Time in Volker Braun's Poetry

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In this Subject: History ,&nbsp; Literature ,&nbsp; Political Science
By this author: Ruth J. Owen

Author: Ruth J. Owen

Source: German Monitor, Volker Braun in Perspective. Edited by Rolf Jucker , pp. 197-208(12)

Publisher: Rodopi

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Abstract:

In Braun's pre-unification collections, the present predominates grammatically and structurally and it is exalted metaphorically as a peak of restlessness, culinary adventure, or sublime revelation. Drawing together chronologically disparate poems to conceive of them as parts in a long-term Auseinandersetzung with the nature of time, this essay examines how Braun variously inscribes the temporal moment. Readings of five poems spanning the period between 1964 and 1996 - 'Könnt ich die Augenblicke leben', 'Die Austern', 'Der Mittag', 'Das Nachleben' and 'Der Reißwolf' - reveal contrasting constructions of the bodily experience of time in terms of presence and absence. They also posit relationships between time and the work of art which indicate a radical poetological shift after Germany's unification of 1990.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2003-12-01