The De Gruyter Companions to Contemporary German Culture offer lively, comprehensive accounts of contemporary German culture written by experts and designed for student readers and those who teach them. The series brings new German writing, cinema and thought to the attention of an English-speaking academic readership, providing cutting-edge research by leading scholars in a thought-provoking but accessible format. It aims to introduce major authors, thinkers, filmmakers, literary topics, genres and landmark individual works, both in monographs and closely-defined edited collections. The focus will be on the period since 1989 but the series also reaches back into the vital hinterland of the 1970s onwards. In doing this, it aims to respond to vital questions in contemporary German studies, broadly defined, but also to shape the future direction of the subject, providing an impetus for research as well as guiding university teachers in the structuring of curricula. Companions aim to mediate between the latest trends in the German academic and cultural scene and a broadly-based English-language readership: providing invaluable, up-to-date resources for academics and students, and for the interested general reader. While edited volumes introduce single important cultural figures, general themes, genres or landmark individual works, monographs address topics of broad academic appeal in a cogent and lively way. Contributors from around the English-speaking world reflect global developments in the study of contemporary German culture and make the volumes indispensible wherever German is studied at a higher level.
All volumes are peer reviewed by an international editorial team consisting of Michael Eskin (New York), Karen Leeder (Oxford) and Christopher Young (Cambridge), as well as by further experts. Each year 2-4 volumes are published.