Product Description: In what can only be called a genuine intellectual adventure, Russell Berman raises fundamental questions long ignored by literary scholars; Why does literature command our attention at all? Why would society want to cultivate a sphere of activity devoted to the careful study of literary fiction? Written as a tonic to what he calls the debilitating cultural relativism of contemporary literary studies, Fiction Sets You Free advances the innovative argument that literature and capitalism, rather than representing merely commercialization, actually belie a long and positive association: literary autonomy is a central part of modern Western culture, thoroughly intertwined with political democracy and free market capitalism...read more

Product Description: TELOS 140 (Fall 2007): Peter Szondi and Critical Hermeneutics. Includes articles by Rainer Nägele, Thomas Schestag, Claudia Brodsky, James McFarland, Sebastian Wogenstein, Joshua Robert Gold, Russell Berman, Rochelle Tobias, Christoph König, James V...read more

Product Description: In his analysis of Europe's ambivalence toward jihadist terror and the spread of aggressive Islamism, with particular emphasis on the European responses—or lack thereof—to this violent anti-modernism, Russell A. Berman describes how some European countries opt for appeasement and apologetics, whereas others muster the strength to defend their way of life and stand up for freedom...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Berman has written a powerful example of the new literary history as well as a guide to the century that brought forth the modern German Novel. His book is important to students of German literature and of social and intellectual currents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and also for those interested in the sociology of literature, critical theory, and neo-Marxist literary theory...read more

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The opening of the Berlin Wall reopened a host of political, cultural, and historical concerns.  The German past, which seemed frozen beneath the divisions of the Cold War, has reemerged, eliciting both enthusiasm and apprehension.  Russell A. Berman argues that, for the Germans, national unity will mean either encompassing democracy or exclusionary politics—a dilemna that is far from new in German history.    With his characteristic wit and originality, Berman probes the ambiguities of German nationhood.  Taking the theoretical perspective of Cultural Studies, he looks at literature, painting, and film from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to consider how nationhood is constituted and how it can be represented, what holds a citizenry together and what separates it from other populations, and how the legacy of a past history frames the definition of identities and institutions in the present.    Berman offers a thoughtful discussion of the methods of the emerging school of Cultural Studies and of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, showing how they diverge in their treatment of cultural issues.  He then applies the framework of Cultural Studies to representations of the German nation.  He offers definitions of Germany in the nineteenth century: in the poetry of Heinrich Heine (contrasted with Walt Whitman), in a visual representation of Jewish emancipation, and through a contrast with Italian unification.  Berman explores nationhood and modernism through discussions of cinema, expressionist painting, and the politics of deconstruction.  The final chapters of Marking Time span post-war literature from Heinrich Böll to Peter Handke and conclude with a discussion of the post-unification debate on the Gulf War.  Throughout, Berman demonstrates how Cultural Studies can uncover the cultural assumptions in politics as well as the political agenda of culture. 

Product Description: Are the arguments of the Frankfurt School still relevant? Modern Culture and Critical Theory investigates this question in the context of important issues in contemporary cultural politics:  neoconservatism and new social movements, discontents with modernity and debates on postmodernism, the political hegemony of Ronald Reagan, and the cultural hegemony of structuralism and poststructuralism...read more

Traces the life and military career of Hindenburg, culminating in his role as German Field Marshal, and shows how his actions as President helped allow Hitler's rise to power

Product Description: Berman has written a powerful example of the new literary history as well as a guide to the century that brought forth the modern German Novel. His book is important to students of German literature and of social and intellectual currents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and also for those interested in the sociology of literature, critical theory, and neo-Marxist literary theory...read more