The Poet’s Role: Lyric Responses to German Unification by Poets from the GDR
by Ruth J. Owen
Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur 147
(Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi, 2001), 366pp
The book is available from Rodopi or Amazon
Main chapters:
Outline:
This study of contemporary German poetry represents the first comprehensive examination of lyric responses to the unification period. It demonstrates, by means of close textual analysis, how the political Wende was also a literary turning-point, and it assesses diverse ways in which GDR poets wrote the revolutionary events of 1989 as well as their first lyric responses to newly united Germany. Two central chapters investigate the poetry of the Wende and unification as a corpus of work in which recurring themes, motifs and techniques point to poetry’s function as a witness to otherwise marginalized aspects of history. The volume sets post-1989 reassessments against the background of literary production and reception in the GDR (between 1949 and 1989) and argues that poetry from the Berlin Republic articulates a crisis in ex-GDR poets’ understanding of their role. After identifying broad trends across a wide range of individual poems, collections and anthologies, single chapters analyse in greater depth the post-Wende work of Volker Braun and Durs Grünbein as two contrasting types of lyric response to unification. A concluding chapter addresses the issue of a separate GDR literature in view of the perpetuation of GDR identity in poetry after 1990.
This book is on the reading list for the undergraduate course Ge13: Aspects of German-speaking Europe after 1945, at the University of Cambridge.
Reviewers’ comments:
“This wide-ranging study, the first of its kind, provides a detailed survey of that exceptional burgeoning of East German poetry which was occasioned by the ‘quiet revolution’ of 1989. […] All the necessary relevant background to an understanding of [the poets’] difficulties, as well as their earlier careers, is succinctly provided in Dr Owen’s information-rich opening chapter, while a further strength of this book is to record and explain another aspect of the complex background to this poetry – the many references to contemporary events, to the slogans, personalities and concepts, which are already becoming hard to understand. […] We find a very clear overall structure, meticulous attention to detail (the footnotes are a mine of information, and the well-organized bibliography is outstanding), thorough investigation of every issue, balanced judgement, clear lines of argument, careful analysis of every quotation, and no short cuts in argument or explanation. […] There is nothing of importance she has missed. […] Owen has performed an outstanding service in tracing the manner in which these figures recorded the deep social, psychological and emotional issues raised by events, and although more specific analyses of individual poets will certainly follow, it seems unlikely her general analysis can be superseded.”
Peter Hutchinson (University of Cambridge), Journal of European Studies, 33 (July 2003), 83-85
“It is important that Rodopi have now published Owen’s extremely detailed and meticulously-researched thesis. Owen analyses a vast selection of poetry written between 1989 and 1996 by ex-GDR poets, and also extends her review backwards to 1945 and forwards to the present day where necessary. […] Chapters 5 and 6 review the work of two of the most important poets of the period, Volker Braun and Durs Grünbein. Representing different generations of GDR writers, and their different trends within contemporary poetry, these chapters offer Owen the chance to develop in more detail the arguments of previous poetry chapters. […] I especially appreciated the enquiries into the ways in which certain motifs, such as the window (Chapter 2) or slogans from the demonstrations of 1989 (Chapter 3), are used by different poets at different times.”
Beth Linklater (University of Swansea), Modern Language Review, 98 (January 2003), 248-249
This study represents an important attempt to establish a longer-term critical perspective on the heated debates about poetry and politics that broke out after the Wende. [...] The study's strength lies in its appreciation of poetry as a genre with a history, rather than simply a medium for ideas.
Forum for Modern Language Studies, 39 (2003), 347
Poets whose work is considered in the book:
Anderson, Sascha
Bartsch, Wilhelm
Becher, Johannes R.
Biermann, Wolf
Böhme, Thomas
Braun, Volker
Brecht, Bertolt
Brinkmann, Hans
Cibulka, Hanns
Czechowski, Heinz
Döring, Stefan
Drawert, Kurt
Faktor, Jan
Fühmann, Franz
Gerlach, Harald
Grosz, Christiane
Grünbein, Durs
Grüning, Uwe
Hensel, Kerstin
Hilbig, Wolfgang
Holst, Matthias
Jansen, Johannes
Jentzsch, Bernd
Kachold, Gabriele
Kahlau, Heinz
Kirchner, Annerose
Kirsch, Rainer
Kirsch, Sarah
Köhler, Barbara
Kolbe, Uwe
Kunert, Günter
Kunze, Reiner
Mensching, Steffen
Mickel, Karl
Müller, Heiner
Papenfuß, Bert
Pech, Kristian
Pietraß, Richard
Rathenow, Lutz
Rennert, Jürgen
Richter, Armin
Rosenlöcher, Thomas
Schacht, Ulrich
Schedlinski, Rainer
Schmidt, Kathrin
Stephan, Peter M.
Teschke, Holger
Tietze, Oliver
Tragelehn, B. K.
Wenzel, Hans-Eckardt
Werner, Walter
Wolf, Christa
Wüstefeld, Michael
