Karl Krolow and the Poetics of Amnesia in Postwar Germany (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) [Hardcover]

Neil H. Donahue (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2002 | Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture

Karl Krolow (1915-1999) was one of the most prominent German poets of the second half of the twentieth century. The sharply distinct phases of Krolow's work reflect the phases of German postwar poetry in general, giving his work a representative stature for the period; and his production as one of Germany's leading poetry critics is almost as impressive. Yet his poetry, despite its prominence, its stylistic facility, and his prolific output, has surprisingly not received sustained critical attention. This study locates for the first time the hidden thread that runs through Krolow's work: his uneasy relationship to the recent German past. During the entire period of Germany's gradual and often painful "coming to terms" with the Nazi regime, the war, and the Holocaust, Krolow engaged his technical virtuosity as a poet in a stunning avoidance of historical content, both Germany's and his own. He never addressed publicly his own activities in the Third Reich and during the war: this study fills in that gap and examines for the first time, with new historical research and documentation, his life during the Nazi period and his literary production before 1945, a body of work that has never before received any critical evaluation or even acknowledgment. With this new foundation, Neil Donahue presents Krolow's career from a wholly new perspective and provides a new foundation for future consideration of his work and of postwar German poetry in general. In so doing, Donahue presents in sum, but overturns, decades of Krolow criticism which, begun on a false footing, missed the real historical depth in his poems: the depth of avoidance.Neil H. Donahue is professor of German and Comparative Literature at Hofstra University.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Donahue provides important biographical information for the period up to Krolow's "de-Nazification." His interpretations of the early works is convincing. LITERATURKRITIK.DE Donahue not only constructs a solid basis for understanding (Krolow's) poetry and poetics, but also affords fascinating insights into one variation on the literature of inner emigration. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEWBR> The great strength of Donahue's work is its careful attention to poetic language, its wealth of close readings, and absence of tendentious jargon. This will certainly be one of the definitive works on its particular subject. GERMAN QUARTERLY Using numerous, in part newly discovered documents Donahue shows lucidly to what extent "amnesia" can be considered a poetological principle with Krolow. He traces through exact, exemplary analyses of his poetry the manifold ways in which the historic trauma of National Socialism was repressed.... ARBITRIUM Donahue's study is convincing not only because of its well-thought-through thesis but also by virtue of the extraordinary precision with which he has compiled his findings. MONATSHEFTE

About the Author

NEIL H. DONAHUE is associate professor of German and Comparative Literature at Hofstra University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Camden House (October 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571132511
• ISBN-13: 978-1571132512
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,549,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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