Exiled in Language: The Poetry of Margaret Diesendorf, Walter Billeter, Rudi Krausman and Manfred Jurgensen

Author: 

Tonetto, Walter Ph.D.

Credentials: 

Ph.D; Lecturer in the School of Literature, Waseda University; Lecturer in the University of Tokyo, Komaba.

Exile is ubiquitous in 20th century literature whether temporary expatriation or permanent flight. This quartet of self-exiled German - Australian poets/writers provides an unusual exile of second remove and an extraordinary study in language praxis. These gifted poets and critics fled to Australia because exile meant life and Nazi Europe meant death. They remained despite the lazy suspicion of many native Australians that these scholars were “worse than the pommies” (a terrible thing to be called in Oz) and were “prancing poufter poetasters”. One of the exiles returned the compliment by calling Australia “hell…with bad white wine”. Professor Tonetto describes the individual achievement of each writer and the contribution they made to the world class and confident Australian literature of today. Their brilliant gifts in two languages and their influence on contemporary Australian and German/Austrian writing is also analyzed

Market: 
Australian Literature / Language: German literature in exile 1933-1945 German Studies; Modern Poetry, Australia
Release Date: 
July 2001
ISBN: 
Cloth: 1-930901-24-0
Price: 
$74.95
Trim Size: 
6 x 9
Pages: 
424
Illustrations: 
None
Publisher: 

ACADEMICA PRESS
1727 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036