. Plus make her dad happy and proud. It was also for him after his passing she did this. It's just when she meets Nate Griffin he does something to her insides. He makes her mad, and he makes her feel special.

Nate Griffin First this is an amazing series. It soon turns out to be a lot more. Old feelings are brought up by his Aunt, and a beautiful women. They're from two different worlds. He let's one thing his aunt tells him about her keep her at an arms lengflength. Well that's until he knows the truth. He misjudged her and feels like a heal. It's Christmas time and so much going on in town.

A contest held ever year which can help two women Nate cares so deeply for. Love, loss, dreams and goals. Money as they say can't buy love.

Puts you in a Christmas mood every time. I fell for the characters instantly and devoured their story in just a few short hours. Christmas Comes to Main Street is a light, sweet romance. It has very little drama and is just one of those books that can't help but make you feel good and put a smile on your face. And I enjoyed every second of it. Jul 29, Nelle rated it really liked it Shelves: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and Netgalley for review. I got this today and zipped through It!

I loved Kara from the past story and was eager to see what happens with her. I love a feel good, Christmas Romance! This hit all the right spots for me!

Aug 12, Heather andrews rated it it was amazing. So konnte ich mir das Dorf Briar Creek direkt vorstellen und kann es gar nicht fassen, dass dieser Ort nur erfunden sein soll. Ihre Charaktereigenschaften wie die Zielstrebigkeit und Ehrgeizigkeit, mit der sie ihren Laden neuerdings wert, vermitteln einen sehr positiven Eindruck von ihr. Dies muss man sich bei einer Liebesgeschichte bzw. Die Autorin hat hier nicht das Rad neu erfunden, aber es definitiv in eine unterhaltsame, sehr romantische und etwas kitschige neue Geschichte verpackt.

Alles in allem hat mir die Geschichte von Kara und Nate sehr gefallen. Nov 20, Wendy rated it really liked it Recommended to Wendy by: Having sunk all her inheritance into the Sugar and Spice Bakery, Kara is determined to make it a success and is irritated by the city slicker who not only isn't easily charmed by the ho In "Christmas Comes to Main Street" which I won through Goodreads Giveaways Olivia Miles blends the flavor of peppermint and cinnamon, Christmas cookies and holiday celebrations with a romance that begins when Nate Griffin bumps into Kara Hastings making her late for her delivery to Main Street Bed and Breakfast.

Having sunk all her inheritance into the Sugar and Spice Bakery, Kara is determined to make it a success and is irritated by the city slicker who not only isn't easily charmed by the holiday festivities in a town that loves the Christmas season but continually makes suggestions for improvements in her business. Both with competitive spirits Kara accepts Nate's dare, never expecting that he'll captivate her heart as she melts his firm resolve not to get caught up in the town's Christmas atmosphere.

Set in the small town Briar of Creek Olivia Mills sets the stage with the smells and sounds of Christmas, a season that Nate detests because of the pain of his childhood. In contrast Kara loves the holiday season even though it brings the remembrance of a loss in her past and especially after using her all her savings to open a business which she's struggling to make successful. The two clash when they meet, Nate thinking her inheritance has given her an opportunity not earned, and Kara seeing him as privileged with his MBA, luxury car and apartment in Boston.

But as their chemistry sparks friendship quickly turns to the healing balm of love. Love blooms in the spirit of a season that's celebrated with snowman building and Holiday Home Contests, a Winter Festival, ice skating and a Nutcracker ballet. With a touch of humor and Christmas magic intertwined, the story heats up as pain in his past mars the enjoyment Nate finds in the present with Kara, wanting to run back to Boston and bury himself in work.

Compelling as emotions are aroused with a bitter confrontation and harsh words that break her heart Kara seeks solace in work, but yearns for the man who's leaving her behind. Woven into this delightfully romantic story that keeps you enthralled from beginning to the end are subplots like her sister Maggie's faltering engagement and Maggie Griffin's scheme to bring Nate to live in Briar Creek. Intense at times with Kara's mother's criticism and doubt that she'll succeed and Nate's fight not to let the season, town or Kara undermine his plans for his future, the plot moves swiftly and smoothly to a charming conclusion.

Kara Hastings who's skipped from job to job over the years and invested all her inheritance into her business is the talented and creative baker who wants to win the Holiday House Contest so she'll be able to have a financial cushion that will enable her to hire staff to help her. A perfectionist with a stubborn streak Kara is tenacious and hardworking, falling for a man who's just as conscientious and driven to succeed in all he does.

Nate Griffin a management consultant visiting his energetic and spirited Aunt Maggie over Christmas is smart, charismatic and arrogant. Haunted by his family's poverty, solitary and bullied at school Nate a workaholic who seems smug, cocky and defensive shows a kind and caring side to Maggie and Kara. I liked "Christmas Comes to Main Street" a well-developed and tender love story loaded with heart that you can't put down until finished. Dec 18, Petra Sch. Das ging mir dann doch ZU schnell.

Daher vergebe ich 4,5 Sterne. Es ist, wie ich gelesen habe, der letzte Band aus Briar Creek B.

Ich habe ihn sehr gerne gelesen und mich sofort in die Weihnachtswinterwelt und die Hauptfiguren Kara und Nate verliebt. Kara ist in B. Damit hat der Weihnachtsmuffel, der in In Boston lebt, nicht gerechnet, denn in dem idyllischen Ort B. Wird die Weihnachtzeit wahrhaftig gelebt. Tja und ist da auch noch die zauberhafte Kara, die ihm in seinem Kopf rumschwirrt. Dec 06, Jessica rated it really liked it. Very sweet and romantic. Also, the perfect book to read in December to get you in the holiday spirit. I liked the details of Kara running a bakery, and how excited the town of Briar Creek gets about Christmas reminds me of Stars Hollow!

This novel takes you back to a yesteryear in your life. Often people cannot see the good in front of them for the shadows of the past encroach ing Come join t h e good people of Briar Creek as they enjoy the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Jan 02, Cat Bryson rated it really liked it.

Oct 03, OpenBookSociety. Christmas Comes to Main Street Series: Briar Creek 5 By: The mistletoe is out, and the gloves are off. Sure, running her own bakery is a little harder than she expected, but she can handle http: Really that is all I have to say. Okay…for a book review, I know I will need to say more. Well, the cover of course. I am a sucker for Christmas romance novels, but this cover was just simple elegance.

Sometimes the understated is all that is needed. And as I read the story, this became abundantly clear. The story was easy to read, with a good flow, superb characters and a resolution that made me smile. We begin with Kara working in her bakery thinking the following thoughts…then scolding herself as this is her dream…she wanted this: So this could be big for the Main Street Bed and Breakfast! Due to a run in literally , Kara and Nate meet.

• Way Of The Asshole
• Märchen aus Österreich (German Edition)
• Paris to the Moon: Family in France: A Family in France
• Love Notes For My Butterfly
• Mich zeigen: Leben ohne falsche Scham (Quadro 12) (German Edition)