World Canonical Texts
Just finished German Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Nicholas Boyle (2008) together with its online supplement at
http://www.mml.can.ac.uk/german/staff/nb215
Below is the list of slightly over 100 literature authors mentioned: (please forgive my lack of diacritic transliteration)
| Lay of Hildebrand |
| Hartmann von Aue (c. 1160-1210) |
| Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170-1230) |
| Lay of the Nibelungs (c. 1200) |
| Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1170-1220): Parzival (c. 1200-1210) |
| Gottfried von Strassburg: Tristan (c. 1210) |
| Johannes von Tepl (c. 1351-1415): The Bohemian Ploughman (Der Ackermann aus Bohmen, c. 1405) |
| Till Eulenspiegel (Owleglasse) |
| Reynard the Fox |
| Sebastian Brant (1457-1521): The Ship of Fools (Das Narrenschiff, 1494) |
| Hans Sachs (1494-1576) |
| History of Dr. John Faust (Historia von D. Johann Fausten) |
| Martin Opitz (1597-1639): Book of German Poesy (Buch von der deutschen Poeterey, 1624) |
| Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (1633-1694) |
| Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664) |
| Johann ('Hans') Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621 or 1622-76): Adventures of the German Simplicissimus (Der abentheuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch, 1668-1671) |
| Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700-66): Essay towards a Critical Art of Poetry for the Germans (Versuch einer Critischen Dichtkunst vor die Deutschen, 1730) |
| Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777): On the Origin of Evil (Uber den Ursprung des Ubels, 1734) |
| Friedrich von Hagedorn (1708-54) |
| Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803): The Messiah (Der Messias, first 3 cantos 1748) |
| Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81): Miss Sara Sampson (1755); Minna von Barnhelm (1767); Laocoon (1766); Emilia Galotti (1772); Nathan the Wise (1779) |
| Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813): Agathon (1767), Musarion (1768) |
| Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-99) |
| Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832): Gotz von Berlichingen (1773); The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werther, 1774); Urfaust ('the original Faust'); Iphigenia in Tauris (1779, 1786-7); Egmont; Torquato Tasso; Xenia (1796, jointly with Schiller); Wilhelm Meister's Years of Apprenticeship (Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, 1795-6); Faust, Part One; Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandschaften, 1809); Truth and Fiction from my Life (Aus meinem Leben Dichtung und Wahrheit, 1811-33); The Parliament of East and West (West-Ostlicher Divan, 1819); Faust, Part Two (1832) |
| JakobMichael Reinhold Lenz (1751-92): The Tutor (Der Hofmeister, 1774), The Soldiers (Die Soldaten, 1776) |
| Friedrich Maximilian Klinger (1752-1831): The Twins (Die Zwillinge, 1776) |
| Johann Anton Leisewitz (1752-1806): Julius von Tarent (1776) |
| Henrich Leopold Wagner (1747-79) |
| Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801): Physiognomical Fragments (Physiognomische Fragmente, 1775-1778) |
| Freidrich Schiller (1759-1805): The Robbers (Die Rauber, 1781); Intrigue and Love (Kabale und Liebe, 1784); Don Carlos (1787); On the Aesthetic Education of Humanity in a Series of Letters (Uber die asthetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen, 1795), Xenia (1796, jointly with Goethe); Wallenstein (1798); Maria Stuart (1800), The Maid of Orleans (Die Jungfrau von Orleans, 1801); Wilhelm Tell (1804) |
| Mozart: Seraglio (1782) |
| Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827): Lienhard and Gertrud (1781-1783) |
| August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845) |
| Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853): The Wanderings of Franz Sternbald (Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen, 1798) |
| Zacharias Werner (1768-1823) |
| Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843): Hyperion (novel, 1797-9), The Deatyh of Empedocles (Der Tod des Empedokles, 1798-9, incomplete drama); 'Bread and Wine (Brod und Wein), 'Patmos', 'Midway through Life' (Halfte des Lebens) |
| Friedrich von Hardenberg ('Novalis', 1772-1801): Hymns to Night (Hymnen an die Nacht) |
| Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829) |
| Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822): Life and Opinions of Murr the Tom-Cast (Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr, 1820-2); The Sandman (Der Sandmann, 1815) |
| Johann Paul Friedrich Richter ('Jean Paul', 1763-1825): Titan (1800-3) |
| Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811): Penthesilea (1808); The Marchionessof O … (Die Marquise von O. 1808); Trial by Combat (Der Zweikampf, 1811); Prinz Friedrich von Homburg (1809-10) |
| Ludwig Achim von Arnim (1781-1831): The Boy's Magic Horn (1806-8) |
| Clemens Brentano (1778-1842): The Boy's Magic Horn (Des Knaben Wunderhorn,1806-8) |
| Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (1785-1863, 1786-1859) |
| Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857) |
| Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872): Sappho (1818); A Dream is Life (Der Traum ein Leben, 1834); The Golden Fleece (Das goldene Vlies, 1821); Fraternal Strife in the House of Hapsburg (Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg, 1848); The Poor Fiddler (Der arme Spielmann, 1847) |
| Ferdinand Raimund (1790-1836) |
| Eduard Morike (1804-75) |
| Jeremias Gotthelf (pseudonym of Albert Bitzius, 1794-1854): Uli the Labourer (Uli der Knecht, 1841); Money and Mind (Geld und Geist, 1834); The Black Spider (Die schwarze Spinne, 1842) |
| Georg Buchner (1813-37): The Death of Danton (Dantons Tod); Lenz; Woyzeck (incomplete) |
| Heinrich Heine (1797-1856): The Boy's Magic Horn (Book of Songs, 1827-39), New Poems (Neue Gedichte, 1844); On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany (Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland, 1834); The Romantic School (Die romantische Schule, 1831-32); Germany, A Winter's Tale (Deutschland. Ein Wintermarchen, 1844) |
| Annette von Droste-Hulshoff (1797-1848): The Jew's Beech (Die Judenbuche, 1842) |
| Friedrich Hebbel (1813-63): Maria Magdalena (1844); Agnes Bernauer (1852) |
| Heinrich Hoffmann: Struwwelpeter (1846) |
| Theodor Storm (1817-88) |
| Johann Nestroy (1801-1862): Freedom in Much Snoring (Freiheit in Krahwinkel); Judith and Holofernes (1849) |
| Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868): Wayside Gems (Bunte Steine, 1853); Indian Summer (Der Nachsommer, 1857); Limestone (Kalkstein) |
| Gustav Freytag (1816-95): Debit and Credit (Soll und Haben, 1855) |
| Gottfried Keller (1819-1890): Green Henry (Der grune Heinrich, 1854-5 and 1879-80); The People of Seldwyla (Die Leute von Seldwyla, 1856. 1874); A Village Romeo and Juliet (Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe) |
| Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908): Max and Moritz (1865, comic strip) |
| Paul Heyse (1830-1914): A German Treasury of Tales (Duetscher Novellenschatz, 1871) |
| Theodor Fontane (1810-1889): Comedies of Errors (Irrungen, Wirrungen, 1888); Frau Jenny Treibel (1893); Beyond Recall (Unwiederbringlich, 1892); Effi Briest (1895), Der Stechlin (1898) |
| Frank Wedekind (1864-1918): Spring's Awakening (Fruhlings Erwachen, 1891); Lulu (1895, 1904) |
| Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898): Angela Borgia (1891) |
| Johannes Schlaf (1862-1944) |
| Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946): Before Sunrise (Vor Sonnenaufgang);The Weavers (Die Weber, 1892); The Sunken Bell (Die versunkene Glocke, 1896)) |
| Arno Holz (1863-1929) |
| Stefan George (1868-1933): Leaves for Art (Blatterfur die Kunst, privately circulated journal); The Year of the Soul (Das Jahr der Seele, 1895); The Seventh Ring (Der Siebente Ring, 1907); The Star of the Covenant (Der Stern des Bundes, 1914); The New Empire (Das neue Reich, 1928) |
| Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931): Leutnant Gustl (1901); Dalliance (Liebelei, 1895); La Ronde (Reigen 1896-7) |
| Else Lasker-Schuler (1869-1945) |
| Thomas Mann (1875-1955): Buddenbrooks, Decline of a Family (Buddenbrooks. Verfall einer Familie, 1901); Tristan; Tonio Kroger (1903); Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig, 1912); Unpolitical Meditations (Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen, 1918); Joseph and his Brothers (Joseph und seine Bruder, 1933-43); The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924); Doctor Faustus, The Life of the German composer Adrian Leverkuhn, narrated by a friend (Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkuhn erzahlt von einem Freunde, 1947) |
| Henrich Mann (1871-1950): Professor Unrat (1905); His Majesty's Subject (Der Untertan, 1914) |
| Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914): Gallows Songs (Galgenlieder, 1905) |
| Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926): The Book of Hours (Das Stunden-Buch, 1905); New Poems (Neue Gedichte, 1907-8); Duino Elegies (Duineser Elegien, 1922); Sonnets to Orpheus (Sonette an Orpheus, 1922) |
| Robert Musil (1880-1942): The Man Without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, 1931-43); The Confusions of Young Torless (Die Verwirrungen des Zoglings TorleB, 1906) |
| Georg Kaiser (1878-1945) |
| Robert Walser (1878-1956) |
| Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929): Der Rosenkavalier (collaboration w/ Richard Strauss, 1911); A Difficult Man (Der Schwierige, 1921); The Tower (Der Turm, 1925-8) |
| Franz Kafka (1883-1924): Missing Person (Der Vorschollene, 1911); The Trial (Der ProzeB, 1914); The Castle (Das ScholoB, 1922); Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung, 1912); In the Penal Colony (In der Strafkolonie, 1914) |
| Georg Heym (1887-1912) |
| Gottfried Benn (1886-1956): Morque (1912); 'Farewell' ('Abshied', 1943) |
| Georg Trakl (1887-1914): 'Grodek' |
| Friedrich Gundolf (1880-1931) |
| Reinhard Goering (1887-1936) |
| Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956): The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper, 1928); Rise and Fall of the Town of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, 1928-9); Baal (1918); Domestic Breviary (Hauspostille, 1927); The Good Woman of Szechuan (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, 1938-9); The Life of Galileo (Leben des Galilei, 1938-9); Mother Courage and her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, 1939); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis, 1944-5) |
| Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) |
| Walter Gropius (1883-1969) |
| Twilight of Humanity (Menschheitsdammerung, 1920) (23 poets) |
| Ernst Junger (1895-1998): Storms of Steel (In Stahlgewitern, 1920); The Worker (Der Arbeiter, 1931) |
| Karl Kraus (1874-1936): The Last Days of Mankind (Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, 1922); The Torch (1936); The Third Walpurgis Night (Die dritte Walpurgisnacht, 1933) |
| Ernst Toller (1893-1939) |
| Max Kommerell (1902-44): The Poet as Leader in German Classicism (Der Dichter als Fuhrer in der deutschen Klassik) |
| Alfred Doblin (1878-1957): Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) |
| Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970): All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues, 1929) |
| Elias Canetti (1905-1994) |
| Franz Werfel (1890-1945): The Song of Bernadette (Das Lied von Bernadette, 1941) |
| Hermann Hesse (1877-1962): The Wolf from the Steppes (Der Steppenwolf); The Glass-Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel, 1943) |
| Alfred Kerr's (1867-1948) daughter: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit |
| Paul Celan (1920-70): 'Death Fugue' ('Todesfuge') in Poppies and Memory (Mohn und Gedachtnis, 1952); Speechgrid (Sprachgitter, 1959); Breathturn (Atemwende, 1967) |
| Arno Schmidt (1914-79): The Heart of Stone (Das steinerne Herz, 1956); The Republic of Scholars (Die Gelehrtenrepublick, 1957); Bottom's Dream (Zettel's Traum, 1970); |
| Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-1990): The Visit (Der Besuch der alten Dame, 1956); The Physicists (Die Physiker, 1962) |
| Max Frisch (1911-1991): The Fire-Raisers (Biedermann und die Brandstifter, 1958); Andorra (1961); Homo Faber (1957) |
| Gunter Grass (b. 1927): The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel, 1959); The Flounder (Der Butt, 1977), Too far afield (Ein weites Feld, 1996); Crabwalk (Im Krebsgang, 2002) |
| Uwe Johnson (1934-84): Speculations about Jakob (MutmaBungen uber Jakob, 1959); The Third Book about Achim (Das dritte Buch uber Achim, 1961); Anniversaries (Jahrestage, 1971-83) |
| Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) |
| Rolf Hochhuth (b. 1931): The Representative (Der Stellvertreter, 1963); Soldiers (Soldaten, 1967); Lawyers (Juristen, 1979) |
| Peter Weiss (1916-1982): The Persecution and Murder of Jean Paul Marat Represeted by the Theatre Company of the Hospital of Charenton under the Direction of M. de Sade (Marat/Sade, 1964); The Investigation (Die Ermittlung, 1965); Aestehtics of Resistance (Asthetik des Widerstands, 1975-81) |
| Peter Handke (b. 1942): Abusing the Audience (Publikumsbeschimpfung, 1966) |
| Christa Wolf (b. 1929): The Quest for Christa T. (Nachdenken uber Christa T, 1968); Patterns of Childhood (Kindheitsmuster, 1976) |
| Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973): Malina (1971) |
| Elfriede Jelinek (b. 1946) |
| Heiner Muller (1929-95): Germania Death if Berlin (Germania Tod in Berlin, 1977); Germanica 3 Ghosts at The Dead Man (Germania 3 Gespenster am Toten Mann, 1996) |
| Durs Grunbein (b. 1962): Porcelain, Poem on the death of my city (Porzellan. Poem vom Untergang meiner Stadt) |
| W.G. ('Max') Sebald (1944-2001): On the Natural History of Destruction (1999); The Emigrants (Die Ausgewanderten, 1992); The Rings of Saturn, An English Pilgrimage (Die Ringe des Saturn. Eine englische Wallfahrt, 1995); Austerlitz (2001) |
The above list includes also authors from Austria, Poland, Czech, Switzerland, etc. Key authors are ~15:
1. Lessing (1729-81)
2. Goethe (1749-1832)
3. Schiller (1759-1805)
4. Holderlin (1770-1843)
5. Grillparzer (1791-1872) - is he a major author?
6. Buchner (1813-37)
7. Heine (1797-1856)
8. Stefan George (1868-1933)
9. Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
10. Rilke (1875-1926)
11. Kafka (1883-1924)
12. Brecht (1898-1956)
13. Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
14. Gunter Grass (b. 1927)
15. W.G. ('Max") Sebald (1944-2001)
The author of VSI will definitely put Wagner into thislist. Out of convention I consider him more as a musician / composer than literary author.
There are no comments yet.