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200 Fot1ls on Germ:m SculHes Book Reviews WOLPGANG BACI-I.LER. WO die iYlelk fl scbl'ift endet~ Denklingen: Babel,2oo0. 64 pp. EUR 17.00. The byline of the ti tle for this collection o f poetry by the youngest found ing member of Gruppe 47 states: «Ausgewahhe Gedidltc aus runf Jall1:zehnten" which aptly describes the contents of this slim volume. The autho r, Wolfgang Bachler, was born o n March 22, 1925 in Augsburg. Af ter his rerum nom the Second World War, in which he suffered severe wounds. he studied German language and lirerature, Romance languages and literatures, art history and theatre studies tul ti! 1948. He has even appeared in some of the fi lms by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker ScWo ndorff and Werner Hcaog. H e is one of the most well known and respected German au Li lors o f the post-war and modern age, in spite o f the fa ct that towMds lhe end of the 19605, his rebellious narure led him to live in France fo r over a decade. H e now lives and works in Munidl. T he work of Wolgang Bachler has generally been characterized as a combination of traditional narure poetry with surrealist overto nes. It is exactl y tills opposition of what is fami liar and eKpccted With lhe element of alienation, which describes (he fascination and alluring quality of his d poems'voices. In honour of his 75 ' birtllday, tile author. in collaboration with editor Kevin Perryman~ selected 34 poems fo r this collection, whidl spans five decades. The poems a.r:e in chronolowcal order (with lhe excep tion of tile first and laSt poems). The author admitted to editing his poems for thiS special editio n and Wieland Schmied wrote a very personal epI logue detailing his impressio ns of a very open, yet reserved man at lhe fim and latest meetings witll author. The poems themselves are of vru::ying length, ranging from JUS t a few lines ( TIie Gortin" (44»), to several long stanzas (COt!( Fluss" (5 1». Stylistically the poems are very ttaditional with plincmation at the end of each line and a few enjambments. T he poems as a whole arc easily and quickly read. Not sU'l)[lslngly, it is the images and feel ings that arc evoked in the poems that linger with the reader. Badller uses colow-s very spar ingly in his pocms, especially since many of his poems mention night o r dealh or describe bleak winter landscapes. With the opening poem <'Ruth" (7) the (eadcr is immed iately im mersed into Bachle('s world which consists of the juxtaposition o f move ment and stilifless, change and eternity, dark an light. In each poem, the narrato r is a man and in some poems such as "Der Fleck" (l 2) and "Der 202 Focus 011 Cerm:m Scudies Book Reviews 203 Widerscheid' (43) his partner, who is simply referred to as «sic" is no years o f dle work of a great poet, leaves the reader with the desl(e to pick longer physially present, but her presence Iingcrs m the narrator's'mind. up araother o ne o f WOlfgang Bachler's wor..k s. ~ey havc nO[ quarreled, but rather, after having spent an afternoon o r a night together, she has to leave, presumably to run some errands. This &IIin(l Brodurholf-M(lclkmn1d suggests that she will return, aJthough no specific time frame is indicated. l1mrmtion Unh'trsitl Bachler poi~antly explores dle emo tions o f the one who is left behind by first reAectmg about the longing fur being together again , which is dlen replaced by the ~cceprance of the futility of this longmg. T his acceplance has a very calmmg effect, which compleles the progressio n from restless movement to stillness arad repose. The reader sees nature in its beauty and irs changing seasons KA.n rN BAUER. AtiortlOI Nietzsr!mln N(lrmtit'tS"". Critiques of l deol ~ugh the eyes o f the narrator as the majority o f Bachlet's poems deal ogy,ll.<ad,ngs of Wf{!iller. Albany: SU NY Press, 1999. 286 pp. $25.95. Wlth depictions of landscapes arad weather. The narrator becomes the r~der's comparuon as a voice tilal Simultaneously presents a vista o r situ Engaging and original,Adorno! NietzSlmall Norratil..u:. CUllqlltS of IdtolotJ, atIO n objectively, while commenting subjectively on It. The poems are Readings oj IVagl/ir from Karin Bauer presents a sophisticated Ulquicy into marked b~ me consrant presence o f movement _ which elthe( happens in Theodor \v. Adorno's reception of Friedrich NlC.tzsche's philosophy. T illS ~tu:re o r IS p ~r formed by tI.le narrator. The movement and pcrsonifica study seeks to locate Nietzsche's dlOUght within Adoeno's critical theory tlOa o f th~ wmd IS a r~urnng theme as is the imagery of something or and, as tile cover stares, is the first sllch comprehensive, comparati ....e 0 - someone elther o r crumbling. 1 the beauty of ammation of the intellectual relationship belween the £\vo philosophers. beco~g ~ozen r owever~ the accompanymg descoptlOns baJances sense of futility and resignation Baller, Associate Pro fcssor of German Studies at McGil l University, heeds that permeate these d~struc~~e and stack unages. Bachler is able 10 encap Nietzsche's \lr.lCning against tlle deSire 10 erase dJfferences - a Nlctzschean sulate personal expenences, Impressions and [eflectlo ns by using stmple IIldicator o f mfeno r tlunking - and does not offer a gross companson of language. thc two tJlinker5. Rather, Haue£'s study presents a keen analysis of their ~'he recurring imagery of nature (i.e. water, sand, aie, moon) and "shared terrain" and exanunes how Adorno C<indosyn<nocally and uniquely weather (Le. wllld, snow, sun) fo rm the backdrop against which Bachler molds Nietzsche's tho ught"" to support his own radicalized cnlJque of ide be~ a «~onv~rsation» with the reader by drawing him or her into his ology :1J1d society~ a critique that "aims neuhec 10 pacify differences nor to musmgs. his pnvate thoughts and o bservations. The reader is aJso o ften harmoniously integrate vanous crillcal tradll10ns and tlleones, but ratller able to share tile sense o f loss such as when the seasons change to operate witlun the contradictiOnS and paradoxes o f vanous disparate nar~to r 's 0 (" the se~e of yea.rnmg for what was and will never aga in be. O ne such elements and transform tbe [esulting tensions into a productive form of example IS the poem «Vecschlossen» (20) III which Bachler describes the cnticism" (3-4). ~.ienating ~erience of reruming 10 a place in which tlle changes made by The criticisms leveUed by Jurgen I-I abcnnas agalllSt Nietzsche's ~ cbsh With me~nor~t Some of hIS poems contain surreal images, such phtlosophy, and ultJOu tely Habermas's position on the Significance of as m .the poem enlltled :Abendstcophe rur Kinder" (23), which describes Nietzsche for Adorno, provoke Bauer's entry intO this diSCUSSion. The t~e rughtmare of a black h?tSe tlkinga duld for a ride thro ug h dIe sky al matrix of Adorno's and Nietzsche's critiques of ideology contains a night to o nly return dIe child safely as a white horse Ifl tile morning. T he radicalized critique of rationality which chaJlenges the core of cotiCism reader, accepts the dceamscapes that Bachler creates as they present ho~eve r. and rational lhought arad represents what I-Iabermas terms a fJtTjOmm/iL'e a c~mfurong escape from the dark, unwelcoming and lonely situations in contradiction (12). Ado rno's and NietzSche's criticism «turns agalllst itsel f" wluch he can find himself. This shOe[ coUection of poerry, spanning fifty when it dispules ><ratio nality as the foundalion of human aClJon and IlIs- 20S 204 Focus on German Studies Book Reviews roncal developments" and it is this contrary nanlre o f their critique which As such, their critiques of Wagner serve as the vehicle th:ough uthich causes Habermas to d raw parallels between Ado rno, N ietzsche, and Bauee examines their assessme.nt o f modcrmty, Bauer o udlllcs the ways posrmodemism (12). Haber-mas deplores dle influence o f N ietzsche's in which AdoOlo and Nicrzschc approacll their cnuques of Wagner widl Lhought apparent in Adorno's work and rejects postmodero.ism as " irrec the no tio n of art and ideology as IIlscparably hnked and "demonsttate n? t o ncilable antmlOdemism" (13). Bauee maintains that tho ugh Ilaberous only dle entwinement of art and Ideology in Wagner, ~\It also the necessity " recognizes Adorno's affinity to N ietzsche and N ierzsche's affi niry to for forms o f criticism that recogrll ze the aestheuzallo n o f Ideology and postrnadernism," he fail s to execute an extensive examinatio n of this triad, the ideology o f lhe aesrlletlC" (1 I 8). T he analysis IS divided i.ntO separat~ as he desires simply to rid Ado rno o f NietzSche in order to salvage Adorno discussio ns dealing with Nietzsche's nOlion o f decadence and Ado rno s for his own project of modernity (13). However, Baucr argues that «it is thoughts o n high art and the cultu re industry. For NietzsChe, Wagn~ r's precisely these NietzSchean elements that carry Adorno's work beyond works "contain the majo r forces of modernity, namely the process of 111 - traditional theory and philosophy and rescue him from falling prey to philo creasing rationalization which becomes viSible 10 his compositio ns and sophical dogmatism Adorno utilizes the potential in N ietzsche's tJlought stage productions, and rlle tendency toward decadence» (125), Bauer ar for the cri sof prans gues that N ietzsche identifi es in Wagner's works advent of art rique o f ideology, do mination, and the Marxist concept lh~ mod~r~ and the belief in a progressive utOpia" (14).