Abstract

Focusing on Durs Grünbein's presentation of different "histories", the author offers an approach to his poetry based on voice—the ways in which Grünbein's voice is constituted by the presence of other voices from the German poetic and philosophical tradition. He begins by discussing the pervasive importance of Celan's voice for Grünbein's attempts to explore different layers of place and time, then uses this as a basis for close readings of several poems. He concludes with an account of Grünbein as post-"Wende" poet that develops a concept of the "aporetic" drawn from Celan, Hölderlin, and Derrida.