New release: Genealogical Fictions. By Jobst Welge
2. February 2015
Cultural Periphery and Historical Change in the Modern Novel
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 2014
Taking its cue from recent theories of literary geography and fiction, Genealogical Fictions argues that narratives of familial decline shape the history of the modern novel, as well as the novel’s relationship to history. Stories of families in crisis, Jobst Welge argues, reflect the experience of historical and social change in regions or nations perceived as “peripheral.” Though geographically and temporally diverse, the novels Welge considers all demonstrate a relation among family and national history, genealogical succession, and generational experience, along with social change and modernization.
Welge’s wide-ranging comparative study focuses on the novels of the late nineteenth century, but it also includes detailed analyses of the pre-Victorian origin of the genealogical-historical novel and the evolution of similar themes in twentieth-century literature. Moving through time, he uncovers often-unsuspected novelistic continuities and international transformations and echoes. (publisher)
PD Jobst Welge, PhD teaches Romance literature and cultural studies at the University of Konstanz. He is member of the executive team of the M.A. Program “Studies in European Culture.”