Rolf Dieter Brinkmann
Encyclopedia
Rolf Dieter Brinkmann was an important poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 of German Pop-Literatur. He also wrote Keiner weiß mehr (Nobody knows anymore), a novel of modern family life. His early writing was inspired by Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn was a German essayist, novelist, and expressionist poet. A doctor of medicine, he became an early admirer, and later a critic, of the National Socialist revolution...

 and the French nouveau roman
Nouveau roman
The nouveau roman is a type of 1950s French novel that diverged from classical literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the title in an article in the popular French newspaper Le Monde on May 22, 1957 to describe certain writers who experimented with style in each novel, creating an essentially new...

. The precision of description of this style never left him, but in the 1960s Benn merged with William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...

, Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry.-Life:...

 and Ted Berrigan
Ted Berrigan
-Early life:Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining the U.S. Army in 1954 to serve in the Korean War. After three years in the Army, he finished his college studies at the University of Tulsa in...

. Brinkmann's poetry is filled with references to popular culture, from tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...

 to Hollywood films. Brinkmann despised the fashionable leftist literature with its platitudes, his sensibility and the despair of civilisation permeating Rom, Blicke and the other posthumously published prose writings goes much deeper. He was posthumously awarded the Petrarca-Preis
Petrarca-Preis
Petrarca-Preis is a European literary award named after the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch. It was founded in 1975 by German art historian and publisher Hubert Burda, and is primarily designed for contemporary European poets, but also epicists appear in the list of...

 in 1975 for his major and highly praised and influential last book of poetry Westwärts 1 & 2 (1975
1975 in literature
The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...

). In 2005 a new expanded edition of this book was published with 26 longer poems finally added as well as a 75 pages long postscript by the author. These parts were reluctantly excluded from the first edition by Brinkmann as the publisher thought the book was too extensive.

Selected works

  • vorstellung meiner hände (2010) ISBN 978 3 498 00667 9
  • Briefe an Hartmut 1974-1975 (1999) ISBN 3-498-00608-8
  • Schnitte. (1988) ISBN 3-498-00525-1
  • Erkundungen für die Präzisierung des Gefühls für einen Aufstand : Träume, Aufstände, Gewalt, Morde : Reise, Zeit, Magazin : die Story ist schnell erzählt (Tagebuch) (1987) ISBN 3-499-25169-8
  • Erzählungen (1985) ISBN 3-498-00493-X
  • Der Film in Worten : Prosa, Erzählungen, Essays, Hörspiele, Fotos, Collagen, 1965-1974 (1982) ISBN 3-498-00469-7
  • Standphotos. Gedichte 1962-1970 (1980) ISBN 3-498-00461-1
  • Rom, Blicke. (1979) ISBN 3-499-25094-2
  • Westwärts 1 & 2. (1975) ISBN 3-499-25063-2 ISBN 3-498-00528-6 (pbk.)
  • Keiner weiß mehr. (1968)

English translations

  • Like a pilot : Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, selected poems, 1963-1970; translated by Mark Terrill (2001) ISBN 0-9657687-7-5
  • Some Very Popular Songs, one long poem from Westwärts 1 & 2, translated by Mark Terrill (Todd Press, 2010).
  • Under Glass, a foldout broadsheet of 13 poems, translated by Mark Terrill (Longhouse, 2010).
  • An Unchanging Blue, selected poems 1962-1975, trans. Mark Terril (Parlor Press, 2011), 222 p. ISBN 1 6023519 8 8

Literature

  • Theo Breuer
    Theo Breuer
    Theo Breuer is a German poet, essayist, editor, translator and publisher.-Life and work:...

    : Was Neues im Westen oder Brinkmann macht weiter; in: T.B., Aus dem Hinterland. Lyrik nach 2000, Edition YE, Sistig/Eifel 2005.

External links

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