Andrew Brandel

My book examines how the identification of German culture with the literary today continues to play a crucial role in the negotiation of the past, the experience of the present, and the articulation of a hope for the future. Through my fieldwork in Berlin, I track how the literary offers resources for imagining ordinary life anew, but also how those efforts can stumble or fail. Each chapter explores a different figuration of literary thought, as expressed in the lives and work of readers and writers, poets and booksellers, exiles and translators.