The Logic of Decomposition: German Poetry in the 1960s

Abstract

Beyond stylistic differences and even differences of schools, German poetry since war has been unified by a common attitude. As was remarked by Hugo Friedrich in his work, Structure of Modern Poetry, the recognition of this stylistic unity may even be only possible approach to poems which deliberately eschew normal understanding.' This new poetic sensitivity corresponds to a structural constraint which can be found much in Paul Celan in experimental poetry of Helmut Heissenbiittel or Franz Mon; thus various schools represent simple variations of intensity in their shared critical attitude towards language. Poetry seems to have taken Adorno literally when he said that Auschwitz tolled knell of innocent poetry, or even of all poetry. The post-war period is not peace2; National Socialism started an era of mistrust within poetic language itself, and crisis is now inside poetic structures. Beyond trauma of fascism, which triggered this crisis, there is a growing ideological discomfort which determines relationships of poetry to dominant mode of production, and this discomfort is projected into language, which is medium of poem, through an increasing distrust of linguistic material. Adorno's Esthetic Theory confirms for 1960s observation Horkheimer made in 1940s: there are not only links between art and society; henceforth, there is a Kulturindustrie which is rationalized just like every other social production.3 Consequently, art is faced with choice of reflecting in a seemingly innocent fashion established order of taking seriously possibilities for resistance that it represents for that individual, for whom lyrical ego of poem is speaking. But then it becomes impossible to speak as before. Poetic activity must be born anew from crisis and, though it follows from it, it must aspire to actively work