Nietzsche, Freud, Benn, and the Azure Spell of Liguria

by Martina Kolb

Overview

Nietzsche, Freud, Benn, and the Azure Spell of Liguria offers a fresh approach to these writers' groundbreaking literary achievements and profound interest in poetic expression as cathartic self-liberation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487558260
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	09/01/2023
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Martina Kolb is an assistant professor in the Departments of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures and in Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations

Preface: Ligurian Geopoetics

I - 'Twixt Halcyon and Marathon: Azure Spell and Difficult Beauty

Riviera Existence

On the Ligurian Edge

Luring Onomastics

II - Ligurian Lures: Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Gottfried Benn

Copious Dawns, High Noon, Blessed Isles: Nietzsche’s Ligurianity

Guilt Trips on Royal Roads: Freud's Ligurian Affinities

Blind Spots, Alibis, Sceneries: Benn's Ligurian Complexes

Postface: Liguria Rediviva

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

‘Fascinating study merging Italian geography with German letters … Kolb’s book is a most valuable reading for scholars of German studies, comparatists, and those interested in geopoetics and its possible applications to the field of Comparative Literature.’

Forum Modern Language Studies — October 2014 - Nicoletta Asciuto

A book whose idiom beautifully and effectively intersects with the material, Nietzsche, Freud, Benn, and the Azure Spell of Liguria is exemplary in its demonstration that any true reading of a national literature is necessarily comparative. It is grounded in genuine learnedness and distinguished by a seasoned style in which an insistent and easy elegance is never the enemy of clarity. I relished reading this innovative and carefully executed study.

Kenneth S. Calhoon

‘This book is exemplary for its meticulous scholarship, comparative scope, and rigorous geopoetic analysis while remaining accessible to wide readership. Highly recommended for those interested in German and comparative literary studies.’

University of Toronto Quarterly vol 84:03:2015 - Tove Holmes

Nietzsche, Freund, Benn, and the Azure Spell of Liguria is an erudite and scintillating study by a masterful comparatist. Its scope is extensive; its scholarship fastidious; and its parallels between disciplines drawn consistently and skilfully. A serious contribution to state-of-the-art research, this study fits right in with a form of literary analysis that promises to become even more prominent.

Guy Stern

Martina Kolb’s book is erudite and wide-ranging, but it is above all a virtuosa performance because it manages to describe the issues involved in the field of geopoetics while at the same time avoiding the heaviness of self-conscious theoretical expositions. Liguria, a concrete geo-historical region, is at the same time, as Kolb shows, a lyrical complex of images.

Paolo Valesio

‘Highly recommended.’

Choice Magazine - vol 51:05:14 - H.I. Einsohn

‘A very thought-provoking book for anyone in the fields of comparative literature and cultural studies, as well as scholars of linguistics and the history of languages… Expertly competent and meticulously researched.’

Kulturpoetik: Journal for Cultural Poetics, vol 15:01:2015 - Joachim Gerdes