Books by William Grange

Audiences attended performances of comedies in numbers far surpassing those of any other form of theatre. Theatre was one of many German institutions experiencing profound change in the aftermath of World War I. Industrial comedy describes the most important and most predominant form of comedy on German stages from 1919 to 1933.

This second edition of Historical Dictionary of German Theater covers German theater's history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography.

A Primer in Theatre History covers productions, personalities, theories, innovations, and plays from ancient Greece to the Spanish Golden Age. Grange discusses theatre from 534 BC in Athens to 1681 AD in Madrid. The book contains highly informative chapters on theatre culture in the ancient classical world, the medieval period, the Italian Renaissance, classical Asia, German-speaking Europe, France to 1658, and England to 1642. Following a wide-ranging introduction, chapters allow the uninitiated reader straightforward access to well-researched material, often presented in a humorous and approachable fashion. Descriptions of films augment discussions of theatre, while an extended bibliography and comprehensive index assist the reader in making further inquiries. Each chapter features illustrations by Mallory Prucha, a designer and graphic illustrator who has received several awards at theatre conferences around the US. A Primer in Theatre History does not read like a scholarly tome. Its whimsical wrinkles offer readers a more contemporaneous view of theatre than is customary. It employs, for example, frequent references to movies germane to topics and time periods under discussion. Such use of film promotes familiarity among younger readers, who can then appropriate analogies to theatre performance.

The Cultural Chronicle of the Weimar Republic is an account of significant cultural events in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Weimar culture was responsible for producing such icons as actress Marlene Dietrich, novels like All Quiet on the Western Front, musicals like The Threepenny Opera, the political cabaret, the Bauhaus School, and films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. There were hundreds of premieres, performance debuts, exhibitions, works of fiction, and other cultural events that marked the Republic as Western Civilization's first modernist society. This book presents these and scores of other modernist inscriptions worthy of note, while providing notations that inform readers of connections among individuals, art works, related cultural activities, and significant political and economic developments.

The A to Z of Postwar German Literature is devoted to modern literature produced in the German language, whether from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or writers using German in other countries. This volume covers an extensive period of time, beginning in 1945 at what was called "zero hour" for German literature and proceeds into the 21st century, concluding in 2008. This is done through a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on writers, such as Nobel Prize-winners Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Elias Canetti, Elfriede Jelinek, and W. G. Sebald. There are also entries on individual works, genres, movements, literary styles, and forms.

The A to Z of German Theater covers the field of theater performance in the German language, concentrating on German-speaking Europe, through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and several hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant playwrights, directors, producers, designers, actors, plays, theaters, cities, dramatic genres, and movements such as the Sturm und Drang, Naturalism, and Expressionism.

Historical Dictionary of German Literature to 1945 covers a wide swath of literary analysis and achievement, from Old High German lays and ecclesiastical encomia to Middle High German epics, sagas, and love lyrics. While extensive in its chronological dimension, the Historical Dictionary of German Literature to 1945 is equally comprehensive in the geographical and genre areas it covers. The history of this period in German literature is told through a detailed chronology, an introductory essay, a comprehensive bibliography, and over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries on poetry, novels, historical narrative, philosophical musings, and drama. The exceptional writers who emerged and shaped German literature over the centuries_including Walther von der Vogelweide, Johann Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, and many others who are well known and admired worldwide_are also covered.

Some authors strongly criticized attempts to rebuild a German literary culture in the aftermath of World War II, while others actively committed themselves to 'dealing with the German past.' There are writers in Austria and Switzerland that find other contradictions of contemporary life troubling, while some find them funny or even worth celebrating. German postwar literature has, in the minds of some observers, developed a kind of split personality. In view of the traumatic monstrosities of the previous century that development may seem logical to some. The Historical Dictionary of Postwar German Literature is devoted to modern literature produced in the German language, whether from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or writers using German in other countries. This volume covers an extensive period of time, beginning in 1945 at what was called 'zero hour' for German literature and proceeds into the 21st century, concluding in 2008. This is done through a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on writers, such as Nobel Prize-winners Heinrich Bsll, GYnter Grass, Elias Canetti, Elfriede Jelinek, and W. G. Sebald. There are also entries on individual works, genres, movements, literary styles, and forms.