Heinrich Heine Summary

The German author Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is best known for his lyric poems, a number of which are considered among the best in German literature. His essays on German literary, political, and phil... Read more

In the following excerpt, Prawer discusses Heine's life, especially his relationship with Eduard Gans, focusing on his changing attitudes toward Judaism. Heine's work is full of verba... Read more

In the following essay, first presented at a symposium in 1988, Berman compares the poetry and political agendas of Heine and the American poet Walt Whitman. It was a tricky situation in which Thom... Read more

In the following essay, Rose examines Heine's use of pagan and Christian imagery in Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen—a poetic satire of volatile German politics in the 1840s. It ... Read more

In the following essay, Sammons studies the link between Heine's illness and his literary creativity. The medical report on nineteenth-century German literature is quite varied and therefore... Read more

In the following excerpt, Perraudin discusses imagery, theme, and style in two chronologically distinct poems of Buch der Lieder. Two of the most complex, important and, given their importance, als... Read more

In the following excerpt, Cook evaluates Heine's portrayal of sexual desire in his poem "Citronia." Of all of Heine's posthumously published poems perhaps none has such ... Read more

In the following essay, Holub examines Heine's conversion to Protestantism as it relates to his Confessions. Heine's Confessions [Geständnisse], one of the last works he publis... Read more

In the following essay, Pizer discusses Heine's application of Goethe's theory of a “world literature.” Transnational trends in the marketing, reception, and even writin... Read more

In the following essay, Pfau poses questions about Heine in relation to contemporary critics' definitions of Romanticism. A persistent question about Romanticism centers on the continuity or... Read more

In the following essay, Holub discusses Heine's denunciation of the slave trade in his poem “Das Sklavenschiff.” On 3 August 1492 Christopher Columbus, born Cristoforo Colombo,... Read more

In the following essay, Pettey discusses Heine's poem “Vitzliputzli” in relation to colonialism, suggesting that the poem displays Heine's “contempt” for colo... Read more

In the following essay, Cook discusses allusions to Goethe and Novalis in Heine's “Citronia,” and explores the poem's oblique use of metaphor. “citronia” D... Read more

In the following essay, Berman discusses how Heine's innovative “Night Thoughts” pushes the reader to abandon antiquated notions of self and society in favor of “a focus on... Read more