R|ckkehr / Retornos : Der Erste Weltkrieg im deutsch-spanischen Kontext

the long version

The volume is made up of a series of articles, which look at how the First World War was perceived and represented from aesthetic-literary, sociocultural and political aspects. Together with an updated reading of icons of anti-war pacifist speeches (Remarque, Renn, Glaeser, etc.) and key figures of Modernism (Döblin, Hofmansthal, Tucholsky, S. Zweig, Horváth or Jünger), the volume also agrees with some of the female voices, who responded to their war experiences, through literary creation (A. Thomas, E. Ury), or through journalism, as is the case of Sofía Casanova. A number of articles give special attention to the impact the Great War had on the so-called neutral countries, such as Spain and Switzerland, and to the indirect construction, through opinions on the "outside" content, of their own political speeches. A different approach is seen in the articles, which analyze the effect the conflict had on the biographies of key figures in European culture (e.g. Lou-Andreas von Salomé, A. Schnitzler) and on interpersonal relationships, based on intellectual affinity, friendship (K. Vossler and B. Croce) or, without excluding the former, based on their translation (S. Zweig and A. Cahn). A separate block is made up of articles, focusing on the ambivalent "war aesthetic" of the early Avant-guard movement and those proposed theories, trying to distance themselves from expressionism (C. Einstein) or going for a material aesthetic (S. Kracauer) capable of imagining the catastrophe, which had occurred. Last but not least, there are the articles that analyze how the Great War is represented in modern novels (A. Capus, C. W. Bauer) or even in video games.