Space, Place and Poetry in English and German, 19601975 [Hardcover]

Space, Place and Poetry in English and German, 1960-1975 examines the work of Paul Celan, J. H. Prynne, Derek Mahon, Sarah Kirsch, Edwin Morgan and Ernst Jandl, bringing together postwar English- and German-language poetry and criticism on the theme of space, place and landscape. Nicola Thomas highlights hitherto underexplored connections between a wide range of poets working across the two language areas, demonstrating that space and place are vital critical categories for understanding poetry of this period. Thomass analysis reveals weaknesses in existing critical taxonomies, arguing for the use of late modernist as a category with cross-cultural relevance, and promotes methodological exchange between the Anglophone and German traditions of landscape, space and place oriented poetic criticism, to the benefit of both.

1. Introduction: the case for comparison.- 2. Language as landscape in J. H. Prynne and Paul Celan.- 3. Excavation, expansion and enclosure: Paul Celans Engf?hrung (1959) and J. H. Prynnes The Glacial Question, Unsolved (1969).- 4. Negotiating home in the work of Derek Mahon and Sarah Kirsch.- 5. Form and community: Derek Mahons Beyond Howth Head (1972) and Sarah Kirschs Wiepersdorf cycle (1973).- 6. Remapping space and place in Edwin Morgan and Ernst Jandl.- 7. Public space and power: Edwin Morgans The Starlings in George Square (1968) and Ernst Jandls wien: heldenplatz (1966).- 8. Conclusion: geometries and geographies of comparison.

Nicola Thomas is Stipendiary Lecturer in German at St Hildas College, University of Oxford, UK. Her research examines twentieth- and twenty-first-century poetry in English and German.

Space, Place and Poetry in English and German, 1960-1975 examines the work of PalCf