Katrin Kohl

Poetologische Metaphern : Formen und Funktionen in der deutschen Literatur

The study examines the significance of metaphors in the process of poetological communication between author and recipient. Using references to poetological debates in Classical Antiquity, the author follows the way in which authors writing in German from the Middle Ages up to the present have creatively adapted topical metaphors to lend effect to their projects.

A history of Austrian literature 1918-2000

20th-century Austrian literature boasts many outstanding writers: Schnitzler, Musil, Rilke, Kraus, Celan, Canetti, Bernhard, Jelinek. These and others feature in broader accounts of German literature, but it is desirable to see how the Austrian literary scene -- and Austrian society itself -- shaped their writing. This volume thus surveys Austrian writers of drama, prose fiction, and lyric poetry; relates them to the distinctive history of modern Austria, a democratic republic that was overtaken by civil war and authoritarian rule, absorbed into Nazi Germany, and re-established as a neutral state; and examines their response to controversial events such as the collusion with Nazism, the Waldheim affair, and the rise of Haider and the extreme right. In addition to confronting controversy in the relations between literature, history, and politics, the volume examines popular culture in line with current trends. Contributors: Judith Beniston, Janet Stewart, Andrew Barker, Murray Hall, Anthony Bushell, Dagmar Lorenz, Juliane Vogel, Jonathan Long, Joseph McVeigh, Allyson Fiddler. Katrin Kohl is Lecturer in German and a Fellow of Jesus College, and Ritchie Robertson is Taylor Professor of German and a Fellow of The Queens College, both at the University of Oxford.

Hero or Villain? The Response of German Authors to Frederick the Great

Abstract Frederick the Great played a complex role in the emergent ‘classical age’ of German literature. He commanded adulation for his heroic stature, and opprobrium as an absolutist conqueror. He supported the collective effort to put German culture on the European map by making Berlin a centre of cultural life, while undermining the cause of German language and literature by promoting all things French. This paper argues that his importance for the development of German literature lies in the tensions generated by these paradoxes, which drew their energizing force from humanist ideals shared by his contemporaries. While he failed to provide German writers with material, political, or verbal support, his high profile ensured that his provocative treatise on German literature of 1780 stimulated a productive discourse on the status and potential of German literature, thereby contributing to the emergent aesthetics.

H.G. Adlers Poetik der dichterischen Stimme

This article focuses on the role of voice in H.G. Adler’s poetics. An early theoretical essay indicates a concern with rhetorical concepts of oral delivery at a time when Adler was writing poetry as part of an active community of German speakers in Prague. Internment at Theresienstadt, for all its horror, still offered rich opportunities for reading poetry in a communal context. During the decades of exile in London, there is no longer a cohesive audience and the importance of rhetorical impact recedes in Adler’s poetics. However, voice continues to be central to his poetry as he explores it in metaphorical terms and develops a powerful poetic medium that will bear witness beyond the limitations of time and place. (KK; in German)

Cemetery of the Murdered Daughters: Feminism, History, and Ingeborg Bachmann (review)

und politische Brisanz, die durch das Produktivmachen der Prätexte in den Posttexten liegt, mache Kafkas Werke für den Leser gegenwärtig. Es muss hier ausdrücklich hervorgehoben werden, wie leserfreundlich dieses Buch gestaltet ist. Angefangen bei der Sprache, die bei aller Wissenschaftlichkeit leicht fasslich bleibt, über die Fußnoten (die einem das Blättern am Ende des Buches ersparen) bis hin zum systematisch geordneten Literaturverzeichnis und übersichtlichen Index zeigt der Band, dass die Autorin die Leser im Blick hatte. Mein Fazit: Ein gelungenes Buch, das der Forschung sowohl zur DDRLiteratur als auch zu KafkaRezeption Impulse verleihen dürfte.

Sabine Wilke, Ambiguous Embodiment. Construction and Destruction of Bodies in Modern German Literature and Culture. 2000

Nach seiner Dekonstruktion im Zuge des Poststrukturalismus ist der Körper in den neunziger Jahren besonders im angelsächsischen Raum zunehmend materiell in den Mittelpunkt des wissenschaftlichen Interesses gerückt, wenn auch unter Auflösung seiner traditionell durch sex und gender bestimmten biologischen und sozialen Konstanten. Ambiguous Embodiment ist ein spezifisch germanistischer Beitrag zu Body Studies als spannungsvollem Gebiet interdisziplinärer Grenzüberschreitung. Unter Einbeziehung historischer, soziologischer und psychologischer Forschungsansätze verortet Sabine Wilke Konstruktion und Destruktion des Körpers in der Alltagskultur, um einen breit angelegten Kontext für die Diskussion künstlerisch-literarischer Konstruktionen und De(kon)struktionen zu schaffen. Im Zentrum stehen einerseits Wedekind, Kafka und Pabst als Repräsentanten der Moderne sowie andererseits eine Reihe von Autoren mit Texten aus den letzten drei Jahrzehnten, vor allem Elfriede Jelinek, Verena Stefan, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller und Bodo Kirchhoff sowie die Filmemacherinnen Valie Export und Monika Treut. Im Kapitel „The Production of Negated Subjects as Erotic Bodies in Sadistic and Masochistic Scenes“ werden zudem de Sades Justine und von Sacher-Masochs Venus im Pelz untersucht, literarische Texte also, die in der Grundlegung der Psychoanalyse eine Schlüsselrolle spielen.