Swiss-German Literature, 1945-2000

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Romey Sabalius (San Jose State University)
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For a nation with only seven million inhabitants, the literature of Switzerland is astonishingly complex. First, it should be noted that the small country actually possesses four literatures, respective to each of their language regions (German, French, Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansh). The literatures produced in the different linguistic regions have as little in common with each other as do German, French, and Italian literatures. Generally, the focal point for Swiss authors is the culture of the respective larger neighboring country. In the case of eastern Switzerland, where Rhaeto-Romansh is spoken by less than 100.000 people, authors publish primarily in German to reach a larger audience (Iso Camartin [1944-], Reto Hänny [1947-], …

3973 words

Citation: Sabalius, Romey. "Swiss-German Literature, 1945-2000". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1486, accessed 29 March 2024.]

1486 Swiss-German Literature, 1945-2000 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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