Description
Book SynopsisThis study explores Heinrich Böll's 'aesthetic thinking', as it is expressed in the author's disparate and voluminous writings on literature. Böll's work in this field is situated in the multi-faceted context of social, political, and cultural developments in post-war Germany, and is shown to be an important adjunct to the novels and stories which were honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature. An understanding of Heinrich Böll's 'aesthetic thinking' can illuminate the writer's fiction in an intriguing way. In particular, Böll's defence of the 'rationality of poetry' raises issues which reverberate in continuing debates on the social validity of literature.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments. 0. INTRODUCTION. 0.0 The Aims of the Present Study. 0.1 The Böll Scholarship. 0.2 Critical Premises. 0.3 Outline of the Present Study. 1. THE CENTRAL CONCERNS OF BÖLL'S AESTHETIC THINKING. 1.0 Summary. 1.1 The West German 'Restoration' 1945-1955. 1.2 Literary Trends. 1.3 Böll's Early Theoretical Statements. 2. THE MORALITY OF LANGUAGE. 2.0 Summary. 2.1 Language as a Bastian of Freedom. 2.2 Böll's Critical Analysis of Language. 2.3 The Question of Tradition: The Influence of Theodor Haecker. 3. THE QUEST FOR A 'HOMELAND'. 3.0 Summary. 3.1 Enlightened Humanism. 3.2 Commitment and 'Heimat'. 3.3 'Eine Ästhetik des Humanen'. 3.4 Böll's Programme in Miniature. 3.5 Humour and Satire. 4. HUMANE REALISM. 4.0 Summary. 4.1 'Geschaffene Wirklichkeit'. 4.2 Other Theories of Realism. 4.3 'Engagierte Literatur'? 5. THE RATIONALITY OF POETRY. 5.0 Summary. 5.1 The Social and Political Climate in the 1960s. 5.2 The 'Death' of Literature. 5.3 Böll's Defence of Literature. 6. CONCLUSIONS. 6.1 The Legacy for the Imaginative Works. 6.2 The Legacy for Contemporary Literature. 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 7.1 Primary Sources: Heinrich Böll. 7.2 Secondary Sources.
