Steffan Davies

Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583-1634), one of the most famous and controversial personalities of the Thirty Years War, gained heightened prominence in the nineteenth century through Schiller's monumental drama, Wallenstein (1798-99). Schiller's own fame, and the complexities he injected into his dramatic character, made Wallenstein a potent, near-mythical, but also highly ambivalent figure. This innovative and detailed study tests Schiller's impact on historians as well as on later literary texts. It traces Wallenstein's part in the construction of identity in Germany, Austria and Bohemia, examining the figure's significance in events such as the Wars of Liberation against France, the 1859 Schiller festival, and the First World War. The broad range of authors and historians studied includes Franz Grillparzer, Leopold von Ranke, Ricarda Huch and Alfred Doblin.

The Wallenstein Figure in German Literature and Historiography 1790-1920

Nils Langer

Wim Vandenbussche

What are the points of contact between the study of language and the study of history? What are the possibilities for collaboration between linguists and historians, and what prevents it? This volume, the proceedings of an international conference held at the University of Bristol in April 2009, presents twenty-two articles by linguists and historians, exploring the relationship between the fields theoretically, conceptually and in practice. Contributions focus on a variety of European and American languages, in historical periods from the Middle Ages to the present day. Key themes at the intersection of these two disciplines are the standardization and classification of languages, the social and demographic history of medieval and early modern Europe, the study of language and history 'from below', and the function of language in modern politics. The value of interdisciplinary collaboration is demonstrated in a wide-ranging set of case studies, on topics including language contact in Northern and Central Europe, the relationship between peninsular and transatlantic Spanish, and new approaches to the recent histories of Nicaragua, Luxembourg and Bulgaria. The volume seeks out the interdependencies between the two fields and asks why exchanges between linguists and historians remain the exception rather than the rule.

Interdisciplinary Approaches

Language and History, Linguistics and Historiography

Ernest Schonfield

Döblin’s texts, which range widely across contemporary discourses, are paradigms of the encounter between literary and scientific modernity. With their use of ‛Tatsachenphantasie’, they explode conventional language, seeking a new connection with the world of objects and things. This volume reassesses and reevaluates the uniquely interdisciplinary quality of Döblin’s interdiscursive, factually-inspired poetics by offering challenging new perspectives on key works. The volume analyses not only some of Döblin’s best-known novels and stories, but also neglected works including his early medical essays, political journalism and autobiographical texts. Other topics addressed are Döblin’s engagement with German history; his relation to medical discourse; his topography of Berlin; his aestheticisation of his own biography and his relation to other major writers such as Heine, Benn, Brecht and Sebald. With contributions in English and in German by scholars from Germany and the United Kingdom, the volume presents insights into Döblin that are of value to advanced researchers and to students alike.

Steffan Davies

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