Stefan Zweig and World Literature: Twenty-First-Century Perspectives: 158 (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) - Hardcover

This volume is an important contribution to Stefan Zweig scholarship, attempting to account for the author's persistent worldwide signifcance. [The editors] bring together a collection of essays that expose the narrowness of the trenchant critiques of what Michael Hofmann in the London Review of Books of 28 January 2010 called this "purveyor of Trivialliteratur," and they rightly expand the context of Zweig's reception beyond Europe. With the ambitious objective of "focusing on the totality of Zweig's literary output" (p. 4), the book covers most of the phases and genres of Zweig's life and work . . . . The best essays in this collection plainly concede many of the flaws and problems associated with Stefan Zweig's life and work, while understanding that the context for these criticisms has shifted, substantially nullifying their potency as critical shibboleths in the twenty-first century and showing very clearly why Zweig demands to be re-evaluated in the light of the contemporary re-evaluations of modernism, authorship, and literary value. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW

This volume of essays provides strong arguments for the legitimacy of Zweig studies . . . . JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN STUDIES [Ruth V. Gross]

The twenty-first century has seen a renewed surge of cultural and critical interest in the works of the Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), who was among the most-read and -acclaimed authors worldwide in the 1920s and 1930s but after 1945 fell into critical disfavor and relative obscurity. The resurgence in interest in Zweig and his works is attested to by, among other things, new English translations and editions of his works; a Brazilian motion picture and a best-selling French novel about his final days; and a renewed debate surrounding the literary quality of his work in the London Review of Books. This global return to Zweig calls for a critical reassessment of his legacy and works, which the current collection of essays provides by approaching them from a global perspective as opposed to the narrow European focus through which they have been traditionally approached. Together, the introduction and twelve essays engage the totality of Zweig's published and unpublished works from his drama and his fiction to his letters and his biographies, and from his literary and art criticism to his autobiography.

Contributors: Richard V. Benson, Jeffrey B. Berlin, Darién J. Davis, Marlen Eckl, Mark H. Gelber, Robert Kelz, Klemens Renoldner, Birger Vanwesenbeeck, John Warren, Klaus Weissenberger, Robert Weldon Whalen, Geoffrey Winthrop-Young.

Birger Vanwesenbeeck is Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York at Fredonia. Mark H. Gelber is Senior Professor of Comparative Literature and German-Jewish Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.