The Limits of Literary Language: Linguistic Skepticism and Literary Experiment in Postwar Germany and Austria
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2015 The Limits of Literary Language: Linguistic Skepticism and Literary Experiment in Postwar Germany and Austria Nathaniel Davis University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the German Literature Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Nathaniel, "The Limits of Literary Language: Linguistic Skepticism and Literary Experiment in Postwar Germany and Austria" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1038. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1038 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1038 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Limits of Literary Language: Linguistic Skepticism and Literary Experiment in Postwar Germany and Austria Abstract This dissertation addresses the concurrent revival of experimental writing and linguistic skepticism in West Germany and Austria after 1945, concentrating on the work of Helmut HeiÃ?enbuttel,̈ Konrad Bayer, Peter Handke, and Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. While the immediate postwar years gave rise to a germanophone literature that was largely intolerant of formal experimentation--due to widespread adherence to a neo-Sartrean model of litteŕ ature engageé and a restorationist return to classical form-- certain writers began to oppose this aesthetic conservatism in the early fifties. Influencedy b international avant-garde developments--from concrete poetry to the nouveau roman--they developed a new form of German writing that actively experimented with literary and linguistic form. Their work was often accompanied by a sophisticated theoretical critique of language, connecting back via Wittgenstein and Whorf to the turn-of-the-century Sprachkrise and the writings of Mauthner and Hofmannsthal. I aim to offer an analysis of this language-skeptical approach to writing, showing how it was employed to create a cultural space for avant-garde literature in the postwar period--presenting experimental writing as a legitimate intellectual endeavor with tangible social value, despite its running contrary to prevalent models of politically engaged or formally conservative writing. Against the common literary-historical view of the sixties as the decade of the "politicization of literature," I aim to show the existence of an alternate track of "linguistic aesthetics" propagated almost exclusively by writers of experimental literature, developing in the fifties and extending through the sixties and beyond. For these writers, a skeptical and analytical treatment of language became the necessary starting point for any progressive literature. I also aim to show how later writers like Handke and Brinkmann came to see this linguistic skepticism as en encumbering limitation of literary possibility. In their early-seventies work, which is often grouped with the movement of New Subjectivity, these writers adopt a pragmatic model of language as a flawed but functional oolt for the communication of subjective experience, resulting in a writing that continues to explore the ambiguous link between word and world. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Comparative Literature and Literary Theory First Advisor Jean-Michel Rabaté Keywords aesthetics, avant-garde, language, linguistics, literature, postwar Subject Categories Comparative Literature | German Literature This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1038 THE LIMITS OF LITERARY LANGUAGE: LINGUISTIC SKEPTICISM AND LITERARY EXPERIMENT IN POSTWAR GERMANY AND AUSTRIA Nathaniel Davis A DISSERTATION in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Supervisor of Dissertation Jean-Michel Rabaté, Professor of English and Comparative Literature Graduate Group Chairperson Kevin Platt, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities Dissertation Committee Catriona Macleod, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities Marjorie Perloff, Professor Emerita, Stanford University THE LIMITS OF LITERARY LANGUAGE: LINGUISTIC SKEPTICISM AND LITERARY EXPERIMENT IN POSTWAR GERMANY AND AUSTRIA COPYRIGHT 2015 NATHANIEL DAVIS Acknowledgments Over the course of writing this dissertation, I have been aided by many people, in many ways. I would like to express my gratitude and indebtedness: To Jean-Michel Rabaté, the perfect advisor and supervisor, for his enthusiasm, generos- ity, and unflagging support, without which I simply would not have made it; to Catriona Macleod, my rock in the German department, for her expertise and always friendly Teil- nahme; to Marjorie Perloff, for taking a chance on this project, and for all of her important and inspirational input and advice; and to Eric Jarosinski and Frank Trommler, for their assistance in the early stages of my research. To Kevin Platt, for his emboldening words and shrewd guidance, and to JoAnne Dubil, for all her attentive work and care over the past six years. To the administrators and staff of all the libraries and archives that harbored me over the course of my research: Van Pelt Library in Philadelphia; the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach; the Staatsbibliothek and the Archiv der Akademie der Künste in Berlin; the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna; the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Biblio- thèque Ulm-LSH, and Bibliothèque publique d’information in Paris. To my parents, grandparents, sister, and extended family, for love and encouragement. To all my friends in Philadelphia, for conviviality and camaraderie. And to my wife Hélène, for everything and everything. iii ABSTRACT THE LIMITS OF LITERARY LANGUAGE: LINGUISTIC SKEPTICISM AND LITERARY EXPERIMENT IN POSTWAR GERMANY AND AUSTRIA Nathaniel Davis Jean-Michel Rabaté This dissertation addresses the concurrent revival of experimental writing and linguistic skepticism in West Germany and Austria after 1945, concentrating on the work of Helmut Heißenbüttel, Konrad Bayer, Peter Handke, and Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. While the imme- diate postwar years gave rise to a germanophone literature that was largely intolerant of formal experimentation—due to widespread adherence to a neo-Sartrean model of littéra- ture engagée and a restorationist return to classical form—certain writers began to oppose this aesthetic conservatism in the early fifties. Influenced by international avant-garde developments—from concrete poetry to the nouveau roman—they developed a new form of German writing that actively experimented with literary and linguistic form. Their work was often accompanied by a sophisticated theoretical critique of language, connecting back via Wittgenstein and Whorf to the turn-of-the-century Sprachkrise and the writings of Mauthner and Hofmannsthal. I aim to offer an analysis of this language-skeptical approach to writing, showing how it was employed to create a cultural space for avant-garde literature in the postwar period—presenting experimental writing as a legitimate intellectual endeavor with tangible social value, despite its running contrary to prevalent models of politically engaged or formally conservative writing. Against the common literary-historical view of the sixties as the decade of the “politicization of literature,” I aim to show the existence of an alternate iv track of “linguistic aesthetics” propagated almost exclusively by writers of experimental literature, developing in the fifties and extending through the sixties and beyond. For these writers, a skeptical and analytical treatment of language became the necessary starting point for any progressive literature. I also aim to show how later writers like Handke and Brinkmann came to see this linguistic skepticism as en encumbering limitation of literary possibility. In their early-seventies work, which is often grouped with the movement of New Subjectivity, these writers adopt a pragmatic model of language as a flawed but functional tool for the communication of subjective experience, resulting in a writing that continues to explore the ambiguous link between word and world. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments iii Abstract iv Table of Contents vi List of Figures viii 1. Introduction 1 A Century of Linguistic Crisis . 1 Slow Homecoming: Avant-garde Writing at the Zero Hour . 11 Grenzverschiebung: Linguistic Thinking in the 1960s . 30 2. Helmut Heißenbüttel: “das Sagbare sagen” 38 Textbücher 1 – 6 (1960-1967) . 46 The Linguistic Model of Heißenbüttel’s Theoretical Writings . 65 Objections To Heißenbüttel’s Theories . 74 3. Konrad Bayer: “die muttersprache als fremdsprache” 90 Bayer’s Doubt . 101 der sechste sinn ...................................115 Coda: Oswald Wiener’s Linguistic Entwicklungsroman . 136 4. Peter Handke: “Momente der Sprachlebendigkeit” 144 “Zur Tagung der Gruppe 47 in den USA” . 148 Kaspar: The Individual Within Linguistic Order . 160 vi “Das Falsche tun”: The Turn to Narrative, 1969-1973 . 168 The Esoteric Arts of Language, 1975-1986 . 190 5. Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: “Ihr nennt es Sprache” 211 “Die Sprache der Steine”: Early Poems . 219 American Aesthetics, 1968-1970 . 235 “Über die Sprachbegrenzung hinaus”: Brinkmann’s Late Sprachkritik . 247 Flickwort Poetics . 258 6. Conclusion: The Linguistic Leap of Faith 265 Bibliography