Examines the life & work of the playwright & novelist whose literary stature places him among Boll, Grass, & Frisch as one of the leaders of postwar German literature.

A major literary event, the publication of the second volume of Peter Weiss's three-volume novel The Aesthetics of Resistance makes one of the towering works of twentieth-century German literature available to English-speaking readers for the first time. The crowning achievement of Peter Weiss, the internationally renowned writer best known for his play Marat/Sade, The Aesthetics of Resistance spans the period from the late 1930s to World War II, dramatizing antifascist resistance and the rise and fall of proletarian political parties in Europe. Volume II, initially published in 1978, opens with the unnamed narrator in Paris after having retreated from the front lines of the Spanish Civil War. From there, he moves on to Stockholm, where he works in a factory, becomes involved with the Communist Party, and meets Bertolt Brecht. Featuring the narrator's extended meditations on paintings, sculpture, and literature, the novel teems with characters, almost all of whom are based on historical figures. Throughout, the narrator explores 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 Aesthetics of Resistance is one of the truly great works of postwar German literature and an essential resource for understanding twentieth-century German history.

Discusses Weiss's plays, fiction, autobiography, and non-fiction prose. Pp. 22-25 illuminate "Die Ermittlung", an oratorio based on Weiss's 1964 attendance at the Frankfurt war crimes trial. He used actual documents both aesthetically and politically. 18 of the defendants appear with their real names, either defending themselves with the jargon of doing their duty or totally denying their guilt. Among the charges against these Nazis were conducting medical experiments, torture, and murder. Ch. 7 (pp. 107-129) elucidates Weiss's three-volume novel "Die Ästhetik des Widerstands", about resistance to Nazism in thought and action. The characters in the novel are based on members of the Rote Kapelle resistance group. Politics and creative thinking (art) are shown as complementary, not contradictory.

Matthew Miller’s The German Epic in the Cold War explores the literary evolution of the modern epic in postwar German literature. Examining works by Peter Weiss, Uwe Johnson, and Alexander Kluge, it illustrates imaginative artistic responses in German fiction to the physical and ideological division of post–World War II Germany. Miller analyzes three ambitious German-language epics from the second half of the twentieth century: Weiss’s Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance), Johnson’s Jahrestage (Anniversaries), and Kluge’s Chronik der Gefühle (Chronicle of Feelings). In them, he traces the epic’s unlikely reemergence after the catastrophes of World War II and the Shoah and its continuity across the historical watershed of 1989–91, defined by German unification and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Building on Franco Moretti’s codification of the literary form of the modern epic, Miller demonstrates the epic’s ability to understand the past; to come to terms with ethical, social, and political challenges in the second half of the twentieth century in German-speaking Europe and beyond; and to debate and envision possible futures.

DIVFirst-time publication in English, one of Peter Weiss' last works which takes a surreal look at the fortunes of "Josef K," attorney, whose law firm appears to be sincere and appealing to the public while masking a dark, fascistic impulse to ach/div

A Study Guide for Peter Weiss's "Marat / Sade," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.