Examines, then employs the metaphor of cultural impact in an effort to understand how culture works in the German-speaking world.

Examines, then employs the metaphor of cultural impact in an effort to understand how culture works in the German-speaking world.

How to gauge the impact of cultural products is an old question, but bureaucratic agendas such as the one recently implemented in the UK to measure the impact of university research (including in German Studies) are new. Impact isseen as confirming a cultural product's value for society -- not least in the eyes of cultural funders. Yet its use as an evaluative category has been widely criticized by academics. Rather than rejecting the concept of impact, however, this volume employs it as a metaphor to reflect on issues of transmission, reception, and influence that have always underlain cultural production but have escaped systematic conceptualization. It seeks to understand how culture works in the German-speaking world: how writers and artists express themselves, how readers and audiences engage with the resulting products, and how academics are drawn to analyze this dynamic process. Formulating such questions afresh in the context of German Studies, the volume examines both contemporary cultural discourse and the way it evolves more generally. It links such topics as authorial intention, readerly reception, intertextuality, andmodes of perception to less commonly studied phenomena, such as the institutional practices of funding bodies, that underpin cultural discourse.

Contributors: David Barnett, Laura Bradley, Rebecca Braun, Sarah Colvin, Anne Fuchs, Katrin Kohl, Karen Leeder, Jürgen Luh, Jenny McKay, Ben Morgan, Gunther Nickel, Chloe Paver, Joanne Sayner, Matthew Philpotts, Jane Wilkinson.

Rebecca Braun is Lecturer in German Studies at the University ofLancaster and Lyn Marven is Lecturer in German at the University of Liverpool.

Introduction: Cultural Impact in Theory and Practice - Rebecca Braun
The Metaphor of Cultural Impact and the Cultural Impact of Metaphor - Katrin Kohl
The Bombing of Dresden and the Idea of Cultural Impact - Anne Fuchs
Understanding the Cultural Impact of Popular Film - Ben Morgan
Cultural Impact and the Power of Myth in Popular Public Constructions of Authorship - Rebecca Braun
Cultural Impact as Symbolic Capital: The Case of the Elite Intellectual Field - Matthew Philpotts
Frederick 300 in 2012: A Case Study of Institutional Management of Heritage in Germany - Jürgen Luh
"Art needs Bread": Supporting Literature in Germany - Gunther Nickel
"I've been told . . . that the play is far too German": The Interplay of Institution and Dramaturgy in Shaping British Reactions to German Theater - David Barnett
You Shall Know Them by Their Objects: Material Culture and Its Impact in Museum Displays about National Socialism - Chloe Paver
Discrepant Narratives: The Impact of Trans-Border Theater Festivals on Communities at the German-Polish Border - Jane Wilkinson
The Impact of an Unperson? Peter-Paul Zahl, Peter-Jurgen Boock,and the Cultural Impact of Prison Writing - Sarah Colvin
The Organic Intellectual: The Public and Political Impact of Greta Kuckhoff, 1945-1949 - Joanne Sayner
The Politics of Cultural Impact: Michael Kohlhaas in East Berlin - Laura Bradley
Ingeborg Bachmann as Poet and Myth: A Case Study in Cultural Impact - Karen Leeder
Sponsoring Authorial Impact: The Case of Ingo Schulze - Jenny McKay