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For the Dying Calves
Beyond Literature: Oxford Lectures
Series: The German List
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For the Dying Calves
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
Poetically written and originally given as lectures, this is a moving essay collection from Durs Grünbein.
In his four Lord Weidenfeld Lectures held in Oxford in 2019, German poet Durs Grünbein dealt with a topic that has occupied his mind ever since he began to perceive his own position within the past of his nation, his linguistic community, and his family: How is it possible that history can determine the individual poetic imagination and segregate it into private niches? Shouldn’t poetry look at the world with its own sovereign eyes instead?
In the form of a collage or “photosynthesis,” in image and text, Grünbein lets the fundamental opposition between poetic license and almost overwhelming bondage to history appear in an exemplary way. From the seeming trifle of a stamp with the portrait of Adolf Hitler, he moves through the phenomenon of the “Führer’s streets” and into the inferno of aerial warfare.
In the end, Grünbein argues that we are faced with the powerlessness of writing and the realization, valid to this day, that comes from confronting history. As he muses, “There is something beyond literature that questions all writing.”
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
For the Dying Calves by Durs Grünbein is seen as an insightful exploration of German national identity and psychology as it continues to grapple with its Nazi past. It combines the author's poetic insight with critical analyses drawn from sociology, philosophy, and contemporary writings to probe the complex subject of Germanness.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780857429544
Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 25 March 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Seagull Books London Ltd
Illustration: 30 halftones
Contributors:
- Translated by Karen Leeder
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 23.0mm
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 164
About the Author
Durs Grünbein was born in Dresden in 1962, and he now lives in Berlin and Rome. He is professor of poetics and aesthetics at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He has written more than twenty-five books, including, most recently, Porcelain, also published by Seagull Books. Karen Leeder is a writer, translator, and academic. She teaches German at New College, Oxford.
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