Ideology in the Trenches: The German Experience of WWI in Fiction

FAIN: FB-10480-70

George Salamon
Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH 03755-1808)

Examination of German fiction of World War I from the viewpoint of German political theories, social structure and educational practices. Study concerned with ideas widely held by the educated public that welcomed (or acceded to) and eventually criticized the war. Fellow to analyze how depictions of the German war experience--particularly in novels of Arnol Zwieg, Erich Maria Remarque, Ludwig Renn, Ernst Junger, Andreas Latzko and Walter Flex--reflect the ideas about civic duty, the role of the military and social relations current in Wilheilmian German. These ideas were drawn from popular writers like Langbehn and Lagarde and from interpreters of Hegel and Nietzsche; their influence on novelists can be deducted from high school curricula, speeches, newspapers, letters and diaries. Fellow to do research in London and Stuttgarr. .