Emprise of Poetry
Authors: Eskin Michael 
Published: November 2024

The Emprise of Poetryanalyzesthe insidious entwinement of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in modern and contemporary German culture through the writings of one of its most acclaimed literary figures: Dresden native Durs Grünbein (1962-).

Michael Eskin offers an unprecedented view of the American-cum-Jewish discontents at the heart of modern and present-day German culture through the exemplary lens of the work of Durs Grünbein, the most widely translated and globally honored living German poet, and the only one to have been hailed as the Berlin Republic’s “most qualified contemporary candidate for the office of German national poet.”

Yet as Eskin outlines, Grünbein’s work contains a paradoxical and tension-filled twofold self-construction: as an idiosyncratically ‘American’ poet and Ezra Pound’s vociferously philosemitic heir, who merely happens to be writing in German, as it were, conjoined with an avidly anti-AmericanGermanpoet who writes emphatically, and not always savorily,as a Germanand a self-proclaimed heir to the legacies of Celan and Kafka – most notably, on matters American and Jewish. Against the foil of these tensions, Eskin traces and documents postwar German high culture’s persisting inability to purge itself of ideological toxins that leach into the mainstream from centuries-old prejudices and antagonisms revolving around Germany’s love-hate bond with America as well as its ostensibly enduring suspicion and antipathy toward Jews.

Eskin’s deep dive into the ‘American’ Grünbein’s apparent philosemitism coupled with theGermanGrünbein’s antisemitically-inflected anti-Americanism reveals the fault lines underlying the complex and contradictory legacies and contexts of postwar German culture.

Short:

The Emprise of Poetry:Durs Grünbein, America, Antisemitism, and the Pursuit of Liberty

This book offers an unprecedented view of the American-cum-Jewish discontents at the heart of contemporary German culture through the exemplary lens of the work of Durs Grünbein, the Berlin Republic’s presumed “national poet.” More specifically, I approach this dynamic through Grünbein’s tension-filled twofold self-construction as an idiosyncratically and avidly American poet who merely happens to be writing in German, conjoined with his avidly anti-American German poet twin who writes emphatically, and not always savorily, as a German – most notably, on matters American and Jewish.

Long:

The Emprise of Poetry:Durs Grünbein, America, Antisemitism, and the Pursuit of Liberty

A work of literary and cultural criticism, this book aims to enhance our understanding of present-day Germany’s culture through the prism of one of its most acclaimed figures: Dresden native Durs Grünbein (1962-) – the most widely translated and globally honored contemporary German poet, and the only one to have been hailed as the Berlin Republic’s “national poet.” I trace and document, through the exemplary conduit of Grünbein’s œuvre, German high culture’s (not to mention its ‘popular’ and fringe avatars’) persisting inability to purge itself of ideological toxins that leach into the mainstream from centuries-old prejudices and antagonisms revolving around Germany’s love-hate bond with America as well as its ostensibly enduring suspicion and antipathy toward Jews. More specifically, I disclose Germany’s American-cum-Jewish discontents by way of Grünbein’s tension-filled twofold self-construction as an idiosyncratically American poet ‘calamitously’ indebted to Ezra Pound, who merely happens to be writing in German, conjoined with his avidly anti-American German poet twin who writes emphatically, and not always savorily, as a German and self-proclaimed ‘heir’ to the legacies of Paul Celan and Franz Kafka – most notably, on matters American and Jewish.