The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume 1: A Novel [Paperback]

Peter Weiss (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Aesthetics of Resistance | Publication Date: June 22, 2005

A major literary event, the publication of this masterly translation makes one of the towering works of twentieth-century German literature available to English-speaking readers for the first time. The three-volume novel The Aesthetics of Resistance is the crowning achievement of Peter Weiss, the internationally renowned dramatist best known for his play Marat/Sade. The first volume, presented here, was initially published in Germany in 1975; the third and final volume appeared in 1981, just six months before Weiss’s death.

Spanning the period from the late 1930s to World War II, this historical novel dramatizes anti-fascist resistance and the rise and fall of proletarian political parties in Europe. Living in Berlin in 1937, the unnamed narrator and his peers—sixteen- and seventeen-year-old working-class students—seek ways to express their hatred for the Nazi regime. They meet in museums and galleries, and in their discussions they explore the affinity between political resistance and art, the connection at the heart of Weiss’s novel. Weiss suggests that meaning lies in embracing resistance, no matter how intense the oppression, and that we must look to art for new models of political action and social understanding. The novel includes extended meditations on paintings, sculpture, and literature. Moving from the Berlin underground to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War and on to other parts of Europe, the story teems with characters, almost all of whom are based on historical figures. The Aesthetics of Resistance is one of the truly great works of postwar German literature and an essential resource for understanding twentieth-century German history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Aesthetics of Resistance is centrally important to any kind of assessment of twentieth-century German history.”—James Rolleston, editor of A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka

“[The Aesthetics of Resistance] . . . which [Peter Weiss] began when he was well over fifty, making a pilgrimage over the arid slopes of cutlural and contemporary history in the company of pavor nocturnus, the terror of the night, and laden with a monstrous weight of ideological ballast, is a magnum opus which sees itself . . . not only as the expression of an ephemeral wish for redemption, but as an expression of the will to be on the side of the victims at the end of time.”—W. G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction

About the Author

Peter Weiss (1916–1982) was a German playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and painter. His works include the plays Marat/Sade and The New Trial (also published by Duke University Press) and the novels The Shadow of the Body of the Coachman and The Conversation of the Three Walkers. West Germany’s most important literary award, the Georg Büchner Prize, was awarded to Weiss posthumously in 1982.
Joachim Neugroschel has translated some two hundred books, including works by Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Mann. He has won three pen translation awards and a French-American Foundation Translation Prize. He lives in Queens, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (June 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822335468
• ISBN-13: 978-0822335467
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it's about time this got translated, May 7, 2006

By 

Joe Fiore - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume 1: A Novel (Paperback)

I agree with the first reviewer: this is one of the great books of the 20th century. Also an excellent translator. As for the question about the other volumes: this one only took 30 years to get translated! It's not likely to be a big hit in the English-speaking market; too Marxist, I suppose. Thanks to Duke Univ. Press for making this volume available. I have to think that if they're going to go ahead and call this volume 1, then vols. 2 & 3 must be forthcoming.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming, March 3, 2006

By 

P. Scott Stanfield (Lincoln, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume 1: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a staggering, amazing novel -- I scarcely know what to say beyond that -- but i was hoping someone could help me find out when further volumes are to be expected.