Meanings of Modern Work in Nineteenth- and Twenty-First-Century German Literature and Film

About this book

"At a time when the humanities face a profound crisis of relevance, this volume gathers a series of interdisciplinary essays that exemplify the pertinence of German Studies scholarship to urgent problems related to work in contemporary life. Focusing on two historical paradigm shifts, the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century and the technological revolution of the late twentieth and twenty-first, the editors and contributors present insightful literary, cinematic, and philosophical examinations that highlight fulcrum moments in the history of labor and political economy. By illuminating the past through the analyses of cultural artifacts, they probe possibilities for confronting current fluctuations in work environments and transformations of our economic way of life." - Richard T. Gray, Lockwood Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, University of Washington The essays in this volume explore how the humanities can contribute to an understanding of a fundamental aspect of human life: work. This volume explores how German literature has grappled with understanding work in times of disruptive change brought about by industrialization, rapid technological advances, and globalization. It adds a cross-disciplinary perspective by including contributions from the field of film studies, on the cinematic treatment of work, and from philosophy, on the normative questions posed by changing work environments"--