Gottfried Benn Şiiri ve Dışavurumcu İmge

Abstract

Bu makale, Benn'in "Nachtcafe" gibi erken dönem şiirlerindeki dışavurumcu tutumu inceledikten sonra, Benn'in daha psikanalitik ve mitolojik şiirlerinde imgenin gevşemesinin izini sürmektedir. Ardından, Benn'in poetikasında belirgin bir kopuşun ve performatif bir sesin ortaya çıkışının örneğini veren geç dönem şiirlerinden “Das sind doch Menschen”i incelenmektedir. Dışavurumculuk ve mitolojiye olan ilgi Benn'in geç dönem şiirleri üzerinde bariz bir etkiye sahip olmaya devam eder. Fakat daha kişisel olan ve anekdot tarzına yaklaşan bu geç dönem, şiirsel imge, şiir kişisi ve soyut ifade arasında yeni bir denge yakalar. Ayrıca, makale boyunca, şiir dünyasındaki gelişmeler, 2. Dünya Savaşı sonrası dönemin bağlamında ele alınmış ve bu dönemde daha etken bir şiir kişisi yaratma girişimleri değerlendirilmiştir. Bu doğrultuda, Ingeborg Bachmann gibi şairler tarafından ortaya atılan şiir teorileri ve Benn'in Probleme der Lyrik başlıklı önemli konuşmasında öne sürülen poetika tartışmaları ele alınmıştır.

Keywords

• Gottfried Benn
• Dışavurumculuk
• Şiir
• İmge
• Lirik

Gottfried Benn’s Poetry and Unbracketing the Expressionist Image

Abstract

After studying the prevailing expressionistic attitude in Benn’s early poems such as “Nachtcafé,” the paper traces the loosening of imagery in Benn’s more psychoanalytic and mythological poems. The paper then offers a close reading of “Das sind doch Menschen,” a poem from Benn’s latest period, which exemplifies a distinct break in his poetics and the emergence of a markedly performative and personal voice. The backdrop of expressionism, his early fascination with mythology and mid-career attempts to achieve a perfect lyric structure continued to have obvious influences on Benn’s later writing but this personal and anecdotal period occasions a new balance between poetic image, lyric self, and abstract statement. In addition, the paper also traces Benn’s attempts to recover a more agentic lyric self within the larger poetic context of the post-war era, turning to poetic theories advanced by contemporaneous poets such as Ingeborg Bachmann and in Benn’s own momentous lecture on poetics, Probleme der Lyrik.

Keywords

• Gottfried Benn
• Expressionism
• Poetry
• Imagery
• Lyric

References

1. Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory (trans. by Robert Hullot-Kentor). Continuum, 2002.
2. Altieri, Charles. “The Concept of Expression in the Arts from a Wittgensteinian Perspective.” Wittgenstein and Modernism. Ed. Michael Lemahieu and Karen Zumhagen-Yekple. The University of Chicago Press, 2016, pp. 57-70.
3. Anglet, Andreas. “The Café in Benn's and Apollinaire's Lyrical Focalisations of the City.” KulturPoetik, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2007, pp. 215-233.
4. Bachmann, Ingeborg. “A Translation of "Das Schreibende Ich," a Lecture on the First-Person Narrator by Ingeborg Bachmann” (trans. by Douglas Robertson). http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-translation-of-das-schreibende-ich.html.
5. Bachmann, Ingeborg. “Das schreibende Ich.” Werke (IV). Ed. Christine Koschel, Inge von Weidenbaum, and Clemens Münster. R. P.er & Co. Verlag, 1993, pp. 217-237.
6. Badiou, Alain. Handbook of Inaesthetics (trans. by A. Toscano). Stanford University Press, 2005.
7. Bahr, Hermann. Expressionism (trans. R. T. Gribble). Anchor Book, 1953.
8. Benn, Gottfried. Gesammelte Werke. Limes Verlag, 1966.

9. Benn, Gottfried. Primal Vision: Selected Writings. Ed. E.B. Ashton. New Directions, 1971.
10. Benn, Gottfried. Probleme der Lyrik. Limes Verlag: 1954.
11. Benn, Gottfried. Gottfried Benn: Prose, Essays, Poems. Ed. Volkmar Sander. Continuum, 1987.
12. Hannum, Hunter G. “George and Benn: The Autumnal Vision.” PMLA, Vol. 78, No. 3, 1963, pp. 271-279.
13. Hejinian, Lyn. My Life. Sun & Moon Press: 1987.
14. Höcker, Arne. “Brainless: Scientific Observation and Literary Writing in Gottfried Benn.” Monatshefte, Vol. 105, No. 3, 2013, pp. 458-471.
15. Holthusen, Hans Egon. “German Lyric Poetry since 1945” (trans. Herman Salinger). Poetry, Vol. 88, No. 4, 1956, pp. 257-266.
16. Kripke, Saul A. Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: An Elementary Exposition. Basil Blackwell, 1982.
17. Lohner, Edgar. “The Development of Gottfried Benn’s Idea of Expression as Value.” The German Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1953, pp. 39-54.
18. Loose, Gerhard. “Gottfried Benn and the Problem of Art in Our Time.” Criticism, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1962, pp. 340-362.
19. Richards, I. A. The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford University Press, 1946.
20. Roche, Mark W. “Christ as the Lost I: Multiple Interpretations of Gottfried Benn's Poem ‘Verlorenes Ich.’” Religion & Literature, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2002, pp. 27-56.
21. Roche, Mark W. Gottfried Benn's Static Poetry. University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
22. Schlossman, Beryl F. “Figures Transfigured: Madonnas of Modernism, Altars of the Sublime.” Ulysse à l’article: Joyce aux marges du roman. Ed. Daniel Ferrer, Claude Jacquet, André Topia, Tusson Charente. Du Lérot, 1991, pp. 221-254.
23. Smith, Norman Kemp. “The Fruitfulness of the Abstract.” The Credibility of Divine Existence. St. Martin’s Press, 1967, pp. 324-338.
24. Travers, Martin. The Poetry of Gottfried Benn: Text and Selfhood. Peter Lang, 2007.
25. Travers, Martin. The Poetry of Gottfried Benn: Text and Selfhood. Peter Lang, 2007.
26. Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society. Anchor Books, 1953.
27. Valéry, Paul. “Degas, Danse, Dessin.” Degas Manet Morisot (trans. David Paul). Pantheon Books, 1960.
28. Wilbur, Richard. Responses: Prose Pieces, 1953-1976. Story Line Press, 2000.