A History of Histories of German Literature, 1835–1914 by Michael S. Batts (review)

HUMANITIES 327 Mais c'est Ie propre de cet ouvrage de risquer Ie surplus plutot que la carence. La deuxieme partie, portant sur 962 «[t]extes consacres a Edouard Glissant», Ie confirme. Avec Ie meme souci de quasi-exhausitivite , Baudot y denombre et annote articles, theses, ouvrages critiques, numeros speciaux de revues, chapitres de livres, actes de colloques et meme la majeure partie de la «masse des recensions» qu'a suscitee l'reuvre de Glissant. II apparait ainsi que Glissant a eu tres tot des lecteurs venus du monde entier, que tres ont eu des doutes sur la valeur de cette oeuvre en continuelle expansion et qu'elle s'est elaboree au coeur meme de la modernite litteraire. Baudot souligne par ailleurs que malgre cette production critique egalement considerable, «des pans entiers de l'reuvre de Glissant [...] demeurent comme ensevelis ». Cette partie du volume a donc Ie merite de signaler aussi quelques pistes de recherches et non seulement les voies deja largement frequentees par la critique. On Ie voit, il s'agit d'une bibliographie annotee a la fois exemplaire dans son genre et fascinante par son contenu. Toute une vie d'activite litteraire y est inscrite et refractee par des centaines de voix parlant des lieux les plus divers. En ne voulant que Ie consulter, on est vite entraine a lire Ie volume et a y redecouvrir Glissant, son reuvre, son temps et ses lecteurs. Et l'on ne peut que s'incliner bien bas devant ce travail impressionnant accompli par Baudot et son equipe... en attendant la suite. (CHRISTIANE NDIAYE) Michael S. Batts. A History of Histories of German Literature, 1835-1914 McGill-Queen's University Press 1993. xii, 301. $ 55.00 cloth Ideally, before tackling the present volume, scholars should read an earlier study by the same author, A History of Histories of German Literature. Prolegomena (New York: Peter Lang 1987), which takes us in a broad sweep from the Middle Ages to the early 1830s - that is, to the beginnings of what may be considered as modern German literary histories. It is significant that Batts ends his Prolegomena and begins his second volume with a discussion of the early work of Georg Gottfried Gervinus (1805-71), an historian, the first volume of whose extraordinarily influential Geschichte der poetischen Literatur der Deutschen appeared in 1835, a date which, it is generally agreed, marks the approximate point, as Batts writes, when UlGermanistik" had "arrived.'" Before I turn to the meat of Batts's book, it seems appropriate to note the clearly stated principles he quite rigorously applied when writing his History. They may be summarized in point form as follows: 1. Batts defines a history of German literature as 'a work that presents in a systematic and chronological fashion the entire record of German creative literature from the earliest times to the present.' 2. Thus, partial histories 328 LETTERS IN CANADA 1994 are not discussed, since completeness of coverage is Batts's 'primary defining quality.' Had he discussed partial histories (say of nineteenthcentury or early mediaeval literature), he would not have been able either to define (for his purposes) 'partial' or 'to cope with the vast amount of works under this rubric.' 3. A literary historian 'is expected also to be a literary critic and to evaluate the aesthetic and similar qualities of the works that form part of the historical record.' For this reason, tabular compilations of authors, works, and dates, and so on, providing they are complete, are considered by Batts, because such tables 'reflect the critical decision of the compiler to include this work and exclude that one, in other words, to exercise critical judgement.' 4. Batts stresses that his work is 'descriptive rather than critical [...], the 'great' works of literary history receive no special attention. [His] interest is in all literary histories that have been put before the public, no matter how broad or narrow that public might be.' 5. Batts's intention is not to judge the qualities of the histories discussed (for example, as regards accuracy or errors or the appropriateness of opinions expressed about individual writers or works); Batts also assumes that the reader of his book 'will be familiar with...