The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume I: A Novel (Volume 1)

We yearn for the final two volumes of this great work. The translation is superb, but the problem is that without the further translations, tragically incomplete.

This is a staggering, amazing novel -- I scarcely know what to say beyond that -- but i was hoping someone could help me find out when further volumes are to be expected.

I think that to read only the first volume of this novel, as staggeringly impressive as it is, is to miss much of what this novel has to offer for political and social thought. This novel does not operate on the Hegelian principle of "the part contains the whole." Rather, there is a genuine learning process - an openness to futurity, one might say. Weiss designed a certain "lack" into the early parts of this novel that would only be answered by the full development. Thoughts change with events.People have asked when volume two will appear in English. Hopefully, around this time in 2013. You can message me if you have questions.Added after the initial posting: I'm reading the famous interview with Weiss from Die Zeit, in which he said that the reader is given the same difficulty that the author himself had in writing the book. I think this is an important clue to "understanding" The Aesthetics of Resistance. The interviewer asked about the difficulties of the introduction of unknown historical figures, artworks, unknown debates. But Weiss, far from being an elitist, is pointing out that it is the task of the reader, when confronted with the unknown, to come to try to understand it. And, unlike, say, Ulysses or the stories of Borges, the book offers everything you need to understand it, as long as you're careful and patient.

I agree with the first reviewer: this is one of the great books of the 20th century. Also an excellent translator. As for the question about the other volumes: this one only took 30 years to get translated! It's not likely to be a big hit in the English-speaking market; too Marxist, I suppose. Thanks to Duke Univ. Press for making this volume available. I have to think that if they're going to go ahead and call this volume 1, then vols. 2 & 3 must be forthcoming.

This is a powerful and moving novel of the Left fighting fascism from 1937 to the outbreak of war. This Volume I was published in German in 1975 and was only translated into English and published by Duke University Press in 2005. Volume II, from 1978, appeared in English in 2020, also on Duke. We await Volume III from 1981.This volume is in two parts, the first underground in Germany in 1937 under Hitler and the second part in Spain with the International Brigades fighting for the Republic against the fascist Franco. Weiss intertwines politics with art and advances an aesthetic theory to inform working class politics. There are periodic examinations of art works, including Picasso's "Guernica."The protagonist is a young man who is close to the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). His father remains closer to the SDP (Social Democratic Party of Germany) despite its leaders' betrayal of the revolution after the German defeat in WWI. The tragedy of the divided German working class is central to the novel, personified by the father and son. The father is a sympathetic character who consistently fights for class unity. The son gives us a sympathetic view of a communist militant and the underground resistance network against the Nazis as well as a growing awareness in Spain of the monstrous actions of Stalin.The form is unique, conveying thoughts without any dialogue. This is not a novel of action, but rather one that reveals the subjectivity of working class militants. I am more interested in the politics than the aesthetics.Unfortunately the fight against fascism has become urgent again today, both in the U.S. and around the world.