Robert Walser: a Companion

The Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956) is now recognized as one of the most important European authors of the modernist period, having garnered high praise from such prominent voices as Susan Sontag, W. G. Sebald, and J. M. Coetzee. Robert Walser: A Companion is the first comprehensive guide to Walser's work in English. The twelve essays in this collection examine Walser's literary output,historical milieu, and idiosyncratic writing process, addressing aspects of his biography; discussing the various genres in which he wrote (the novel, short prose, drama, lyric poetry, and letters); and analyzing his best-known novels and short stories alongside lesser-known but no less fascinating poems, plays,and prose pieces.

An essential addition to the scholarship about this eccentric, prolific, and influential writer's work, Robert Walser: A Companion will be of interest both to established scholars and to those coming to Walser for the first time.

Contents:

Introduction. Robert Walser: Modernist at the Margins
Samuel Frederick and Valerie Heffernan

The Young Poet (1896-1899)
Susan Bernofsky

To Pieces: Robert Walser's Correspondence with Frieda Mermet
Elke Siegel

Robert Walser as Lyric Poet
Samuel Frederick

Antechambers of Life: School and Living-On in Fritz Kocher's Essays
Anette Schwarz

Robert Walser's Jewish Berlin
Daniel Medin

Out of a Job: Giving Notice in The Tanners and The Assistant
Paul Buchholz

Robert Walser's Jakob von Gunten: A "Zero" Point of German Literature
Peter Utz

Robert Walser's Sceneries: "Kleist in Thun" and "The Walk"
Bernhard F. Malkmus

Immersion, Interpolation, Philology: Losing Oneself in Robert Walser
Jörg Kreienbrock

Parodies of Power: Robert Walser's Dramatic Scenes
Valerie Heffernan

Robert Walser and Violence: Strange Excursions into the Microscripts
Kai Evers

Robert Walser's The Robber: An Exercise in Camp
Anne Fuchs