This thesis is the first academic treatment of the poetry of Anton Schnack (1892-1973): his work is not well known, even in Germany. Methodologically the thesis takes a combined literary, historical and biographical approach, exploring the complex and sometimes deceptive relations between his poetry and the turbulence of his time. The primary aim of the thesis is to show that Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier (1920) is a uniquely innovative volume of war poetry which, to be fully appreciated, needs to be assessed against the background of previous German war poetry and the development of the sonnet cycle. It is placed in the context of Schnack’s other lyrical work, particularly of the three volumes of Expressionist poetry which immediately preceded it and which themselves are analysed as examples of a very powerful kind of Expressionism. Schnack did not publish his next volume of verse until 1936, and three further collections emerged in quick succession between 1947 and 1953. These four collections are examined in detail in the context of Schnack’s decision to stay in southern Germany and to maintain a consistently low profile. The thesis begins with a general introduction to Schnack’s life and work and makes specific reference to his contemporary and current standing among literary historians and critics. Chapter Two focuses on the three volumes of Expressionist verse and documents the cultural circles which he frequented in Munich and the numerous Expressionist magazines and periodicals to which he contributed. The next three chapters are dedicated to Tier rang gewaltig mit Tier and examine it with reference to its poetic form as a cycle of sonnets and of its merits and status as war poetry. The final chapter pays particular attention to Schnack’s life in the Third Reich, situating the single collection he published during that era among the literary works of Inner Emigration, before analysing his three post-war collections.

La maladie d'Alzheimer, figure archétypique de la "mauvaise" vieillesse, et véritable désordre dans I'univers de la personne, implique de nombreux acteurs et particulièrement les accompagnants familiaux. Pour soulager ce qui est souvent désigné comme un "fardeau", de nombreuses initiatives sont prises dans le domaine des gérontechnologies. Conçues pour répondre aux besoins des personnes âgées,elles représentent un axe de recherche et de développement - scientifique et industriel - en plein essor. Cependant, peu de ces technologies sont réellement insérées dans le quotidien des personnes âgées et beaucoup de projets stagnent à un stade embryonnaire ou, édités sous forme de prototypes. Elles peuvent également être considérées comme salvatrices mais lorsque la "technologie" ne fonctionne plus, mal ou reste à l'état de prototype, le monde construit autour de la personne atteinte de la maladie bascule dans les désillusions. L'approche anthropologique est intéressante pour comprendre les mécanismes d'appropriation de l'espace en maison de retraite. Les lieux aident à la construction de la personnalité et de l'identité de chacun et, pas l'approche du "lieu anthropologique" [Augé,1992a], les accompagnants peuvent se rendre compte des capacités effectives des personnes. Ces compétences doivent aider à la construction d'outils gérontechnologiques pertinents. / Alzheimer's disease is most often regarded as the bad ageing disorder. It wreaks havoc in the physical and psychological lives of individuals concerned, and requires the support and help of numerous persons, in particular family caregivers. In order to reduce this burden many initiatives have been taken in the field of gerontechnology. Research and development in gerontechnologies are presently booming, both scientifically and industrially. Although these technologies were originally conceived to respond to the elderly's needs, few of them have actually been implemented in the aging persons' environment. Many projects stagnate at the conceptual level, others do not go beyond the building of a prototype. Nonetheless, sometimes these technologies arouse great hopes. When, however, they function badly or not at all, or when they are not developed beyond the prototype stage, disillusionment slowly destroys all the hope that patients and caregivers had invested in these technologies. M. Augé's anthropological approach helps us understand how people lay claim to public space, in a retirement home, for example. Places and spaces help shape each individual's personality and identity. Using the "lieu anthropologique" (anthropological place or space) [Augé, l992a] caregivers can more easily get to know the elderly's effective capacities in this domain. These skills should be analyzed in order to improve the construction of pertinent gerontechnological tools.

Die Dissertationsschrift setzt sich mit der Karriere der Materialität in der Lyrik der Moderne auseinander. Im Übergang zur Moderne bildet die Lyrik Konzeptionen aus, die den Lyrikbegriff des 19. Jahrhunderts überwinden, indem sie materielle Eigenschaften von Literatur in die Produktion lyrischer Werke einbeziehen und im ästhetischen Erleben des Gedichts wirksam werden lassen. Die Untersuchung erforscht in ihrem Fortgang die produktive Wirksamkeit materieller Substrate der Lyrik in ihren technischen und poetologischen Ausprägungen. Im Zuge dessen werden Möglichkeitsbedingungen für die Rezeption lyrischer Werke herausgestellt, die durch einen veränderten Mediengebrauch entstehen. Dabei wird aufgezeigt, dass der Umgang mit den Substraten der Lyrik einer historischen Genese unterliegt, die zumindest in den bisher von der literaturwissenschaftlichen Forschung herausgestellten Gesichtspunkten zum Themenkomplex kaum beachtet wurde, die jedoch zu einem dezidierten Verständnis moderner Lyrik führt. In einer durch die Fragestellung gesteuerten Auswahl sind Gegenstände der Untersuchung sowohl Gedichte als auch Essays und Manifeste. / The dissertation is about the career of materiality in poems of the early modern period. In the shift from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, lyricism develops conceptions comprising the material qualities of literature into the production of lyric works and make them operant in the aesthetical experience of poems. In this project I do research on the productive efficacy of material substrates of poems and describe them in their technical and poetical characteristics. In the course of this the basic preconditions for the reception of lyrical works as they effect from the changed use of media are elucidated. Based on this I assume, that the use of the substrates of lyrical production is subject to a historical genesis, that was neglected by studies in literature until now, although it would help to develop a deicide understanding of lyrical works of the modern period. Due to a problem based selection of texts the subjects of the research are poems as well as essays and manifestos.

Part 1: ‘True Receivers': Rilke and the Contemporary Poetics of Listening In this part of this thesis I argue that a contemporary ‘poetics of listening' has emerged in the UK, and explore the writing of three of our most significant poets - John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie and Don Paterson - to find out why they have become interested in the idea of the poet as a ‘listener'. I suggest that the appeal of this listening stance accounts for their engagement with the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, who thought of himself as a listening ‘receiver'; it is proposed that Rilke's notion of ‘receivership' and the way his poems relate to the earthly (or the ‘non-human') also account for the general ‘intensification' of interest in his work. An exploration of the shifting status of listening provides context for this study, and I pay particular attention to the way innovations in audio and communications technology influenced Rilke's late sequences the Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus. A connection is made between Rilke's ‘listening poetics' and the ‘listening' stance of Ted Hughes and Edward Thomas; this establishes a ‘listening lineage' for the contemporary poets considered in the thesis. I also suggest that there are intriguing similarities between the ideas of listening that are emerging in contemporary poetics and Hélène Cixous' concept of ‘écriture féminine'. Exploring these similarities helps us to understand the implications of the stance of the poet-listener, which is a counter to the idea that as a writer you must ‘find your voice'. Finally, it is proposed that ‘a poetics of listening' would benefit from an enriched taxonomy. Part 2 of the thesis is a collection of my poems entitled ‘Small Weather'.