Description: In Private Anarchy, Paul Buchholz critically examines the writings of five German and Central European writers, including Franz Kafka. He demonstrates how, contrary to dominant social theories of alienation and isolation, contemporary readers still have the potential to build community through their shared experience of isolation and through monologue.
Review Quotes: "Through insightful analysis, Buchholz deepens our understanding of modernist and contemporary literature by focusing on monologues that both disrupt the framing assumptions of their audiences and gesture towards a new kind of community. Combining formal and historical approaches, this book broadly illuminates the power of literary innovation to reorient discussions of the social imaginary." --Jeffrey Champlin, author of The Making of a Terrorist: On Classic German Rogues