Brecht's Poetry of Political Exile

Bertolt Brecht, one of the most influential European playwrights of the twentieth century, was also a poet of distinction. Brecht's Poetry of Political Exile is the first comprehensive study devoted to his most important collection of political poetry, the Svendborg Poems. In these essays, a strong team of contributors take the poems as the focal point for a much wider study of politics and poetry under totalitarianism. They analyse Brecht's work critically and historically, discussing it in relation to questions of poetics, political commitment, exile, propaganda, rhetoric, and the scope and limitations of political poetry. Links are also drawn with the work of German, Soviet and English poets of the period, and with later German poets. This volume sheds light on Brecht's political investment in and aesthetic commitment to political poetry, and will complement the plentiful scholarship focusing on his drama.

"Careful scholarship, thoughtful analysis, and new insights distinguish these essays individually. But what separates this from similar collections is the degree to which contributors foreshadow, echo, support, and deny assertions of their cocontributors. Their intimate understanding of Brecht and his Svendborg poems is apparent in the very process of collaboration. I hope this model inspires future scholarship." German Studies Review, "...the primary value is in an introduction to Brecht's poetry as a whole for non-German-speaking students and as a point of departure for re-examining the tensions of poetry and politics in the twentieth century." The Brecht Yearbook