Exempla critica
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Edited by:
The editing of texts is a central function of philology. Besides large complete editions, nowadays there is a call for user-oriented critical historical editions of individual works from more recent German literary history, and these can also include editions of correspondence, diaries or other text-types and corpora. The criterion for inclusion in the Exempla critica is not so much whether a text belongs to the canon, but rather the exemplary nature of the text in terms of its tradition, genesis, materiality, mediality, or edition history. The series presents texts in a historical-critical form, whereby innovative editing methods and forms of presentation can also be used. The historical-authentic text is at the center of all editions, supplemented by a documentation of its history of creation, printing, and reception, as well as any additional contextual information.
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg’s Ethical Investigations is the first publication of the manuscript, penned in ca. 1851. It is the fragment of a magnum opus never written, intended to provide the building blocks for a philosophical system together with his Logical Investigations (1840). This volume includes a reading edition, an extensive commentary, biographical information, transcribed facsimiles, a textual genesis, and an editorial report.
This genetic textual edition includes 13 poems by Gottfried Benn from 1935 to 1953. It assembles poems about the theme of “metamorphosis,” and judiciously examines their creation through a presentation that includes facsimiles, commentary, and references to Benn’s textual sources. In addition to novel access to Benn’s working methods, the edition offers corrective decipherment along with previously unknown drafts, printings, and sources.
Klaus Mann’s novel Mephisto is among the most important texts written from exile in the 1930s and 40s, and is regarded as the magnum opus of literary confrontation with the National Socialist dictatorship. With its appearance in pre-print in the exile newspaper “Pariser Tageszeitung” in 1936, and then as a book published by the Querido Press in Amsterdam, the novel set off waves of controversy. The present edition documents how the novel was created, presents all of the notes, sketches, and drafts, records the changes made between printings, and illuminates the genesis of the final version of the novel.
The Göttinger Hain is generally considered to have been the most close-knit circle of poets in the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) period. Its collection of poetry called the »Bundesbuch« (1772/73) has only come down to us in manuscript form. This volume combines the first complete edition of the poems with a full-scale study of its significance and an extensive commentary section. The collection encompasses most of the poetic genres familiar at the time, and the poems address almost all the significant topics and currents prevalent in the period of upheaval around 1770. It is the last major document in the history of 18th century German poetry that has not yet been accorded the attention it merits.
This documentation of Remarque's (1898-1970) »All Quiet on the Western Front« combines the features expected of a commentary edition with an analysis of the marketing strategies connected with the novel's publication and a discussion of the reactions of the press in the period 1928 to 1930. Genesis, publication, and early reception of Remarque's anti-war novel are presented for the first time in the way they interconnect. Accordingly, the study's scope extends beyond the individual case of this one novel to encompass a large portion of the literature on the First World War by indicating the evaluation criteria drawn upon in the Weimar Republic to deal with this genre. - Appended is a CD-ROM with synoptic editions of different stages of the text.
