Heads or Tails: The Poetics of Money

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The invention of paper money serves as one of the primal scenes of German literature. German literature becomes the outlet for testing the links and limits of money. Literature, like money, occupies an ambiguous relationship between plenitude and inflation, resource and lack thereof. First published in Germany as Kopf oder Zahl in 1996 and now superbly translated into English by Amy Horning Marschall, Heads or Tails studies the status of money in modern German literature.Jochen Horisch uses examples from Goethe's dramas, Gotthelf's novels, Holderlin's poetry, and many other major literary works to demonstrate the intersecting world of literature and financial commerce. Horisch examines the role of money in German literature and posits that money, like literature, is superfluous and without intrinsic value but that at the same time it is an absolute necessity, much unlike literature -- an ultimate heads or tails dilemma.Heads or Tails is an original and exciting book that is full of witty prose and insightful observation about culture. The book will appeal to anyone seeking knowledge of the history of money and its role in literature. Students and scholars of cultural studies, German, and comparative literature will delight in this remarkable work from one of Germany's prominent literary critics.