Arno Schmidt, Leviathan [Leviathan]

Timm Menke (Portland State University)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1949

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

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On accepting the Frankfurt Goethe Prize of 1973, Arno Schmidt lamented that German Fascism and the Second World War had encumbered an entire generation of German writers with the specter of “too late”. In particular, he saw himself as having been cheated out of many years of literary productivity. Indeed, Schmidt was already 35 years old before

Leviathan

[

Leviathan

], his first publication, a volume containing the stories

Leviathan or The Best of Worlds

Enthymesis

, and

Gadir

, appeared in 1949. Written during October 1946, the title story

Leviathan

comprises a mere 21 pages in the

Bargfeld Edition

of the collected works of Arno Schmidt. Yet

Leviathan

in its brevity is nonetheless a fully weighted indictment of the destruction of German culture and civilisation through Hitler’s war,…

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1426 words

Citation: Menke, Timm. "Leviathan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 September 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28119, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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Arno Schmidt, Leviathan [Leviathan]

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