Brigid Haines

Stephen R. Parker

Colin Riordan

"The papers... were delivered at a conference, Aesthetics and Politics in Modern German Culture, which was held in honour of Professor Rhys W. Williams ... the conference took place, from 31 August to 2 September 2008, at the University of Wales Conference Centre, Gregynog Hall" --Foreword.

Festschrift in Honour of Rhys W. Williams

Aesthetics and Politics in Modern German Culture

Stephen Parker

The present study is the first full-length literary biography in any language devoted to Peter Huchel (1903-81), the German poet, radio author and editor of Sinn und Form. It draws upon a very substantial body of fresh archival material, much of it accessible only since 1989, and upon testimonies, including those of his first wife and their daughter. The study traces the course of Huchel's well-nigh unique progression through 20th-century German literary life, from the Weimar to the Federal Republic via the Third Reich, the Berlin of the years 1945-49 and the GDR. There, his legendary editorship of Sinn und Form in the 1950s lent him a unique mediating position between writers from East and West, until the journal's 'all-German' approach was deemed antagonistic to SED policy. For all the cause célèbre of Huchel's conflict with the SED, key elements of his career have hitherto been obscured by the spell of silence that the charismatic Huchel cast over much of his life and by a historiography uncertain in the evaluation of the development of German culture within the two dictatorships. A fresh appreciation of Huchel's achievements emerges from the detailed examination of his life and work in relation to the notoriously volatile social and historical conditions of his age.

A Literary Life in 20th-century Germany

Peter Huchel

Matthew Philpotts

This extensive history of the legendary literary journal, Sinn und Form, also offers the first systematic analysis of this key type of cultural institution. The study is organised in seven anatomical categories: founding conception; cultural-political context; institutional infrastructure; role of editors; networks of contributors; text and composition; readership and reception. Informed by Bourdieu s sociology of culture, this typology opens the way for comparative research into the function of literary journals, integrating sociological and literary approaches. "

Stephen R. Parker

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