Product Description: Gnosticism is an extreme religious sensibility, dating from the early Christian era, that combines a radically pessimistic view of life and the world with an optimistic belief that the human spirit is itself divine, though lost in an alien and evil world...read more

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Product Description: The death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1832 was widely viewed as the end of the classical-idealistic period in German literary and intellectual history, and thebeginning of a new phase ofuncertain direction. This, as well as Germany's 19th-century political and social unrest, resulted in the emergence of authors of both progressive and conservative viewpoints...read more

Product Description: This DLB volume's coverage begins during a period when two contrasting political tendencies had major influence over German authors and the literature they produced-the conservative Biedermeier, on the one hand, and the liberal Junges Deutschland (Young Germany) and Vormarz (Pre-March), on the other...read more