Bridges to the New World: Mediation and reception of contemporary American poetry in postwar Germany

This dissertation investigates the mediation and reception of American poetry by West German writers and readers since 1945. The first of two theses asserts that the German reading public came to appreciate "established" modern American poets very slowly, in part because of the interrupted literary development caused by the Nazi regime and the war, and in part because of a retarded poetic development during the Post-War era. The second and main thesis asserts that a productive reception of contemporary American poetry did not emerge until the end of the 1960s, which then effected a sudden and visible influence on the writings of some German poets. Though there had been constant attempts at mediation since the early 1950s, it took over 20 years for German audiences to develop the need for such innovation.; Since the dissertation describes a historical phenomenon, the reception process is laid out chronologically, applying Iser and Jau{dollar}beta{dollar}'s reader-response-theory as a methodological basis. The most successful mediation was conducted by German poet-critics, Rainer Maria Gerhardt, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Walter Hollerer and Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, who used either literary journals or, more frequently, anthologies as transmitters of the new American writings. Mediation appeared to be successful if the mediator's intention was geared towards a revival of German poetic forms. Poets such as William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, the beat-generation (Ginsberg, Corso, Ferlinghetti) and especially the New York Poets (Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan) received increased attention, though some of them belated.; The dissertation includes interviews as a supplementary source of evidence, attached in the appendix. Conducted by the author, these interviews are with H. M. Enzensberger, Peter Hamm and Michael Kruger, who between them represent the perspectives and insights of poets, critics, editors, and publishers. The dissertation is situated in the field of Comparative Literature and also partakes in cultural studies showing that American poetry ultimately had a significant and continuing impact on the German poetic canon.