Das Thema Grossstadt im Expressionismus. Untersucht an vier Gedichten

Student research project from the year 2008 in the subject area German Studies - Modern German Literature, grade: none, Technische Universität Berlin, language: German, abstract: The epoch of expressionism lasted roughly from 1910-1920/25. The term
Expressionism' comes from the Latin word expressio (expression) and means 'art of expression'.
'art of expression'. The poets of this period rebelled against the tradition of the 19th century.
Century, which had been criticised for a long time, but not yet in such a
sharpness. They criticised current contemporary developments such as industrialisation,
urbanisation, civilisation and the Wilhelmine bourgeoisie.
Expressionist topics were the big city, the end of the world, war and the decay of the ego.
the decay of the ego. In their texts, many poets provocatively turned against bourgeois
bourgeois standards of taste and an artistic concept of beauty that excluded certain areas.
excluded certain areas. Thus, they often took up ugly motifs, such as.
decay, death, madness, disease and decay, which is why one also speaks of the
of the ugly. Ugly elements were interwoven with beautiful ones
elements were interwoven, or traditional lyrical areas such as idyllic moon poetry were
ironised. Georg Heym, for example, has his war monster crush the moon in Der Krieg.
crush the moon in Der Krieg, while Georg Trakl's sun rolls darkly and menacingly across the sky in Grodek.
rolls across the sky. The poetic language was also shattered because it was no longer
as a means of expressing the new reality. It is a matter of
provocation, playfulness and a rebellion against the aesthetic values of the
bourgeoisie.
In the following, the topic of the big city in general will be examined more closely.
different forms of representation of the motif will play a role.
Then the topic will be examined on the basis of the poems Städter von Alfred Wolfenstein,
The God of the City by Georg Heym and Alfred Lichtenstein's texts The City and Point.
and Punkt, and to work out how the three authors dealt with the motif.
motifs.