"Homer des Nordens" und "Mutter der Romantik" / Kommentierte Neuausgabe deutscher Übersetzungen der Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1766), der Poems of Ossian (1782) sowie der Vorreden und Abhandlungen ...

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, James Macpherson's Ossian was regarded as one of the most important works of world literature. The Celtic bard was elevated to the status of "Homer of the North" (Madame de Staël), and his poetry to the "Mother of Romanticism" (Uhland, Jean-Paul). At the same time, he presents the prototype of the sentimental poet by looking back to the past with "sweet sorrow" and providing aesthetic compensation for the distance from the ideal. The present study undertakes the first comprehensive account of German "Ossianomania" and provides access to important textual material. The theoretical basis is provided by a post-structuralist take on models of receptive aesthetics and discourse analysis. Volume 1 deals with the Poems of Ossian, contemporary discourses and the early stages of the reception of Ossian's work. Volume 2 deals with the main and late stages of the reception. Volumes 3 and 4 present the German translations underlying the reception and the most important reader testimonies.

Autorentext
Wolf G. Schmidt, geb. 1973, Studium der Germanistik, Musikwissenschaft, Philosophie und Komparatistik an den Universitäten in Saarbrücken, Cambridge (GB) und Frankfurt a.M., seit 2004 wissenschaftlicher Assistent an der KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, seit 2008 Privatdozent für Neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft und Komparatistik, seit 2009 Mitglied der 'Jungen Akademie' der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.