Hermann Broch : literature, philosophy, politics : the Yale Broch symposium, 1986 /

The Austrian writer Hermann Broch is not exactly "a household name" even among German literary scholars. Renewed American interest in Broch, fueled by the relatively recent translation and publication of a number of his works--e.g., novels The Guiltless (CH, Oct '74) and The Sleepwalkers (tr. by Willa and Edwin Muir, 1932)--has led to the reexamination of his life and works. The Yale Broch Symposium, held in November 1986, the proceedings of which are published here, added weight and credence to the argument that Broch was indeed a significant literary figure of his day and a man to be compared and contrasted with such prominent intellectuals of his time as Georg Lukacs, Thomas Mann, and Theodor Adorno. These 18 short thematic essays and 14 brief "response" essays help to identify and define Broch both in terms of his illustrious contemporaries and in respect to earlier writers including Goethe, Hofmannsthal, and Joyce. This book is not meant to be an introduction to Broch and his writings, but rather a detailed analysis of the man and his work. Users of this volume would have benefited from the inclusion of a separate comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Broch. A fine scholarly tribute to the man. -C. L. Dolmetsch, Marshall University