Between Sarmatia and Socialism

The Life and Works of Johannes Bobrowski
Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-90-420-0756-7
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 139, 269 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 499 g

Reihe: Amsterdamer Publikationen zur Sprache und Literatur

Interest in Johannes Bobrowski (1917-1965) has suffered from an impression of the complexity of his works and of the narrowness of his focus: on 'The Germans and their Eastern European neighbours'. The current study re-examines aspects of Bobrowski's 'Sarmatian' works, especially their chronological development, but places them within the wider context of the whole of his oeuvre. It looks at the long period of development before he discovered his 'theme' in the early 1950s and examines his development after Sarmatische Zeit and Schattenland Ströme, seeing the volume Wetterzeichen as moving increasingly away from the past and towards more contemporary issues. His short stories and novels are related to the issues confronting him in East Germany and develop increasingly into responses to immediate poetic and social problems.
Far from being a remote and backward orientated 'Sarmatian', Bobrowski emerges as a writer attempting to communicate with a society which, he felt, threatened to ignore basic human needs and aspirations. The study makes use of material from Bobrowski's Nachlaß to present a figure looking for and offering patterns for orientation in his East German society, but with renewed relevance for post-unification Germany.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wieczorek, John P.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface. 1. Biography. 2. The Path to Sarmatia. 3. Sarmatia. 4.Orientations: Hamann, Klopstock, Celan. 5. Beyond Sarmatia: Wetterzeichen. 6. The Turn to Prose: The Short Stories. 7. Levins Mühle. 8. Litauische Claviere. 9. Conclusion. Select Bibliography. Index.