Research Catalog

Title

Perceptions of Germany in British travel literature / by Dimitrios Kassis.

Author

Kassis, Dimitrios

Publication

• Newcastle upon Tyne, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vi, 109 pages; 22 cm

Summary

As part of the "beaten track", Germany did not conform to the Grand Tourist ideals of eighteenth-century British travellers that were influenced by the spirit of the Enlightenment, and, therefore, sought to trace vestiges of the Greco-Roman cultural tradition in their ventures across the continent. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the German landscape becomes the central theme of British travel discourse, marking the gradual shift of focus from the "saturated" image of classical Greece to the rediscovery of the Old Germanic culture of the sagas. Driven by an antiquarian interest in the German context, British travellers discovered Germany in the wake of the nineteenth century, when the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire not only signalled French expansionism in Protestant Europe, but also stimulated the appetite of the Victorians for the exploration of the German culture in an attempt to define themselves as being of pure Teutonic stock. Given the strenuous struggle of German thinkers to deal with the feelings of humiliation and shame caused by the Napoleonic rule, and, in view of a potential Gallicisation, nineteenth-century Germans mastered the fields of comparative philology and Northern antiquarianism to transform their political weakness into a new cultural paradigm that not only fostered pan-Germanism through the rediscovery of the folk tales and legends of their medieval tradition, but also ascribed to Germany a superior spiritual role, which was later incorporated into the racial discourses of Germany and Britain. This book is concerned with the views of British travel writers, focusing on travel narratives produced from 1794 until 1845. As such, it sheds light on instances which pertain to the representation of Germanness in relation to the British national context.--Back cover.

Subjects

• Travelers' writings, English
• British
• Germany
• Travelers' writings, English > Germany > History and criticism > 19th century
• British > Germany > History > 19th century
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• History
• Germany > Description and travel > 19th century
• 1800-1899
• Travel

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-109).

Contents

Robert Gray : letters during a course of a tour through germany -- Ann Radcliffe : journey made in the summer of 1794 -- Sir John Carr : a tour through Holland along the left and right banks of the Rhine -- Thomas Raffles : letters during a tour through some parts of France, Savoy, Switzerland and Germany and the netherlands in the year 1817 -- richard boyle Bernard : a tour through some parts of france, switzerland, savoy, germany and belgium during the summer and autumn of 1814 -- John Thomas James : journal of a tour in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Poland in 1813-14 -- John Russel : a tour in Germany and some of the northern provinces of the Austrian kingdom in 1820, 1821,1822 -- Seth William Stevenson : a tour in France, Savoy, northern Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands in the summer of 1825 -- William Howitt : the rural and domestic life of Germany : with characteristic sketches of its cities and scenery -- James William Massie : recollections of a tour. a summer rumble in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

Call Number

JFE 20-2699

ISBN

• 9781527542341
• 1527542343

OCLC

1126002474

Author

Kassis, Dimitrios, author.

Title

Perceptions of Germany in British travel literature / by Dimitrios Kassis.

Publisher

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-109).

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Research Call Number

JFE 20-2699