Book section : Chapter
Durs Grünbein’s elegy for Dresden
- Abstract:
- This chapter examines German poet Durs Grünbein’s book-length poem for Dresden Porzellan. Poem vom Untergang meiner Stadt (2005), published as Porcelain Poem on the Downfall of My City, translated by Karen Leeder (2020). This controversial text is an elegy for the poet’s hometown destroyed in the Allied firebombing of 1945. Written by someone who, by dint of his date of birth, was not witness to the events, the poem splices together many voices and perspectives, asking who is permitted to mourn and how, and also (explicitly) challenging conventional modes of elegy. The poem was heavily criticised on its publication, but historical distance and the translation into English also allow a renewed examination of some of its radical aesthetic strategies. It also raises questions of how mourning is inflected in poetry, how we address an ambiguous past and what forms are appropriate or even possible for recording trauma.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 138.8KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1163/9789004723603_009
Authors
Contributors
+ Bardazzi, A
- Institution:
- University of Oxford
- Division:
- HUMS
- Department:
- Medieval & Modern Languages Faculty
- Sub department:
- Italian
- Role:
- Editor
+ Binetti, R
- Role:
- Editor
- ORCID:
- 0000-0003-0116-1941
+ Culler, J
- Role:
- Editor
- Publisher:
- Brill
- Host title:
- The Contemporary Elegy in World Literature
- Pages:
- 133–152
- Chapter number:
- 7
- Series:
- DQR Studies in the Lyric
- Series number:
- 1
- Place of publication:
- Leiden / Boston
- Publication date:
- 2025-01-20
- Edition:
- 1
- DOI:
- ISSN:
-
0921-2507
- EISBN:
- 9789004723603
- ISBN-10:
- 9004716424
- ISBN-13:
- 9789004716421
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
-
2063724
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2063724
- Deposit date:
-
2024-11-20
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Koninklijke Brill BV
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © 2025 by Koninklijke Brill BV. All rights reserved.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the chapter. The final version is available online from Brill at https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004723603_009
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