Article
Welcome to German poetry - July 2005
January 18, 2006
The poetry scene in Germany, and Berlin in particular, is up and coming at the moment. Once the mid-1990s hype about the “literature of the new generation” had faded a bit, the critics realized that some of the most qualified texts and the most promising new voices were coming from the usually neglected field of poetry. So now it’s time to use new media, to put poetry right on the screen of people who maybe would not go to a bookstore to look for a book of poetry themselves.
Because, after all, if there is something like a global language of poetry, it is based on regional differences and has to be presented in all its variety. In addition, no tradition of poetry can or seeks to dispose of its past. So poetry is a precise instrument for recognizing the inner relations and movements within particular languages, countries, and societies. At the same time, showing these within its structure, poetry is an international ‘pioneer language’, as Gerhard Falkner put it.
Although there are contemporary poems that seem to require a sort of theoretical scaffolding, there is no conclusive theory to replace what every poem has to prove for itself: that it is a successful expression of a unique experience, a striking new way of looking at the world and at language.
In addition to contemporary poetry, you can also find addresses and links to institutions, publishers, and magazines that are important in the field of German poetry. And until there is a PIW editor responsible for poetry from Austria and Switzerland, we will also include information relevant to these countries.
So have fun letting these poems change your view of the world! Let them invite you into their language games. Find out what our contemporary poetry is about, how it reflects Germany today, and how it reflects you, the reader!
After having presented some of the youngest poets in contemporary German poetry, Anja Utler, Nico Bleutge, Monika Rinck and Marcel Beyer, our new edition is dedicated to the late Thomas Kling. Here you will find, for the first time collected, a large number of his poems translated into English.
Kling, unquestionably one of the most important German-language poets of the current generation, died on April 1, 2005. At age 47, he was already more influential and formative in terms of style than almost any other poet of his generation. As a poet, he was one of the richest in his breadth of material and one of the most powerful in his use of language; on top of that, he was also one of the most controversial essayists in the German literary world of the last fifteen years. The poetry scene in Germany, and Berlin in particular, is up and coming at the moment. Once the mid-1990s hype about the “literature of the new generation” had faded a bit, the critics realized that some of the most qualified texts and the most promising new voices were coming from the usually neglected field of poetry. So now it’s time to use new media, to put poetry right on the screen of people who maybe would not go to a bookstore to look for a book of poetry themselves.
Because, after all, if there is something like a global language of poetry, it is based on regional differences and has to be presented in all its variety. In addition, no tradition of poetry can or seeks to dispose of its past. So poetry is a precise instrument for recognizing the inner relations and movements within particular languages, countries, and societies. At the same time, showing these within its structure, poetry is an international ‘pioneer language’, as Gerhard Falkner put it.
Although there are contemporary poems that seem to require a sort of theoretical scaffolding, there is no conclusive theory to replace what every poem has to prove for itself: that it is a successful expression of a unique experience, a striking new way of looking at the world and at language.
In addition to contemporary poetry, you can also find addresses and links to institutions, publishers, and magazines that are important in the field of German poetry. And until there is a PIW editor responsible for poetry from Austria and Switzerland, we will also include information relevant to these countries.
So have fun letting these poems change your view of the world! Let them invite you into their language games. Find out what our contemporary poetry is about, how it reflects Germany today, and how it reflects you, the reader!
© Heiko Strunk and Alexander Gumz
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère