Verlust der Mitte: Wolf Biermanns Abnabelung von seinem Topos Berlin

Berendse, Gerrit-Jan 2009. Verlust der Mitte: Wolf Biermanns Abnabelung von seinem Topos Berlin. German Monitor 71 , pp. 257-268.

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Abstract

For a long time, Berlin has acted as a main source of inspiration for artists and writers - including the 'poète-chanteur' Wolf Biermann. The city stood model for many of his poems and songs, and, to a significant degree, was responsible for constructing his artistic identity. Both in the GDR and in West Germany after the 'Ausbürgerung', Biermann's fictional Berlin transported utopian ideas, a notion of 'Heimat', not only as a place to return to but also as a metaphor for a better life. He linked various utopian ideas to his city. However, Berlin in his 2000s poems revises this idea of 'Heimat as utopia' (Bernhard Schlink). Berlin, so I will argue, plays a less fundamental role in Biermann's recent literary work and, at the same time, becomes a much more liveable city, as my analysis of the poem 'Heimkehr nach Berlin Mitte' (2006) will demonstrate.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Modern Languages
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature
Language other than English:	German
Publisher:	Rodopi
ISSN:	0927-1910
Last Modified:	04 Jun 2017 03:04
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/16369

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