Erich Heller
Heller examines the sense of values embodied in the works of key German writers and thinkers from Goethe to Kafka, particularly the consciousness of life's depreciation.,The Disinherited Mind has been in continuous demand since 1st publication in '52, recognized as a work whose significance extends far beyond the subject of German letters. Noted critic & poet Edwin Muir has written: "The condition it describes is our condition, & I can think of no other modem book in which it is described so clearly." The unifying theme is the sense of values embodied in the works of key German poets, writers & thinkers from Goethe to Kafka, particularly the consciousness of life's deprecation. While earlier poets & philosophers were preoccupied with the marvelous, Prof. Heller writes, their modem successors try desperately to ward off "the predominance of the prosaic." He deals with this problem most directly in the central essay, "Rilke & Nietzsche." Other essays discuss Goethe's Faust, his opposition to Newtonian science, Burckhardt's philosophy of history, Kafka's The Castle, Spengler's historical imagination & Karl Kraus's satire.,Acknowledgments,Preface to the Original Edition,Preface to the American Edition,Goethe & the idea of scientific truth,Goethe & the avoidance of tragedy,Burckhardt & Nietzsche,Nietzsche & Goethe,Rilke & Nietzsche with a discourse on thought, belief & poetry,Oswald Spengler & the predicament of the historical imagination,The world of Franz Kafka,Karl Kraus: The last days of mankind,The hazard of modern poetry,References
Philosophy,Writing,Essays,Criticism,Literary Criticism,History,Criticism,Nonfiction,European Literature,German Literature
The Disinherited Mind: Essays in Modern German Literature and Thought