This collection of essays by prominent German and Scandinavian literary scholars contains articles on early modern German writing and on 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century German, Danish, Faeroese, Norwegian, and Swedish literature. The essays regard the literary work in its historical context, addressing such issues as the relationship of literature to contemporary intellectual and political life, the representation of women and the nature of the female literary voice, the construction of national canons, and the differences between literary and historical writing.