Addressing a set of historical and theoretical questions central to reevaluations of modernism, this volume presents American readers with an account of German modernism studies in the eighties. It examines texts by well-known authors - Kafka, Rilke, Musil, Doblin, Benjamin, Benn, and Junger.

The authors believe that their revisions of Ausrian and German modernism will themselves be informed by a new set of questions pertinent to the modernist debate.