As a first compilation of its kind on jazz in Germanlanguage
literature, the present volume contains 16
articles that broaden the current discussion about
jazz in German, Austrian, and Swiss literature. Scholars
from diverse backgrounds trace the influence of
North American jazz on Western and Central Europe
through readings of novels, novellas, poems, radio
plays, and essays about jazz, written or published in
German from the mid-1920s through the twenty-first
century. At the core of modernity and urban sociohistorical
culture, jazz maintains its relevance for
German-speaking cultures as a vehicle for addressing
issues of social class, gender, race and ethnicity, as
well as regional, national, and transnational identity.