Resisting Pluralization and Globalization in German Culture, 1490–1540

Peter Hess

Published by De Gruyter 2020

Resisting Pluralization and Globalization in German Culture, 1490–1540

Visions of a Nation in Decline

Peter Hess

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674927

Overview
Contents

About this book

A critical reading of both literary and non-literary German texts published between 1490 and 1540 exposes a populist backlash against perceived social and political disruptions, the dramatic expansion of spatial and epistemological horizons, and the growth of global trade networks. These texts opposed the twin phenomena of pluralization and secularization, which promoted a Humanist tolerance for ambiguity, boosted globalization and spatial expansion around 1500, and promoted new ways of imagining the world. Part I considers threats to the political order and the protestations against them, above all a vigorous defense of the common good. Part II traces the intellectual and epistemological upheaval triggered by the spatial discoveries and the new methods of visual and verbal representation of space. Part III examines the nationalistic backlash triggered by the rising global trade and related abusive trading practices and by perceived undue foreign influences. It is the basic premise of this book that the texts examined here protested the observed disruptions of the status quo and sought to reestablish a stable imperial order in the face of political and social upheaval and of the felt cultural decline of the German nation.

Author information

Peter Hess, University of Texas, Austin, USA.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: A World in Decline: Anxieties about Social and Political Order
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
Chapter 1. Order and Discipline: Visions and Anxieties Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Chapter 2. Gute Policey: Saving or Disrupting the Order? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
Chapter 3. Defending Order and Discipline in Dyl Ulenspiegel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
Chapter 4. A Dystopian Topsy-Turvy World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Chapter 5. Innovation and Progress as Agents of Decline Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter 6. History as Decline and Brant’s Vision of the End of History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
Chapter 7. The Communal Order and the Problem of Self-Interest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Chapter 8. The Decline of the Community: Common Good and Self-Interest as Literary Metaphors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Part II: Staying Home: Resistance to Expanding Spatial Horizons
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Chapter 9. Spatial Expansion and Its Narratives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Chapter 10. From Chronicle to Cosmography (and Chorography): The Rise of Synchronic Narratives of the World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Chapter 11. Ptolemy’s Grid and the New Cosmography in Germany: Waldseemüller and His Legacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Chapter 12. Emancipation from Ancient Concepts of Space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
Chapter 13. Spatial Discoveries: Anxieties and Rejection in Brant’s Writings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Chapter 14. Spatial Anxieties in Literary Texts of the Early Sixteenth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Chapter 15. America and the Epistemological Crisis of Space: An Afterthought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Part III: Globalization and the Nationalistic Backlash in Germany
Chapter 16. Theory of Early Modern Globalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Chapter 17. The Emerging Global Trade from a German Perspective Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Chapter 18. The Backlash Against the New Economy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
Chapter 19. Macro-Economic Critique of the Emerging Global Trade Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Chapter 20. Nationalistic and Xenophobic Responses to Foreign Influences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Chapter 21. The Global Spice Trade: Breaching Traditional Values and Violating the Divine Order Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	308
Chapter 22. The Backlash Against Globalization: The Rhetoric of Moral Decline and the Nostalgia Project Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	328
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of literature and cultural studies, historians
Pages
- Front matter: 9
- Main content: 389
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 11
Keywords: Globalization; pluralization; nationalism

eBook

Published: October 26, 2020
ISBN: 9783110674927

Hardcover

Published: October 26, 2020
ISBN: 9783110674620