Das Undarstellbare darstellen

Anne Duden is one of the most significant German writers of her generation. Her reputation was established in the 1980s with the publication of the avant-garde texts Übergang (1982) and Das Judasschaf (1985). Her experimental poem cycles Steinschlag (1993) and Hingegend (1999) appeared to great critical acclaim. Her innovative literary-philosophical essays on aesthetics, fine art and music appeared in several volumes throughout the 1990s. She has won numerous prizes, including the Berlin Literature Prize (1999) and Heinrich-Böll Literature Prize (2003). This is the first comprehensive study of Duden’s complete work. It analyses the development of Duden’s writing, traces the connections between the works and presents new readings of the texts. In theoretically-informed, closely-argued examinations, the political and philosophical force of Duden’s writing is highlighted. Many radical philosophical models – Nietzsche, Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin and contemporary French philosophy – are used to articulate the central paradox of Duden’s work: How does one write or speak from the point of view of the excluded without lapsing into the excluding language of existing frameworks? These theoretical perspectives are also brought to bear on the criticism of aspects of Western culture apparent in Duden’s texts. This book also makes a serious and timely intervention in the ongoing theoretical debates about the problems of artistic representation in post-Holocaust culture. It will be of interest to scholars of aesthetics, cultural criticism, visual culture, philosophy, contemporary avant-garde narratives, as well as German Studies. Teresa Ludden is Lecturer in German at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,