Focusing on the resurgence of the American historical novel, this book delves into how nineteenth-century historical events are reinterpreted in contemporary cultural works. It situates this revival within the context of recent theoretical developments in American Studies, highlighting the interplay between past narratives and modern perspectives. The exploration reveals the evolving nature of historical storytelling and its significance in understanding American identity.
This collection of essays comprises cultural analyses of practices of eremitism and reclusiveness in the USA, which are inseparably linked to the American ideals of individualism and freedom. Covering a time frame from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, the essays study cultural products such as novels, poems, plays, songs, paintings, television shows, films, and social media, which represent the costs and benefits of deliberate withdrawal and involuntary isolation from society. Thus, this book offers valuable contributions to contemporary cultural discourses on privacy, surveillance, new technology, pathology, anti-consumerism, simplification, and environmentalism. Solitaries can be read as trailblazers for an alternative future or as symptoms of a pathological society.
Eine Geschichte aus der Hansezeit, die rund um das historische Ereignis der Schließung des Peterhofes durch Iwan III. angesiedelt ist. Johan von Wittenborg, der Sohn des reichen Kaufmanns Tidemann von Wittenborg, wird in die russische Handelsniederlassung in Russland, den Peterhof, geschickt, um dort den Kaufmannsberuf zu erlernen. Neben neuen Freunden gewinnt er die Liebe einer russischen Magd, die er aber im Strudel der Ereignisse nach der Schließung des Peterhofes wieder verliert.