Kultur 3

This is the second chapter so far to include readings on German pessimism.  I'm sure there must be some sort of truth behind the stereotype, but I find it really hard to believe that an entire nation could think this way. True, Germany does not have such a sunny history, especially in the last 100 years, but what country does? At the same time Germany is also a very progressive nation.  They are among the leading world economies, and also lead in technological innovation and engineering.  Additionally, germans enjoy a very high standard of living and access to a lot of social programs that people in other countries could only dream of.  I find it really hard to believe that such a progressive a nation that has been so quick to rebuild itself and re-join the ranks of the world's leading nations after the devastation of World War II could be filled with people who constantly say "things can only get worse;" germans must have been looking toward the future in an opportunistic manner. Do germans see themselves as pessimistic, or rather as realistic? And as far as the comment about depressing German opera goes, the germans are NOT alone!
This article made me think about a novel that I recently read in my Italian class: I Malavoglia by Giuseppe Verga.  Italy is traditionally thought of as a land of "go with the flow" care-free optimists, yet I Malavoglia, which was written in the years following Italian unification in 1861and launched an entire literary/artistic movement (Verismo) that spread all over Europe states exactly the opposite! EVERYTHING goes wrong in I Malavoglia and the in-brief take home message is "don't try to advance yourself and participate in progress because you will just end up worse than you started." Italy has also faced a dark period under fascism, Italian opera, art, and fables are filled with depression; and the works of Cesare Pavese, the icon of late-20th century literature who eventually killed himself, are filled with existential crises!  Finally, many modern-day Americans, who supposedly live in a country where the streets are made of gold and anything is possible, feel very pessimistic about their country's situation and policies on foreign and domestic issues.  It just seems hard to believe that Germans could really have such a characteristically strong inclination toward pessimism.