Caroline Schaumann & Sean M. Ireton 
Heights of Reflection 
Mountains in the German Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century

Examines the lure of mountains in German literature, philosophy, film, music, and culture from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century.


Mountains have always stirred the human imagination, playing a crucial role in the cultural evolution of peoples around the globe and becoming infused with meaning in the process. Beyond their geographical-geological significance, mountains affect the topography of the mind, whether as objects of peril or attraction, of spiritual enlightenment or existential fulfillment, of philosophical contemplation or aesthetic inspiration. This volume challenges the oversimplified assumption that human interaction with mountains is a distinctly modern development, one that began with the empowerment of the individual in the wake of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic subjectivity. These essays by European and North American scholars examine the lure of mountains in German literature, philosophy, film, music, and culture from the Middle Ages to the present, with a focus on the interaction between humans and the alpineenvironment. The contributors consider mountains not as mere symbolic tropes or literary metaphors, but as constituting a tangible reality that informs the experiences and ideas of writers, naturalists, philosophers, filmmakers, and composers. Overall, this volume seeks to provide multiple answers to questions regarding the cultural significance of mountains as well as the physical practice of climbing them.


Contributors: Peter Arnds, Olaf Berwald, Albrecht Classen, Roger Cook, Scott Denham, Sean Franzel, Christof Hamann, Harald Höbusch, Dan Hooley, Peter Höyng, Sean Ireton, Oliver Lubrich, Anthony Ozturk, Caroline Schaumann, Heather I. Sullivan, Johannes Türk, Sabine Wilke, Wilfried Wilms.


SEAN IRETON is Associate Professor of German at the University of Missouri. CAROLINE SCHAUMANN is Professor of German Studies at Emory University.

Cuprins

Introduction: The Meaning of Mountains: Geology, History, Culture – Sean Ireton and Caroline Schaumann

Prelude: Classical Mountain Landscapes and the Language of Ascent – Dan Hooley

Terra Incognita? Mountains in Medieval and Early Modern German Literature – Albrecht Classen

From Meadows to Mountaintops: Albrecht von Haller’s’Die Alpen’ – Caroline Schaumann

Geo-Poetics: The Alpine Sublime in Art and Literature, 1779-1860 – Anthony Ozturk

Time and Narrative in the Mountain Sublime around 1800 – Sean Franzel

Faust’s Mountains: An Ecocritical Reading of Goethe’s Tragedy and Science – Heather I. Sullivan

Spectacular Scenery and Slippery Descents: Narrating the Mountains of Tropical Polynesia – Sabine Wilke

Fascinating Voids: Alexander von Humboldt and the Myth of Chimborazo – Oliver Lubrich

From Eros to Thanatos: Hiking and Spelunking in Ludwig Tieck’s Der Runenberg – Peter Arnds

Geology, Mountaineering, and Self-Formation in Adalbert Stifter’s Der Nachsommer – Sean Ireton

‘An Apparition from Another World’ – The Mountains of the Moon and Kilimanjaro from the Perspective of Nineteenth-Century Germany – Christof Hamman

Leaving the Summit Behind: Tracking Biographical and Philosophical Pathways in Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie – Peter Höyng

Elevation and Insight: Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg – Johannes Turk

‘The Essence of the Alpine World Is Struggle’: Strategies of Gesundung in Arnold Fanck’s Early Mountain Films – Wilfried Wilms Ph D

‘Mountain of Destiny’: The Filmic Legacy of Nanga Parbat – Harald Hoebusch

Spatial Orientation and Embodied Transcendence in Werner Herzog’s Mountain Climbing Films – Roger F. Cook

W. G. Sebald’s Magic Mountains – Scott Denham

Conflicting Ascents: Inscriptions, Cartographies, and Disappearance in Christoph Ransmayr’s Der fliegende Berg – Olaf Berwald

Works Cited

Notes on the Contributors

Index

Despre autor

SEAN IRETON is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of German and Russian at the University of Missouri.