“in the mirrors' hall”: Nelly Sachs and the 40s Generation

In examining Sachs's reception and translation work in the context of the 40s Generation, we find an important cultural exchange: for Sachs, the poems of 40s Generation poets provided first an impulse that helped shape her own writing, and then additional vectors through which to confront the G...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScandinavian studies Vol. 91; no. 4; pp. 500 - 520
Main Author Hoyer, Jennifer M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Champaign University of Illinois Press 22.12.2019
Subjects
Audiences
Ekelof, Gunnar (1907-1968)
German language
German literature
Icelandic & Scandinavian literature
Imagery
Language
Lindegren, Erik (1910-1968)
Literary translation
Modernism
Poetry
Poets
Prose
Publishing industry
Sachs, Nelly
Scandinavian studies
Sonnets
Swedish literature
Translations
Writers
Sweden
Germany
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Summary:In examining Sachs's reception and translation work in the context of the 40s Generation, we find an important cultural exchange: for Sachs, the poems of 40s Generation poets provided first an impulse that helped shape her own writing, and then additional vectors through which to confront the German-speaking world that had disenfranchised her. For the 40s Generation, Sachs's experience with and literary confrontation of Nazi persecution added another layer to their urgent political engagement, and her commitment to translation provided them with a desired springboard to an international audience. [...]I will briefly comment on the significance of Sachs's original poetry in the atmosphere of postwar Sweden. In The Man without a Way, "Lindegren sought to evoke the precipices of human experience by contrasting a disciplined form [the sonnet] with chaotic, disturbing imagery" (Brantly 1996, 365).
ISSN:0036-5637
2163-8195
DOI:10.3368/sca.91.4.0500