Hölderlin after the Catastrophe: Heidegger — Adorno — Brecht by Robert Savage (review)

Abstract

9i8 Reviews subjectivity) stretch over fiftyyears. The pace at which Parkes proceeds, linking literary textsdirectly to political moments, may occasionally make his analysis feel a little superficial. All in all, however, this book ishighly readable and informative and is a welcome update of the author's previous monograph. University of Leeds Stuart Taberner Holderlin after theCatastrophe: Heidegger ? Adorno ? Brecht. By Robert Savage. (Studies inGerman Literature, Linguistics and Culture) Rochester, NY: Cam den House. 2008. xvi+234pp. ?40; $75. ISBN 978-1-57113-320-5. This study focuses on the reception ofHolderlin as an ideal example of post-war German poetry problems, since Holderlin had to such an extent been incorporated in the officialNazi ideology. The introduction provides thenecessary background forunderstanding the com plexity of the role Holderlin was to play inGermany after 1945. His first modern editor,Norbert von Hellingrath, had furnished an influential interpretation of the poet as the incarnation of purity?an apolitical myth eagerly taken up by the Stefan George circle. The distortion of thismyth by theHolderlin Society (founded by Goebbels in 1943) in order to use Holderlin as the pure German to justify the idea ofmartyrdom for the fatherland, togetherwith Heidegger's views on the poet, are themost widely treated aspects of the topic and themost convincing ones. The author demonstrates how completely this view changed after World War II, when the distortions of theNazi period were swept away by specialist analysis, which at the same time reinstated themystical approach or disguised the political implica tions of the question. Poets such as Eich and Celan, however, used Holderlin as a stickwith which to beat the smug self-satisfaction of the recovering nation. The chapter on Heidegger presents thephilosophers idea of a non-racial German nationalism as a continuing struggle since itquestions national identity altogether, an idea learnt from Holderlin, whom Heidegger considers the most German of all Germans'. The author shows how Heidegger maintained this view until 1947, classing the Third Reich and the World War as aspects of Western nihilism, and be lieving thatGermans could now, after 1945, as poets and thinkers teach theworld poetical thinking'. Heidegger's 'de-worlded' position takes the form of a conver sation with Holderlin, outside time. The profound transformation' ofHeidegger's Holderlin reception after thewar, however, could have been more sharply defined. The following chapter shows how Adorno organized his reception ofHolderlin around the concept of polemic?less polemic as poetical principle of the poet him self, rather polemic between Adorno and Heidegger. As a result Holderlin fades into the background in the confrontation between the two thinkers,who, as the author elaborates, saymuch the same thing about the poet, but from contrasting positions. The thesis is that they communicate on thepolemic, and thus on Holder lin,precisely by refusing to communicate. The author's sympathies seem to liemore with Brecht, in spite of themeagre references the dramatist makes toHolderlin. Brecht, afterhis return from exile in MLR, 105.3, 2010 919 1947, staged Antigone in Chur, using an adaptation of theHolderlin translation of the play. Brecht's de- and recontextualization of this text is shown to constitute a third paradigm, citation, along with Heidegger's conversation and Adorno's po lemic.These three are presented as exemplary responses to theGerman catastrophe in such a way as tomake a new beginning, employing the figure ofHolderlin. In spite of the play's lack of success the author judges the Brechtian approach to be more flexible and sensitive to the historical moment, as well as more durable and more enduring than the others' attempts to rescue the poet. The epilogue depicts the changes in the reception initiated by the '68 move ment and Pierre Bertaux's stressing of the revolutionary element inHolderlin, a tendency carried forward byMartin Walser and PeterWeiss. The book ends with Rainald Goetz's 1983 presentation of the poet as a pop star and the postmodern arbitrariness after such contrasting employments. According to the author the in terpretation ofHolderlin has become an academic question, though as a classic he retains the potential to inspire a new revolt. The only problem with this fascinating study is itschoice ofmaterial: Holderlin's role is sidelined inBrecht and lacks profile inAdorno, who in...