City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Holderlin after the catastrophe, Heidegger, Adorno, Brecht, Robert Savage

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-229) and index

index present

non fiction

Holderlin after the catastrophe

electronic resource /

bibliography

Robert Savage

Studies in German literature, linguistics and culture

Heidegger, Adorno, Brecht

Toward the end of WWII, the works of Holderlin were heavily exploited in Nazi propaganda as a source of spiritual strength for a war-weary German people. This study looks at how the great poet's legacy was reinterpreted after the war by three key thinkers - Heidegger, Adorno and Brecht., Toward the end of the Second World War, the works of the great German poet Friedrich Hlderlin were heavily exploited by Nazi propaganda as a source of spiritual strength for the war-weary German people. Once the fires had burned out, scholars attempted to absolve Hlderlin of any responsibility for his wartime (mis)appropriation. Only a few saw that his work would have to be reread in the light of the iniquities that had been said and done in his name. This book examines how Hlderlin was taken up by three such thinkers, among the most influential and controversial of their time: Martin Heidegger, Theodor W. Adorno, and Bertolt Brecht. It extrapolates from their writings on the poet three irreconcilable paradigms of reception -- conversation, polemic, and citation -- that are of significance for the broader project of working through the tarnished German cultural legacy after 1945. In each case, Hlderlin is examined as the occasion for salvaging that legacy after, from, and in view of the catastrophe. This first full-length study of Hlderlin's postwar reception will be of interest to students and scholars working in the fields of German literature, European philosophy, the politics of cultural memory, and critical theory. Robert Savage is ARC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia