H.G. Adlers Poetik der dichterischen Stimme

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of voice in H.G. Adler’s poetics. An early theoretical essay indicates a concern with rhetorical concepts of oral delivery at a time when Adler was writing poetry as part of an active community of German speakers in Prague. Internment at Theresienstadt, for all its horror, still offered rich opportunities for reading poetry in a communal context. During the decades of exile in London, there is no longer a cohesive audience and the importance of rhetorical impact recedes in Adler’s poetics. However, voice continues to be central to his poetry as he explores it in metaphorical terms and develops a powerful poetic medium that will bear witness beyond the limitations of time and place. (KK; in German)