Comprising the Era of Enlightenment and Sensibility, this volume serves as a major new reference work providing a fresh look at major literary figures, works, and cultural developments from around 1700 up to the literature of the late Enlightenment (Spätaufklärung) in up-to-date scholarly essays. These trace literary developments in eighteenth-century German-speaking countries from occasional and learned literature under the influence of French Neoclassicism to the establishment of a new German drama, religious epic, and secular poetry, and the sentimentalist novel of self-ashioning. The volume gives due attention to the newly recognized, stimulating works of women, and contains a chapter on music and literature, chapters on literary developments in Switzerland and in Austria, and concludes with a chapter on changing philosophical attitudes toward the Enlightenment up to the present. The recent re-evaluation of cultural and social phenomena affecting literary works informs the presentations in the individual chapters and allows for the inclusion of hitherto neglected but important texts not considered in older literary histories, works such as essays, travelogues, philosophical texts, and letters.

Thanks are due to the distinguished contributors to this volume who brought their expertise in the diverse aspects of eighteenth-century studies to their chapters and situated them within the framework of the overall design of the Camden House History of German Literature. I owe a sincere debt to the editor of the Camden House History of German Literature, James Hardin, for his indispensable advice and assistance in the preparation of this volume and to Camden House editor Jim Walker for his technical advice. For their thoughtful suggestions, I am indebted to the participants of the Roundtable “Writing a Literary History of the Enlightenment in Germany for an English-Speaking Audience” at the XI. Congress on the Enlightenment held at the University of California, Los Angeles in August 2003. The essays in this volume benefited from colleagues’ responses to earlier drafts.

Ohio State University provided research support over many years, in particular by granting a sabbatical leave for work on this volume. My special thanks go to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, whose Research Award has made possible numerous research trips to Germany and other locations in Europe during the past decade to conduct my research into early modern and eighteenth-century German literature and culture.