Simplify, simplify! Brevity, Plainness and Their Complications in American Literature and Culture : Festschrift for Bernd Engler on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday / Michael Butter, Joerg O. Fichte, Monika Fludernik, Astrid Franke, Norbert P. Franz, Ingrid Hotz-Davies, Joachim Knape, Günter Leypoldt, Kurt Müller, Christoph Reinfandt, Gerhard Stilz, Horst Tonn, Isabell Klaiber, Oliver Scheiding, Jan Stievermann

• MitwirkendeR: Butter, Michael; Fichte, Joerg O.; Fludernik, Monika; Franke, Astrid; Franz, Norbert P.; Hotz-Davies, Ingrid; Knape, Joachim; Leypoldt, Günter; Müller, Kurt; Reinfandt, Christoph; Stilz, Gerhard; Tonn, Horst
• HerausgeberIn: Klaiber, Isabell; Scheiding, Oliver; Stievermann, Jan
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Beiträge zur englischen und amerikanischen Literatur; volume37.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

This volume explores the varieties of the short form in American literature, art, and culture as well as different ideas and aesthetics of simplicity, plainness, and brevity from the 19th century to the present. The contributors discuss how these ideas were translated into widely diverging practices, serving an equally broad spectrum of cultural and political functions. The essays survey a range of media and genres, including short fiction, plays, popular rhetoric, songs, photography, film, and Twitter.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright page -- List of Illustrations by Gerhard Stilz -- “This Is Just to Say” / Oliver Scheiding and Jan Stievermann -- The Aesthetics and Politics of Reduction in American Literature and Culture -- Begrenzte Handlungsräume und ihre narrative Überschreitung / Kurt Müller -- Textures of Uncertainty / Ingrid Hotz-Davies -- Minimalism’s Vanishing Subjects / Günter Leypoldt -- Singing Plainly / Christoph Reinfandt -- The Simple Life / Monika Fludernik -- American Short Writings -- Joking Her Way into Suffrage / Isabell Klaiber -- Elements of the Fantastic in the Short Fiction of Charles W. Chesnutt / Jan Stievermann -- El Teatro Campesino / Horst Tonn -- Story Power / Oliver Scheiding -- Brevity and Plainness in Modern American Visual Art and Media -- “‘Tis the Gift to be Simple” / Astrid Franke -- What “A Split Cherry Tree” Can Bring Together / Norbert P. Franz -- From Malory to Hollywood / Joerg O. Fichte -- Simplicity and Popular Rhetoric -- Popularrhetorik / Joachim Knape -- Professional Amateur / Michael Butter -- Back Matter -- List of Contributors.