Gottfried Benn's static poetry aesthetic and intellectual-historical interpretations
This book consists of close readings of four poems illustrating Gottfried Benn's developing conception of stillness or stasis: "Trunkene Flut" (1927), "Wer allein ist—" (1936), "Statische Gedichte" (1944), and "Reisen" (1950). Mark Roche pays particular a...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina Press
1991, 1991
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| Series: | University of North Carolina studies in the Germanic languages and literatures
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| Collection: | JSTOR Open Access Books - Collection details see MPG.ReNa |
| Summary: | This book consists of close readings of four poems illustrating Gottfried Benn's developing conception of stillness or stasis: "Trunkene Flut" (1927), "Wer allein ist—" (1936), "Statische Gedichte" (1944), and "Reisen" (1950). Mark Roche pays particular attention to the interrelation of form and content, and he uncovers previously overlooked allusions to thinkers such as Aristotle, Seneca, and Meister Eckhart. Benn's supposedly pure poetry of stasis is in reality an expression of opposition to nazi ideology, Roche argues, and should be viewed in the context of inner emigration. Nevertheless, Benn's opposition to nazism unwittingly rests on the same decisionistic foundation as the power positivism he deplores. Benn's well-intentioned critique of nazism is ultimately unsuccessful. The book concludes with a theoretical postscript that suggest ways in which intellectual history could be made productive for literary interpretation and provides arguments in favor of an "aesthetic" analysis attentive to both formal structures and philosophical coherence |
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| Item Description: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002 |
| Physical Description: | xi, 121 pages |
| ISBN: | 9781469656786 9780807881125 0807881120 1469656787 |