Li's monograph studies Anna Seghers's engagement with China, Chinese people, Chinese and Taoist thought, art and history, and how this interest is reflected in her literary and political works.
Li, Weijia. ‘Zwischen Romantik und Orientalismus: Ostasiatische Kunstgeschichte in der Weimarer Republik am Beispiel von Karl With und Alfred Salmony’, German Studies Review, 38.3 (2015), 531-54.
Li's article explores the revival of Romantic artistic traditions and thought in the Weimar Republic through a study of Orientalist depictions of Ancient China and Buddhism in German art historical scholarship.
Cho, Joanne Miyang, and Douglas T. McGetchin (eds). Gendered Encounters between Germany and Asia: Transnational Perspectives since 1800 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017).
Cho and McGetchin's volume of essays explores how gender was at the centre of interactions between Germany and Asia (including India, China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Korea). Rather than see Western and Eastern cultures as diametrically opposed, the essays in the volume explore how German and Asian people negotiate gender in closely connected … Continue reading Cho, Joanne Miyang, and Douglas T. McGetchin (eds). Gendered Encounters between Germany and Asia: Transnational Perspectives since 1800 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017).
Musch, Sebastian. Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture: Between Moses and Buddha, 1890-1940 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Musch traces the history of Jewish-Buddhist encounters from the fin de siècle to the start of the Second World War. He shows the strong influence of Buddhist thought and culture on Jewish writers and intellectuals, including Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, Theodor Lessing, Jakob Wassermann, Walter Hasenclever and Lion Feuchtwanger. Musch demonstrates how these … Continue reading Musch, Sebastian. Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture: Between Moses and Buddha, 1890-1940 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Shen, Qinna, and Martin Rosenstock. Beyond Alterity: German Encounters with Modern East Asia (New York: Berghahn, 2014).
Shen and Rosenstock bring together essays by scholars working on a range of media (newsreels, feature films, essays, novels, documentaries and historical sources) from the fin-de-siècle to the twenty-first century. All explore the links between German, Chinese and Japanese ideas, writing and culture. Includes essays on Arnold Fanck and the Bergfilm, DEFA documentaries about China, … Continue reading Shen, Qinna, and Martin Rosenstock. Beyond Alterity: German Encounters with Modern East Asia (New York: Berghahn, 2014).
Zhang, Chunjie. Transculturality and German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism (Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 2017).
In her monograph, Zhang explores the global connections between German thought (Herder, Kant), literature (Kotzebue, Campe), and travel writing (Chamisso, Forster) and the projects of European colonialism, especially in the Pacific.
Zhang, Chunjie. Composing Modernist Connections in China and Europe (New York: Routledge, 2019).
This edited collection draws links and conversations between Western European art (German, Irish, Austrian) and Chinese modernism. It casts its definition of modernism widely, including modernist Chinese films in divided Germany alongside earlier literary work, and drawing out the web of connections between China and Europe while avoiding cultural hierarchies.
Storm, Theodor. ‘Von Jenseit des Meeres’ (1865)
Alfred narrates the story of his relationship with Jenni, the mixed-race daughter of a plantation owner and a local woman who was brought from her native St Croix to Germany and lived with Alfred’s family when they were children. Alfred in love with his former playmate, and claims to be blind to her race, but … Continue reading Storm, Theodor. ‘Von Jenseit des Meeres’ (1865)
Fontane, Theodor. Effi Briest (1895)
Useful for discussing German expansionism in Eastern Europe and the figure of the Slav as other. Discussed in Karolina Wątroba’s blog post.