A Conception of Lyric Poetry and its Deconstruction — the Austrian Poet Josef Weinheber and his Reception in the Work of Marcel Beyer

Abstract

A Conception of Lyric Poetry and its Deconstruction ? theAustrian Poet Josef Weinheber and his Reception in the Work of Marcel Beyer KATRIN FOLDENAUER Bayerisch-Franz?sisches Hochschulzentrum, Munich I When Marcel Beyer's collection of poetry entitled Falsches Futter [WrongFeed] appeared in 1997 and was reviewed in the German-language press, very few critics noticed that a number of the poems drew on the life and work of the once celebrated Austrian poet Josef Weinheber.1 Regarded in the 1930s and 40s as practically the poet laureate ofHider's Greater German Empire, nowadays Weinheber barely impinges on public consciousness.2 Notwith standing this, Beyer gives his reader no additional assistance in identifying the intertextual references in his work. Without indicating his sources or making connections explicit, he embarks on a search for traces, working as a Nachgeborener, as a representative of the second post-war generation, with those vestiges of the poet's existence that are still accessible. In reading Beyer's poems one encounters facts and figures from Weinheber's bio graphy, descriptions of photographs and features characteristic of his lyrical uvre. What is one tomake of this form of reception? Does Beyer confine himself in Fabches Futter to playing with quotations that only a few poetry experts will be able to identify, or does he establish a more complex relation toWeinheber and to his conception of lyric poetry? 1 One of the few to realize this was Ernst Overkamp, 'Schneeman?ver. Marcel Beyers Deb?t als Lyriker', Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 October 1997. 2 As Albert Berger observes, Weinheber gradually fell into oblivion in the 1970s, one reason for this being his association with a lyrical paradigm in the classical-aesthetic tradition, one that was still prominent in the first half of the twentieth century but found no continuation after his death. See Albert Berger, 'Der tote Dichter und sein Professor. Weinheber und Nadler in der Diskussion nach 1945', inKonflikte ? Skandale ? Dichterfehden in der ?steneichischen Literatur, ed. by Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, Johann Sonnleitner and Klaus Zeyringer (Berlin, 1995), pp. 191-201 (p. 201). That this neglect may also be partly a consequence ofWeinheber's political involvement with the Nazi regime is suggested by Edwin Hartl, 'JosefWeinheber als homo politicus', in Geistiges t?en im Osteneich der Ersten Republik, ed. by Isabella Ackerl and Rudolf Neck (Munich, 1986), pp. 42-53. KATRIN FOLDENAUER 99 In order to answer these questions, this analysis will focus in the first instance on receptional predispositions with which contemporary readers approached Weinheber's texts. For, in contrast to Beyer's poetic work, that ofWeinheber was in his own day never regarded as inaccessible or her metic.3 The Viennese poet was seen as being genuinely popular (both in the v?lkisch sense and in terms of voicing sentiments with which many concurred) and, as the reception of his work demonstrates, as the creator of a timeless, dematerialized poetry endowed with visionary qualities.4 Examination of one ofWeinheber's most famous poems will reveal the possibilities for read ing and understanding that are written into it and the mode of reception thereby favoured. This approach, introduced intoWeinheber studies by Uwe-Karsten Ketelsen, concentrates on the text as an historical possibility 'sich aufgrund spezifischer allgemeiner Erfahrung literarisch zur Realit?t zu verhalten' [to respond to reality in a literarymanner on the basis of specific general experiences].5 The underlying conception of the text is provided by reception theory, which understands it as a network of appeal structures directed at the reader.6 A close reading of two poems from Beyer's Falsches Futter will then shed light on the nature of their intertextual relation toWeinheber, and the resulting model of reception will be ascertained. By illuminating possible approaches to Beyer's work, a contribution will be made to our understanding of how two conceptions of lyric poetry are interwoven. II 'Hymnus auf die deutsche Sprache' O wie raunt, lebt, atmet in deinem Laut der tiefeGott, dein Herr; unsre Seel, 3 See the contributions toJosef Weinheber. Pers?nlichkeit und Schaffen, ed. by Adolf Luser (Vienna and Leipzig, 1935). For a detailed survey ofWeinheber reception since the 1930s, see Albert Berger, 'G?tter, D?monen und Irdisches. Josef...