The division into chapters that appear to be based on chronological considerations led to problematic decisions in this work. It is questionable, for example, that the German Democratic Republic era of German language and literature study should receive a separate chapter while the nationalistically oriented scholarship of the Nazi era is part of a chapter on "earlier approaches". At the same time, the chronological approach is not always consistent; Marxist Leninist criticism, including the significant work of Walter Benjamin, far predates the GDR era, yet it is treated in the same chapter.

The introduction struggles with questions such as "What is literature?" and initially leans toward a purely fiction-oriented concept of literature. Only later, non-fictional forms such as the essay receive their due. More significant definitions appear in chapter five, entitled "turning point in scholarship". This lofty term appears to suggest that until the middle of the sixties German literary studies were a mere form of proto-scholarship. While this may be true for some sub-disciplines, it is certainly not for others that are omitted from this volume, such as textual philology and editorship, as well as the history of publishing, which is not even mentioned in the chapter on the social history of literature.

Given the focus on a critical study of German language and literature, it is particularly bothersome that the teaching of German literature in high schools is not at all addressed. On a different level, in a scholarly work of this nature, the absence of an index is deplorable. In spite of these reservations, though, the book offers a useful survey of its topic. [hak/rs]

 

This standard dictionary of literary terms is the best German-language work in this category, even though there are now some competing titles. The reasonably priced volume includes a large number of terms, uses an international approach, and features up-to-date bibliographical references. It covers literary periods and genres, literary establishments, movements, circles of writers and poets, and terminology in the areas of stylistics, metrics, literary sociology, and psychology, as well as terms from related areas. Even though there is an emphasis on German-language literature, the dictionary covers world literature as well and is therefore useful for comparative purposes. The eighth edition features a total of 5,500 entries (500 more than the previous edition), and many of the entries are indeed revised. The publishing firm is to be congratulated on being able to include such a productive and competent author of standard reference works in its roster. [sh/ba]

 

Frenzel's two classics, Stoffe der Weltliteratur [Topics of World Literature] (since 1962) and Motive der Weltliteratur (since 1976) have not undergone significant revision in recent years. Compared to the previous edition, the present fifth edition of Motive remains the same through page 843, but has been expanded by an added paragraph in the article "Der edle Wilde" (The Noble Savage) and by a lengthy new article on "Zigeuner" (Gypsies), which includes up-to-date references. It is hoped that an expanded tenth edition of Stoffe der Weltliteratur will also yet be published. [sh/ba]

 

The author, a medical historian who previously published a historical-biographical dictionary of physicians in Dresden (see REEA 6:325), has collected biographical information on approximately 300 physicians from antiquity to the present for this new encyclopedia. The work profiles individuals from a range of countries, but doctors currently alive are excluded. Klimpel used a short list of general reference works as well as bio-bibliographical encyclopedias to select authors and physicians "for whom the quill was as important as the scalpel or stethoscope." The prerequisites for an author's inclusion in this lexicon were the "completion of a medical degree and evidence of a medical occupation" on the one hand and, on the other, the existence of literary works or at least "texts with an impact on culture in general" by the individual; mere publication of medical texts or memoirs did not suffice. However, the work contains numerous examples of deviations from these criteria. Moreover, for information regarding famous author-physicians, such as G. Benn, P. Fleming, F. Rabelais, F. Schiller, or A. Schnitzler, one is certainly better off consulting other sources. Although beautifully edited and printed, this rather expensive volume may be of use primarily to those looking for information on little-known author-physicians, such as R. Jonas or E. Zsigmondy, who published literary and/or medical texts about their passion of mountain-climbing. In such cases, this text provides information not readily available elsewhere. The arrangement of the body of the text into rubrics such as "The Older Ones," "The Original Ones," "The Political Ones," "The Productive Ones," "The Universal Ones," and "The Tragic Ones" is not very helpful and is also highly selective. [sh/fcms]

 

Much more useful than the above-reviewed encyclopedia of physician-authors by Klimpel (see RREA 7:84) is Medizin in der Literatur der Neuzeit by Dietrich von Engelhardt, a historian of science and medicine. Volume 1, Darstellung und Deutung [Presentation and Interpretation], was published in 1991, with the bibliographic volume 2 following in 2000. Three more volumes are planned. Volume 2 contains an "International Bibliography of Scholarly Literature" for the years 1800 to 1995, covering medicine and illness in literature. It is not clear why the bibliography excludes "studies that deal exclusively with medicine in drama and poetry." The main body of the bibliography is organized alphabetically by author--starting with "Anonymous." The entries for monographs lack an indication of the number of pages in the work. [sh/fcms]

 

This volume is one of a series of catalogs from the Eichstätt University Library. Both that library and the Herzog-August Library in Wolfenbüttel own holdings from the collections of Gisbert Kranz, literary scholar and theologian. This volume therefore consists of two distinct parts. The first is a catalog of the Gisbert Kranz Archive in Eichstätt, including publications and monographs, manuscripts, correspondence, lectures, and reviews. The second consists of autographs of creative individuals, gathered by Kranz, and for the most part found in the collections at Wolfenbüttel. These are grouped by subject and included brief biographical information. Included here are 135 images, some only signatures, others entire letters. [sh/baw]

 

The Literaturrat Niedersachsen [Literary Council of Lower Saxony] is an "umbrella association for authors" unions, literary societies, literature offices, and other literary organizations." It used the information from questionnaires distributed to its constituents to create this work, an address book that is divided into 12 chapters of current information (as of September 2000) on persons, institutions, publications, literary prizes, and other aspects of literary life in Lower Saxony. For readers outside the province this work may be of varying interest. It provides little in the way of information on libraries and book-dealers. The longest chapter gives brief biographical information on authors, key positions held, awards, memberships, and important publications. Those persons who are also listed in Kürschners deutscher Literatur-Kalender (see RREA 7:91 below) or in P.E.N.'s Autorenlexikon 2000/2001 (see RREA 7:93 below) are so noted. Hence, this work is particularly useful for information about authors not yet established. The address book has an index by place of residence (p. 223-224). An Internet version is planned, which will make it easier to keep the work current. [sh/ga]

 

This work seeks to capture the core areas of German medieval literature from the definitive 10-volume encyclopedia on this topic, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, which was issued in a second edition in 1999 (see RREA 6:113). None of the original articles has been shortened. Those selected for this edition cover the most well-known authors or texts of the 9th century and of the period from 1150 to 1250; the mystical writers of the 13th and 14th centuries; short epic poems; and Shrovetide plays. There is much to criticize about the condensation of a major, comprehensive work to approximately eight percent of its original size. There are, admittedly, numerous references in this summary volume to articles found in the original encyclopedia. The work appears to be intended as a companion to university courses that deal with medieval German literature. It is of questionable value for libraries that own the original edition. [jom/ldl]

 

Bibliographical and bio-bibliographical research in National Socialist (Nazi) literature has witnessed two major contributions in recent years: Literaturlenkung im "Dritten Reich": eine Bibliographie (see RREO 94-3/4-440) and Lexikon nationalsozialistischer Dichter: Biographien, Analysen, Bibliographien (Würzbürg, 1993).

Unlike these two, however, Literatur in Nazi-Deutschland does not focus exclusively on "Nazi" authors. Instead, it provides information and representation for all kinds of writers who were active in Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945. Thus, convinced Nazis, opportunists, Jewish writers, authors who practiced an "inner emigration," and those more closely identified with the German postwar literary renaissance who began their careers during the Nazi era are all represented here, giving a much truer and more informative picture of the time. The work includes a lengthy introductory essay and about 110 in-depth articles on individual authors.

This bio-bibliography provides a broad view of the fragmented literature of Germany during the Nazi period and, in some cases, sheds new light on well-known authors of today. Although the individual articles are not long, they are carefully researched and rich in detail. This is an important and long-awaited work, of interest not only to scholars and students but, in Germany, to a broader reading public as well. [hak/baw]

 

Since moving from the publishing firm of de Gruyter to Saur with volume 61, this standard biographical directory has resumed its two-year publication pattern and added many new entries. Although the actual number of authors included falls somewhat short of the advertised "15,000," this still remains a very comprehensive resource.

Most of the information included is compiled from questionnaires answered by the authors themselves. Also included is a "necrology" section extending back to 1971, which provides an index to the separate Nekrolog volumes and serves as a quick reference for birth and death dates for those authors who have died during the past 30 years. A lengthy appendix provides a directory of German literary life, including translators, publishers, awards and prizes, media outlets, etc. Another useful appendix provides a geographical arrangement of all entries. [sh/baw]

 

In its third edition, this work has undergone a major expansion and reworking. Over 2,000 authors are included, and the information provided in such categories as biography, publications, and works about the author is more balanced and consistent across the entries.

The intent of this work is to supplement other biographical resources, such as Kürschner's deutscher Literatur-Kalendar (see RREA 7:91 above) and the membership roster of the German P.E.N. club (see RREA 7:93 below). With this edition, the Deutsches Schriftstellerlexikon has become a useful complement to other standard author reference works. [sh/baw]

 

German P.E.N. members decided in 1998 to consolidate their western and eastern organizations and to prepare a common membership directory, resulting in the publication under review here. Their bio-bibliographical list of German writers who are P.E.N. members covers about 680 persons. Each entry includes the following information: the writer's name and address, birth date and place, major career stages, memberships and awards or prizes, and a list of his/her publications. The directory includes a roster of the presidents of the German P.E.N. Centers since 1948 (reflecting the complex post-war history of the East and West German P.E.N. groups), and an index by city of residence. [sh/ba]

 

The second edition of this dictionary of pseudonyms of German-language fiction writers was reviewed in RREA 1:259. Many of the suggestions for improvement listed there have been incorporated into the current third edition. However, some gaps and errors remain. The scope of the work also remains fuzzy. The introduction states that the dictionary lists pseudonyms for writers in the area of modern German fiction, but in reality many older authors are also covered. The limitation to writers of fiction is arbitrary. Erich Kästner, for example, used only a few pseudonyms as a novelist, but as a dramatist had countless additional ones that are not listed in this dictionary. Nonetheless, a publication of this type is welcome, and should, of course, be viewed and judged as a work in progress. [hak/ba]

 

Carmine Chiellino, the editor of this volume, shares the lot of the non-German authors who live and write in Germany and for whom the problems connected with migration are not only political, legal, and social, but also poetic and stylistic.

The present handbook, which has the goal of introducing literature by minorities in Germany, is based on the conviction that the activity of foreigners in this area, though scarcely noticed by critics, has contributed and still contributes to the development of recent literature in Germany. After a general section about the factors which have led to immigration, the second and longest part of the book is devoted to the representatives of this specific literature. The production of various "voices" is divided among 15 minorities, which include Turkish, Latin American, Arabic, and Asian cultures as well as European ones. Bio-bibliographical portraits of the writers by various contributors are grouped by language, then arranged in alphabetical order. The third section of the book offers a series of short essays about the immigrants' activities in the arts. The fourth part focuses on "intercultural synergies." The appendix is also rich in factual information; its third section gives primary and secondary literature for the authors cited.

With this abundant material, a definite development can be recognized. Immediately after the war, minority authors expressed themselves in various languages, including German, but the younger generation of immigrants, educated and socially assimilated in Germany, tend much more to regard German as their mother tongue. Whether guest workers, those granted asylum, or resettled ethnic Germans, their voices have influenced German literature in the past fifty years, and this handbook makes the extent of their influence and their share in Germany's cultural life visible. [gr/gh]

 

Hans Egon Holthusen (1913-1997), one of the most influential literary critics in post-World War II Germany, grew up in Hildesheim; his manuscripts and personal library, designated the Holthusen Archives, are housed in the Library of the University of Hildesheim. This bibliography's compiler, Mechthild Raabe, is Holthusen's sister; she and her husband Paul Raabe, previous director of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, have played a major role in organizing the Holthusen Archive. The results of this work are shortly to be made available on the Internet, with help from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German Research Council].

The bibliography includes a biographical note written by Ms. Raabe. In its 719 entries, it covers not only Holthusen's critical writings, in both monographic and journal article form, but also his own literary creations (primarily poems and essays). The bibliographic citations are exemplary in their fullness and clarity. Also included are a short introduction, a chronology, and the text of a speech on the author and the reader that Holthusen gave at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1955. The bibliography is indexed by persons, places, and subjects. It would be advisable for subsequent volumes in this series to receive a stronger binding; the binding of the present work cracks if the work is much used. [hak/crc]

 

Caputo-Mayr and Herz call this long-awaited Kafka bibliography "a second expanded and revised edition," but a more precise explanation is necessary. Only from the foreword (or perhaps from a close look at the work itself) does it become clear that the majority of entries represent unchanged reprints from the bibliographies published in 1982 or 1987. For a grand total of 481 new pages, the book's new owner pays for 689 old ones all over again, if--as can be assumed for larger libraries--the older editions are already part of the reference collection. The new edition is on acid-free paper in contrast to its browning predecessors, but this scarcely seems excuse enough for acquisition, except perhaps for English-speaking countries, where English-language translations of the introductions, tables of contents, and titles have been added.

The necessity to look in two different places for any entry is frustrating, particularly for the primary literature. The title index does include references for English titles, but not for translations from other language. Other indexes, such as to editors or translators, are lacking. Of volume 2, the entire first part, 1955 to 1980, is a reprint. The claim of being a "guide to commentaries on Kafka research" is principally justified for the first part, in which many essays with short or more complete annotations are included. This is a very helpful contribution, limited in the second part, unfortunately, to monographs alone. English summaries of these commentaries from the second part (and a few selected from the first part) are found in the appendix (pp. 999-1079), listed alphabetically by critic. Both parts of the secondary literature are indexed in a single place with (1) keywords and persons, as well as (2) titles--with cross references from English titles to the German original title. The title index to secondary literature refers to page number alone, since the entries are not numbered: this can be cumbersome when an entire page must be scanned to find a single entry.

Even if these volumes can be called the "standard bibliography" for Franz Kafka, the author deserves better. [sh/rdh]

 

This bibliography devoted to the Austrian author Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897-1976) is one of several current attempts to rescue this author from oblivion. Lernet-Holenia, who wrote poems, short stories, plays, and essays, was popular before and after World War II, but is nearly forgotten today, with only seven of his works currently in print. This bibliography makes some claim to completeness, but comparison with other exhaustive sources shows that a number of titles that should have been included were overlooked. It contains 1,536 entries organized into four sections: (1) general literature on the author's works and his life; (2) the poetry (subdivided into collections and individual texts); (3) the plays; and (4) the novels and short stories. Each section first lists general works, followed by each individual work (and secondary literature on that work--mostly reviews and newspaper articles) in chronological order. The bibliography has indexes for persons, journal and newspaper titles, institutions (mostly publishing houses and theaters), year of publication, and subjects. Also included are an introduction by Thomas Eicher and two essays by Ms. Barrière and Mr. Müller, respectively. Ms. Barrière's dissertation on Lernet-Holenia (Le fantastique dans l'oeuvre narrative d'Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Arras, 1998) and a primary bibliography are shortly to be made available on CD-ROM by the publisher Artois Presses Université. [sh/crc]

 

Monika Fick, a Germanist at Aachen, here provides us with a handbook for the study of Lessing, comparable to existing handbooks for Goethe, Schiller, Fontane, and others. In contrast to earlier author handbooks from the publisher Metzler, the present work was written by Ms. Fick alone, rather than by a collective of writers. To proceed in this way was a praiseworthy decision, as it has led to a more successful combination of the different elements of introduction, bibliography, and reference work than was the case in the earlier publications.

The major section of the book (four-fifths of the whole) is devoted to Lessing's works, and each section is structured in the same way: Ms. Fick begins with a short history of a particular work's origins, its sources and its context; she proceeds then to outline the current state of research; gives, under the heading "Analysis," her own interpretation; and closes with remarks on the work's reception and influence. Lessing's minor works are treated just as thoroughly as those that are more commonly studied.

The introductory remarks on Lessing's biography in the context of the 18th century, on Lessing's changing image, the reception history of his works, etc., could have been more extensive. The biographical note itself is also a little too brief; fortunately that lack is made up for by the almost simultaneous publication of Peter J. Brenner's more detailed biography of Lessing (Reclam, 2001; see IFB 01-2-297).

An appendix contains a bibliography of 1,200 titles, divided simply into "Sources" and "Secondary Literature." Bibliographic references also appear at the end of each chapter. [hak/crc]

 

The first edition of the Karl-May-Handbuch was published 15 years ago, in the unnumbered series of author handbooks published by Kröner-Verlag. It has now been released by a different publisher in "expanded and revised" form. The number of pages has decreased by 130, but this is due to the use of a larger page size. It is, however, doubtful whether significant additions have in fact been made. It appears that for the most part the existing entries were merely proofread and corrected. There is only one section that is clearly new: a chapter called "Karl May on the Internet."

The major section of this work, as of its predecessor, is the third, "Karl May's Works" (p. 116-491). Following introductory remarks on publication history and style, May's works are organized into 11 groups, each is treated individually in a signed article (51 contributors are named). Each article covers origin and publication history, content, analysis, and reception. In view of the convoluted publication history of May's works, with its plethora of changed and invented titles, it is helpful to have the "Concordance" (p. 591-616), which refers the reader from all title variants to the established title (unfortunately, the sources for these title variants are not given). In the foreword, the pertinent subjective bibliographies by Plaul and Schmatz/Hermesmeier (see RREA 7:110 below) are lumped together as Klotz (note to English readers: Karl May specialist Helmut Klotz). Strangely, the serial numbers assigned to May's works by Plaul are not indicated here--a sad lack, since Plaul gives the most exact bibliographical history for all the works published before May's death.

There is a particularly interesting section, which deserves to be enlarged, on May's influence inside and outside Germany, with special attention to the commercial marketing of his works. The bibliography unfortunately is simply an alphabetical list of titles. The indexes have been improved relative to the first edition by the addition of a name index. Reference is made to the murky situation in Karl May research, which has been handicapped by the publication of editions that purport to be based on the writer's original edition but are actually based on revised versions. [sh/crc]

 

Scholarly research into the figure of Karl May has made great strides in the last 25 years; of the reference works produced so far, the Karl-May-Handbuch (see RREA 7:108 above) deserves special mention. The present work is aimed at the wide circle of Karl May's admirers. Reading and studying May's works is primarily an act of nostalgia, since his popularity with the current generation of young readers approaches zero. The author of the present work belongs to the second generation of Karl May admirers, who found their way to May's works by means of the films produced in the 1960s. Thus this lexicon gives the films a special place, and is generously illustrated with black-and-white stills. Entries cover characters, locations, Karl May festivals, special topics (medicine and sex, for example), Karl May reception history in various countries, the marketing of Karl May, etc. The articles covering the various editions of May's works are unfortunately not cross-referenced, making it difficult to pull information together. A second, much enlarged edition of this lexicon has been announced for March 2002, under the title Das neue Karl-May-Lexikon (ISBN 3-89602-237-7: ca. EUR 25.90). [sh/crc]

 

In view of the complicated publishing history of the works of Karl May, and the vast number of his publications, any bibliography of May's works that aims for completeness faces a daunting task, that can only be met by physically examining the books themselves. For the period from 1875 until the author's death in 1912, Hainer Plaul's Illustrierte Karl-May-Bibliographie (Leipzig, 1988; currently out of print) met this goal admirably. The present work now covers the period from 1913 to the end of World War II with a completeness and level of detail comparable to Plaul's.

Each chapter is devoted to a particular category of publications, e.g., Chapter One to collected works editions. Each chapter bears an identifying code, and each entry in a chapter combines the chapter code with a serial number, so that each edition listed can be cited exactly by these reference numbers. The trade paper of German booksellers, Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel, and publishers' archives have been mined for detailed information down to the number of copies printed in each run of a particular edition; the editors have also used these sources to supply years of publication for the editions listed. Editions are further identified by the illustration used on their cover, with references to the colored plates on which many of these cover illustrations are shown. The indexes, using the reference numbers described above, provide access to the entries by (1) title; (2) series; (3) journals; (4) publishers; (5) personal names; and (6) printers. There is also a concordance to the identifying numbers used in Plaul's bibliography. A bibliography for the post-World War II period remains a desideratum, so it is encouraging to read the statement in the preface that work on that project has started. [sh/crc]

 

Friedrich Müller (1749-1825), also called "Maler Müller" [Painter Müller] for his double talents in literature and art, is undergoing a renaissance in publication and research of his literary work--and to some extent his art. A critical edition of his works has been underway since 1996, and his importance for the field of Faust studies is finding new recognition. The Paulus/Faul volume continues the laudable practice of combining new critical editions with a well-founded bibliography. Paulus and Faul rely on Friedrich Meyer's Müller bibliography of 1912, which was a fundamental accomplishment for its time.

With its over 1,500 bibliographic entries from the beginning to 1999, the new bibliography leaves very little to be desired as far as coverage is concerned. The scholarly annotations in part B, covering secondary literature, show great care, while the indexed names and titles are meticulously precise throughout. But how does the reworking of a nearly century-old bibliography meet the needs of recent Germanic studies? Considerable doubts arise, since literary competence without bibliographic expertise can leave a reference work short of the mark. The problems begin with redundancy and trivia in the contents: many post-1825 subject groups are overburdened with insignificant and non-essential entries. Any methodological differentiation between general bibliography, chronological bibliography, and biobibliography seem foreign to the compilers.

False leads abound from the fact that all references are given only as page numbers. The citation for one important Goethe essay, moreover, leads into a void. The subject categorization in general seems well conceived, but the presentation and classification of individual entries are confusing. Distribution of the contents of complex publications into various subject areas without a uniform starting point forces the user to become a puzzle solver; the thoroughness and reliability of the annotations lose in value. Some bibliographic sins are apparent even in the details: the indication of page numbers is absent in some classes of publication, as are generally any notes about illustrations or appendices. Anthologies follow the unfortunate recent trend of being listed by editor rather than title. Overall, the bibliographic descriptions follow idiosyncratic rules to the detriment of the entries' clarity and compatibility. The indexes are well done and necessary as a means of gaining some access points that are otherwise unavailable.

This work is absolutely crucial to further Müller editing and research efforts. It is unfortunate that methodological weaknesses and clumsiness impede its use. [ss/rdh]

 

Fritz Redenbacher's exemplary bibliography of August Graf von Platen (1796-1835) was first published in 1936; a second edition was published in 1972. It is now being issued in a revised third edition compiled by the reputable Platen scholars Beate Gresser and Herbert Hirschfelder. Compared to the previous edition, the number of titles included has grown by 550, to a total 1,683 entries. Aside from the addition of new titles, one major change has been made in the section devoted to biographical works; these are now presented according to chronological period, rather than by theme--the earlier thematic organization was difficult to maintain. The increase in titles is due in large part to research activities concentrated around the 1996 bicentennial of Platen's birth. Entries receive brief annotations where necessary; this is particularly helpful with a number of the Italian publications (Italian is well-represented in the secondary literature on Platen, due to the author's extended residence in that country). The bibliographic citations conform to the German cataloging code and thus contain all the necessary information for verification. [hak/crc]

 

The bibliographer, by realizing that this fifth fascicle since the original work of 1991 (see IFB 94-3/4-454) has again appeared after a two-year wait, might consider abandoning his original intent of supplementing it on an annual basis. It is hard to imagine that the volume of writings by and about Arno Schmidt could swell to levels justifying annual fascicles. By cumulating the basic work and subsequent updates into a single edition on CD-ROM, Müther could save his users laborious cross-comparisons of the growing numbers of publications. Such a project could wait until the jubilee year of 2004 (90th birthday and 25th death date), at which time the output will undoubtedly increase. [sh/rdh]

The name Julius Stinde (1841-1905) may not be familiar to many readers. He was a widely traveled journalist who later branched out into writing humoristic stories and novels, often focused on the bourgeois milieu of Berlin. Goerdten's bibliography of works by and about Stinde is a pleasure in almost every way. Goerdten shows a rare combination of deep knowledge of his subject, mastery of the craft of bibliography, and ability to write with lucidity. Goerdten's essays on the history of Stinde's archive and on Stinde's reception history make up for the fact that the bibliographic entries do not attain the level of detail of a catalogue raisonné.

The 1,300 entries are organized into 10 well thought-out categories; within these categories the organization is chronological. A chronology of Stinde's life and works is included as an appendix. The work is generously illustrated and indexed by names, titles, and publishers. (One small criticism: in his title index, the author indexed on initial articles rather than the first significant word of the title, leading to unsightly clumps of titles under the words "Der," "Die," "Das," etc.)

A well-written concluding essay covers Stinde's reception history and the lack of appreciation shown him by professional critics; it also touches on the mutilation of his works in revised editions. This bibliography will form the basis for all further work on Stinde for the foreseeable future. [hak/crc]

 

The table of contents suggests that this work is a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Peter Weiss. But, with the best will in the world, the present work is only a caricature of a real bibliography. The author may have the requisite knowledge of his subject, but he entirely lacks an understanding of the craft of bibliography.

In particular the author seems to have had serious difficulty in operating his computer. Page numbers in the table of contents do not match those on the pages themselves. Page breaks occur unexpectedly and will probably result in loss of text in copies that receive a library binding. Italicization is used in unpredictable and misleading ways. Years of publication or names of publishers are sometimes left out of bibliographic citations, seemingly at random. In general there is no consistency in the formulation of citations. Unfortunately, the large number of works cited here means that this "bibliography" cannot be entirely ignored. [hak/crc]

 

It usually takes a very long time in the humanities for new insights to reach a wider audience. This is illustrated particularly well in our understanding of 18th-century dramatic literature: the faulty assumption that 18th-century German literature was concentrated primarily in the Protestant Northeast, with Leipzig as its center, continues to haunt our accounts of literary history and even our lecture halls. Our knowledge of the dramatic literature of the 18th century is as insufficient today as it was around 1900.

The preface to this work notes correctly that "What was actually performed has little relation to what is considered significant today," and refers the interested reader to the monumental Bibliographia dramatica et dramaticorum (Tübingen, 1986- ) that continues to question our notions of 18th-century theater.

The reader is provided with plot summaries and brief literary-historical notes, as well as one or two bibliographical references to secondary literature, for about 250 plays, arranged alphabetically by author. Bibliographical citations include complete titles, but unfortunately only the place and year of publication. When available, the location and date of the premiere performance are provided.

The lexicon does not provide consistent and complete representation with regard to the genre. The Singspiel is left out, for no apparent reason. Evidence of any translations is also missing. Thus it remains unstated, yet again, that the Italian Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) was the most often performed author on the German stage, in the original language as well as in translation. Lessing, Schiller, and Goethe are what the literary histories give us, focused as they are on the highlights of the Protestant Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism; the rich production of the Catholic South is still terra incognita for both literary history and the history of theater.

This volume is as thought-provoking as many modern theater handbooks. At times it even surprises contemporary readers by demonstrating that themes from the past are still relevant today: "The caliph perishes due to his political and moral weakness; his opponent Raschid is confronted with unscrupulous religious fanaticism, bringing chaos and death," is an excerpt from the summary in this volume of a "German tragedy in verses in five acts" entitled Mosthadem, oder der Fanatismus [Mosthadem, or Fanaticism], which Paul Weidman published in 1772 in Vienna. [hak/fcms]

 

The "Inklings" were the group of literati and fantasy writers that coalesced around C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Attracted to their works, the German bibliophile Gisbert Kranz of Aachen founded, in 1983, an Inklings-Gesellschaft (Inklings Society), devoted to the study of fantastic literature and to the publication of an annual yearbook for literature and aesthetics, also entitled Inklings. Kranz built up a personal library on the topic, which he presented to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt, along with his archives, in 1994. The present volume is a catalog of Kranz's library. Kranz was able to write an introduction to the present work, surveying the English Inklings and reporting as well on his German Inklings Society.

The catalog has chapters devoted to the authors represented in Kranz's library: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Dorothy L. Sayers, and David Jones; as well as their predecessors, George McDonald and G. K. Chesterton. Each chapter has a fourfold organization: for primary literature, secondary literature, separately published monographs, and articles in periodicals. Chapter 8 treats the literary environment of the Inklings. Chapter 9 lists the journals held in Kranz's Inklings library. Monographs held by the Bayerischer Verbundkatalog [Bavarian Library Consortium] are indicated, and their call numbers are given. The catalog contains a total of 3,821 entries.

A single index lists authors, other personal names, and names of characters and fabulous beings. There is, unfortunately, no subject index. Consequently, Kranz's own modest catalog of 1992, Die Inklings-Bibliothek: systematischer Katalog (Passau, ISBN 3-924443-52-1), is by no means obsolete, providing as it does classified subject access to his collection. [sh/crc]

 

This work presents itself as a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about the Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st century CE), who is best known for his "history" of Alexander the Great, the Historia Alexandri Magni Macedonis. The limitation of coverage to the years 1899-1999 is not explained and presumably results merely from a wish to use a round number in the work's title. Holger Koch, the author, appears not to have published anything of his own about Curtius, as his name is missing from the author index of the bibliography. The author has used standard bibliographies of classical studies as well as the Internet as his sources, and lists a total of 681 works, most of which he was able to examine personally. As is often the case with bibliographies of this type, publications from countries around the margins of the European cultural space (e.g., Hungary, Spain, the Slavic countries) have been pretty much neglected. The chapters are devoted to (1) editions and translations of Curtius' works, as well as anthologies containing excerpts from his works; (2) commentaries on Curtius; (3) indexes, research reports, and bibliographies; and (4) the remaining secondary literature. This last section, particularly the part covering Curtius' influence, is unfortunately much less comprehensive than it could be, omitting a number of significant titles, such as the article on Alexander in Elisabeth Frenzel's Stoffe der Weltliteratur. [sh/crc]

 

Bibliografía de la Literatura Española (BLE) <http://ble.chadwyck.com/> is a bibliographic database under the editorial direction of the well-known bibliographer, Dr. Maria del Carmen Simón Palmer. It covers Spanish literature, including "literary theory, literary genres, popular literature, Hispanism, bibliographies and authors, from the Middle Ages to the present time," according to the publisher. The "since 1980" in its title modifies "bibliography," not "literature." "Spanish" is defined to include Spanish colonies up to their independence. Materials included in the database are books (editions, translations, and studies), periodical articles, festschrifts, congress proceedings, miscellanea, etc., published in Spain or abroad. Items mentioning foreign postcolonial Spanish-speaking authors are included if a Peninsular author is also discussed. Unlike the MLA Bibliography, BLE includes book reviews in scholarly journals. The BLE "About" page states there are 90,000 entries; a blurb on the ProQuest web site claims over 100,000. Data may be reproduced for scholarly or educational purposes.

The World Wide Web edition is updated twice a year. Access to it is restricted by IP address recognition. Only Netscape Navigator 1.2+ or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3+ are required. A cumulative CD-ROM is published annually. A free trial of the web version can be requested online.

The easily navigable interface is entirely in Spanish. A permanent right-hand menu has buttons for an "About" page (with links to the publisher's web site in English), a new search request, and help contents. Across the top of the main window the following buttons are usually visible: contextual help, back, forward, and search with same terms or clear search fields.

The BLE search engine has the following fields: free keyword, title keyword, descriptor or subject (including periods, subject authors and titles, etc.), author or reviewer (including editor, translators, preface signatory), imprint, journal title, publication year (fill in date ranges), type of publication (all, reviews, others). Each of the first six fields also has a clickable alphabetical index button, from which one can import the results into the search field, aiding greatly in choosing the correct terms. Boolean searching is functional within and between fields, using the Spanish version of familiar combinational operators and proximity operators. Truncation is also supported, using an asterisk to represent an indefinite number of characters to the right of a word or phrase.

The results list displays the year of publication of the item, its author, title, and name of the reviewer, if applicable; it does not indicate the sources (i.e., journal title) of citations. The full record displays the above and the imprint and subject headings. There are no internal print, save, or e-mail functions; this may cause problems depending on the user's local workstation set-up.

One cannot limit by language of document. There were only 32 items in BLE published in Moscow (and "Izvestiia," i.e., "Proceedings," is not a term indexed in the journal title or imprint fields), whereas a search in the MLA Bibliography for documents only about Cervantes in Russian produced 17 hits. While such proxy indicators can only be suggestive, it would seem that BLE's linguistic/geographic scope of coverage is limited compared with the MLA's.

Generally, BLE contains more relevant records than the MLA Bibliography for the period covered (BLE included some hits from 1979, so the MLA was searched from 1979 to the present). While the MLA had 373 records about the 19th-century author Clarín, BLE had 607 major articles (751 records including reviews); on his major novel La Regenta, the MLA recorded 173 hits and BLE 296 (358 including reviews). For the Golden Age dramatist, Calderón de la Barca, the MLA had 1,296 records, BLE had 1,661 major articles (2,043 including reviews); on his most famous play, La Vida es Sueño, the proportions were reversed, oddly enough: the MLA found 201 articles, whereas BLE found 109 (176 including reviews). Also, BLE is in general more current than the MLA, as revealed by comparing postings for the publication years 2000-2001. Only for the Revista de Estudios Hispánicos did BLE fail to have any postings, while the MLA had 5. For the Revista de Filologia, Quimera, and Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica the MLA had no postings at all, while BLE had a total of 51 major (non-review) articles. For Hispanófila, BLE had 18 articles, while the MLA had, oddly, only one. For Hispania, Hispanic Review, Insula, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, and Revista de Literatura, the MLA and BLE had comparable numbers, keeping in mind that BLE would not have indexed the purely Latin American items picked up by the MLA. And then there are the 398 reviews that BLE found in the above sources for 2000-2001 that the MLA excludes by policy.

While without some of the exporting functions afforded by the MLA's FirstSearch interface, BLE is competitive in its currency of coverage, especially for major journals in the field. For collections supporting graduate research in Peninsular literature, BLE would seem to be a highly desirable, almost necessary resource.

Jeffry Larson (Yale University)

 

These two volumes complete through 1974 Pires' guide to 20th-century Portuguese literary reviews. Volume 1, published in 1996 under the same title, covered the years 1900-1940. Volume 2 has been issued in two tomes, A-P and Q-Z, and proposes to identify and describe periodicals dating from 1941 to 1974. Some of the magazines listed in the Dicionário, such as the Boletim Informativo, Serviços de Bibliotecas Itinerantes, have continued publication beyond 1974, albeit under new titles.

Pires offers full descriptions and histories of hundreds of literary periodicals. For outstanding magazines, such as Seara Nova and Vertice, there are essay-length entries including the historical and social background, extensive lists of contributors during the various phases of publication, and bibliographies of articles and correspondence about the magazines. Tome 2 of volume 2 (Q-Z) also includes several appendices: a chronological list of periodicals covered, a geographical index of places of publication, a bibliography of works cited, a valuable bibliography of manuscripts and other materials relating to censorship in Portugal (1900-1974), and an index of personal names.

This is a remarkable compilation of a vast array of bulletins, occasional publications, newspaper supplements, and literary magazines that often served as vehicles for political and artistic expression during a period of heavy censorship. Many of these periodicals are not easily accessible to researchers and bibliographers due to physical deterioration and scarcity. The complete set of the Dicionário constitutes a valuable addition to the collections of university libraries with an emphasis on Portuguese literature and history.

Ceres Birkhead (University of Utah)

 

A new Russian literary dictionary for lower-division students is a worthwhile undertaking. The post-Soviet political transformation has expanded perspectives, particularly on 19th-century religious writers, and has transformed the hierarchical order of 20th-century Russian authors. Among the latter, émigré and homeland writers can now be discussed together, and many whose merit was strictly Soviet-political can be viewed critically or not at all. Two Russian literary dictionaries that appeared recently--Russkie pisateli XX vek, ed. N. N. Skatov (Moskva, 1998; see IFB 99-B09-738) and Russkie pisateli 20 veka: biograficheskii slovar', ed. P. A. Nikolaev (Moskva, 2000; see RREA 7:125 below)--do not completely take advantage of these new possibilities.

This new two-volume handbook provides more than enough material on the work's 24 authors for high-school-level study, but not enough for college-level study. While the choice of 19th-century authors is mostly appropriate, some important writers have been left out, for example Nikolai Leshkov, Aleksandr Ostrovskii, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. The selection of authors from the 20th century is more problematic: for example, other than Quiet Flows the Don (whose authorship some dispute), Sholokhov wrote nothing of note, and many other authors rank higher than Tvardovskii. Missing are leading writers such as Mikhail Bulgakov, the Nobel laureate Josif Brodskii, Vladimir Nabokov, Konstantin Paustovskii, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (perhaps the world's most famous 20th-century Russian author). No dramatist is included; Viktor Rozov would have been appropriate. On the positive side, there appears to be no trace of Soviet-era bias in this work.

The extensive individual biographies give little that is new to the specialist, but they do provide lesser known details and perspectives, e.g., on Chekhov as a practicing physician who charged no fees, and Gogol' as a deeply religious person. The two volumes have no introduction that could outline the work's purpose and principles, no information on the contributors (their first and middle names are not given), no bibliography, no index, no further references. For the intended audience, this work is a bad example of a literary dictionary.

If one considers this to be not a reference work for lower-division students, but a collection of new, scholarly, mainly biographical articles about a select group of 24 Russian writers, then these two volumes can be recommended for libraries outside Russia. [wk/ga]

 

Earlier Soviet reference works on Russian authors of the 20th century skated between the fringes of censor acceptability on the one hand or officious party propaganda on the other. Wolfgang Kasack produced the first lexicon of Russian writers to include emigrants and suppressed authors in 1992 (see RREA 6:145). N. Skatov of the St. Petersburg Pushkin House produced a similar work in 1998. The lexicon discussed here was published in 2000 by P.A. Nikolaev, perhaps best known as the editor of a multi-volume encyclopedia of Russian writers from 1800 to 1917, in progress since 1999 (see RREA 6:144). Both Skatov's and Nikolaev's works include a range of Soviet writers, emigrants, and suppressed authors. They vary from the Kasack work by including fewer writers but displaying considerably larger scope for each entry, and Kasack's is the only one to include topical entries. In Nikolaev's generally more balanced work, the current Russian nationalism influenced the exclusion of some writers of non-Russian origins, even though they are recognized internationally as part of "Russian" literature. The editors are still somewhat reserved in their inclusion of emigrant writers, and some important exile figures are missing. The descriptions of certain authors were entrusted to literary specialists whose ideological views remain narrow, and the resultant entries stand out unevenly.

Work analyses have been integrated into the authors' life histories. There is little analysis, but judgments from the secondary literature are common. Suppressed works by important authors that were published in the West during the Soviet years to give a "true picture" of Russian literature are not consistently mentioned, leading to some historical errors. The bibliographic data correspond to the degree of a given critic's reliability, and often they are rewarding. An index of names would have been welcome.

The lexicon is to be recommended; clouds of the political past shadow only a small part of the work. It is, in general, an essential volume that complements existing lexica. [wk/rdh]

 

The editor, an Anglicist whose previous publications include a dictionary of literary scholars in the West, started to compile an extensive encyclopedia covering the first wave of Russian émigré literature shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The resulting volumes, covering 1918 to 1940, were first published in limited printings by the Academy and now have been reissued in expanded form by ROSSPEN.

The first volume features 260 authors, most belonging to the "first emigration." Roughly 75 percent are fiction and poetry writers, 10 percent philosophers, and 15 percent professors of literature, journalists, or critics. Each article gives a biographical sketch, a characterization of the person's work, including quotes from some rare secondary literature, and a selected bibliography to 1995. The articles demonstrate thorough, new work, with comprehensive consideration of Western sources, although important Soviet dictionaries are not cited inclusively.

Some of the articles are virtually identical to those by the same scholars in a more general biographical dictionary published in the same year: Russkoe zarubez'e: zolotaja kniga emigracii ; pervaja tret' XX veka ; enciclopediceskij biograficeskij slovar' = Russia abroad (Moskva, 1997; see IFB 99-B09-730). The articles by other contributors are considerably more extensive. The volumes complement each other (only the work being reviewed here gives complete citations) and parallel use of John Glad's new standard work is absolutely rewarding [Russia Abroad; see IFB 99-1/4-215].

The second volume comprises much more than its title implies. For instance, émigré publishers are described comprehensively, although sometimes the inconsistent organization (by city or country) makes them difficult to find. Seventy-eight journals and newspapers are described thoroughly, including structure, frequency, and names of editors and journalists. An appendix lists 19 periodicals started after 1940 but in which "first wave" figures played a role. Sources are cited throughout the articles, though well-known German monographs are often not included.

These highly informative and well-researched volumes are laudable for their political and religious openness and complete lack of Soviet ideology. The illustrations and the outstanding indexes, which lead to every mention of a name or entity throughout the volumes, double their value. The work is an important contribution to Russian intellectual history, an international standard work, and a foundation for corresponding works on the second and third emigrations. [wk/hsb]

 

Sergei N. Esin, a writer and since 1992 director of the A.M. Gor'kii Literary Institute in Moscow, has put together an interesting handbook of articles by and on the Institute's member teaching staff, which consists of 11 prose writers (e.g., Olesia Nikolaeva, Evgenii Rein, and Vladimir Tsybin, and Igor' Volgin), 14 poets (e.g., Lev Ozerov), ten translators, two children's-book authors, two dramatists (e.g., Viktor Rozov), one journalist, and two literary scholars (Vladimir Gusev, Inna Vishnevskaia). Many of these are well known to scholars and other cognoscenti.

Each article lists the person's position in the Institute, other functions, and honors, followed by a brief bibliography of primary literature, the person's autobiography (a few are posthumous biographies), and an essay over the person's work in the institute. The subjects' origins, activities during the Soviet era, or literary works are not discussed (other reference works give this information). But from between the lines the reader can infer much about the person's literary and aesthetic values, strengths and weaknesses.

Because Esin's focus is on the theory of composition, the work does not cover all positions at the Institute (e.g., literary history is not included). It would have been helpful had Esin at least listed all those who have taught at the Institute, to say nothing of providing a name index.

This work is particularly useful as a source of seasoned writers' thoughts, words, and judgements about writing and the essence of the literary process, and about how to instruct beginning writers. [wk/ga]