Jenseits der Literatur

In his four lectures, given as the Lord Weidenfeld Lectures in Oxford in 2019, the poet Durs Grünbein tackles a subject that has preoccupied him since that moment when he began to perceive his own position in the history of his nation, his linguistic community and his family as historical: How can it be that THE HISTORY, a fetish of the humanities since Hegel and Marx, determines the individual imagination right into private niches, right into the playfulness of poetry? Doesn't poetry instead want to look at the world with its own, sovereign eyes? In the form of a collage or "photosynthesis", in text and image, Grünbein exemplifies the fundamental contrast between poetic freedom and an almost overpowering historical bondage: from the apparent trifle of a postage stamp with Adolf Hitler's portrait, he moves via the phenomenon of the "roads of the Führer", i.e. the autobahns, into the hell of the air war. At the end, however, there is a first experience of powerlessness in writing and the realization that grows out of it and is still valid today: "There is something beyond literature that calls all writing into question. And there is the literature that thwarts history in fictions." The prestigious Lord Weidenfeld Lectures have been one of the highlights of Oxford University's academic year since 1993. Eminent humanities scholars, writers and poets are invited to attend. Previous holders of the professorship include George Steiner, Umberto Eco, Amos Oz and Mario Vargas Llosa.