Peter Demetz Libri

A first-ever paperback edition. A rich and highly readable analysis of the literary scene in the German-speaking countries by an outstanding American scholar. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

In the 1920s and 1930s, photography became an immense phenomenon across Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Poland. Through magazines and books, in advertisements and at exhibitions, from amateur clubs to avant-garde schools, photographs emerged as a key vehicle of modern consciousness.This book presents the work of approximately one hundred individuals whose creations exemplify the potential of photography in Central Europe between the two World Wars. Foto brings together for the first time works by recognized masters such as the Russian El Lissitzky, the Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy, and the German Hannah Hóch—all of whom developed their photographic ideas in Germany—with contemporaries like Karel Teige and Jaromír Funke (Czechoslovakia), Kazimierz Podsadecki (Poland), Károly Escher (Hungary), and Trude Fleischmann (Austria), who are less well known today.Organized thematically, the book explores topics from photomontage and war to gender identity, modern living, and the spread of Surrealism. It shows the shared experience of modernity in the region, whereby recently founded nations and dismantled empires alike sought their place within the new world order established in the aftermath of World War I.The illustrations, drawn from more than seventy collections in America and abroad, include several previously unpublished works as well as many others never before available in high-quality reproductions.

"Demetz expertly interweaves a superb account of the German authorities' diplomatic, financial, and military machinations with a brilliant description of Prague's evolving resistance and underground opposition. Along with his private experiences, he offers the heretofore untold history of an effervescent, unstoppable Prague whose urbane heart went on beating despite the deportations, murders, cruelties, and violence - a Prague that kept its German - and Czech - language theaters open, its fabled film studios functioning, its young people in school and at work, and its newspapers on press. This complex, continually surprising book is filled with rare human detail and warmth, the gripping story of a great city meeting the dual challenges of occupation and of war."--BOOK JACKET.

Lessing was a playwright, scholar, poet, archeologist, philosopher, and critic. His genius is evident in the works collected in this volume, which includes the comedy Minna von Barnhelm, the tragedy Emilia, Galotti, Nathan the Wise, The Jews (and related correspondence), Ernst and Falk: Conversations for the Freemasons, and selections from philosophical and theological writings

Every year Prague attracts thousands of enthusiastic visitors with its Old World charms. For a millennium this beautiful city in the heart of Central Europe, with its ancient townships set on hills and in valleys overlooking a strategic river, has been at the core of everything both wonderful and terrible in Western history. Prague in Black and Gold strips away the sentimental distortions in a brilliant account that clarifies Prague's true place in world civilization. Throughout, Demetz shows how Czechs, Germans, Italians, and Jews have lived and worked together in Prague for a thousand years - and what their peaceful coexistence can teach us in these days of increased nationalism and xenophobia.

politika, kultura, vzpomínky Peter Demetz je jeden z posledních svědků předválečné Prahy, kde se mísily nejrůznější evropské kultury. Němci, Češi a Židé sdíleli v Praze společné dějiny, které definitivně skončily vstupem hitlerovských vojsk do stověžatého města na Vltavě. Emeritní profesor a znalec pražské kultury se v této knize vrací do let nacistické okupace a plasticky prolíná velké dějinné události s každodenním životem Pražanů: jazz, kino, kavárny. Jedinečný pohled na polozapomenutou historii Prahy. České vydání obsahuje dosud nezveřejněné autorovy vzpomínky.

Liebe und Hass zu Prag liegen für Peter Demetz nah beieinander. 1948 musste der heute in den USA lebende Wanderer zwischen den Sprachen unter lebensgefährlichen Umständen seine Stadt verlassen. Böhmen - seiner Heimat - widmet er nun seinen neuen Essayband. Inwieweit lässt das Nebeneinander verschiedener Sprachen und Ethnien ein tschechisches Nationalitätsbewusstsein zu? Welche Rolle spielt Literatur? Und wie wird damit während eines politischen Ausnahmezustandes umgegangen? In zehn Variationen geht Demetz den Zusammenhängen zwischen Politik und Literatur auf den Grund. Lehrreich und erhellend, ohne jemals belehrend zu sein.