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Bilingual Autobiographical Poetry of Henry Beissel

by Paulina Katarzyna Nowak (Author)
©2023 Monographs 180 Pages

Summary

The book is the first academic study of Henry Beissel’s bilingual poetic autobiography. The Canadian poet going back through memories to his childhood in Nazi Germany, wrote a long poem in English and reinterpreted it in German – his mother tongue, neglected for decades. The study offers a comparative reading of the two distinctly different versions of the poem, juxtaposing various perspectives, voices and recollections. Beissel’s bilingual project is depicted as "memory workshop", that mediates between cultures. The work examines Beissel’s biography and the theories of memory, autobiography and bilingualism. It refers to metafiction, the poetic child’s figure and writing trauma, as well as explores poetic complexities of memory and identity.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of contents
  • 1. Introduction to Henry Beissel
  • 1.1. Henry Beissel: Life and literary work
  • 1.2. Coming to Terms with a Child/ Ein Kind kommt zur Sprache by Henry Beissel: The methods and aims of the analysis
  • 2. Memory
  • 2.1. Memory in the interdisciplinary context
  • 2.2. Where does one’s own memory end?
  • 2.3. Trauma in relation to identity and language
  • 3. Autobiography
  • 3.1. Life writing
  • 3.2. Truth or fiction?
  • 3.3. The position of the reader in the autobiographical discourse
  • 3.4. The narrativization of memory: Does recollecting mean lying?
  • 3.5. (Auto)biographical metafiction
  • 3.6. The narrativity in poetry
  • 3.7. The matter of factuality in poetry and identities in autobiographical poems
  • 3.8. Canadian life writing and auto/biography in Canadian criticism
  • 3.9. The role of autobiographical writing in the post-war Germany
  • 3.10. “Coming to Terms with a Child”/ “Ein Kind kommt zur Sprache” as transatlantic autobiographical metafiction
  • 4. Bilingualism and self-translation
  • 4.1. Theories of literary bilingualism and self-translation
  • 4.2. Autobiographical bilingual memory
  • 4.3. Henry Beissel’s bilingualism
  • 4.4. Self-translation in Coming to Terms with a Child/ Ein Kind kommt zur Sprache
  • 5. Coming to Terms with a Child/ Ein Kind kommt zur Sprache by Henry Beissel: A comparative reading
  • 5.1. The figure of the child
  • 5.2. Traumatised self
  • 5.3. The bilingual title
  • 5.4. A comparative analysis of Coming to Terms with a Child and Ein Kind kommt zur Sprache by Henry Beissel
  • 5.4.1. “Once upon a Time”/ “Es war einmal”
  • 5.4.2. “Country of origin” / “Herkunft”
  • 5.4.3. “It’s always today” / “Es ist immer heute”
  • 5.4.4. “Dancer from the unknown” / “Tanz aus dem Dunkel”
  • 5.4.5. “Never-ending Quest”/ “Abenteuer ohne Ende”
  • 5.4.6. “How Thorny the Path”/ “Mühselig und beladen”
  • 5.4.7. “Not a Fairytale” / “Kein Märchenland”
  • 5.4.8. “Pieces of the Puzzle”/ “Teile des Unteilbaren”
  • 5.4.9. “Hither and Thither” / “Hin und her”
  • 5.4.10. “Cave Paintings” / “Wochenschau”
  • 5.4.11. “O Music!“ / “O Musik!”
  • 5.4.12. “Danse macabre“/ “Danse macabre”
  • 5.4.13. “Descent” / “Flucht”
  • 5.3.14. “Out of Darkness” / “Aus der Neuen Welt”
  • 5.5. Conclusions
  • Bibliography
  • Series Index

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available in the
internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

About the author

The Author
Paulina Nowak-Kurzyna holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Szczecin (Poland) and is the member of Polish Association for Canadian Studies. Her academic interests focus on poetry, Canadian literature, bilingualism, memory studies and autobiographical writing.

About the book

Paulina Nowak-Kurzyna

Bilingual Autobiographical Poetry of Henry Beissel

The book is the first academic study of Henry Beissel’s bilingual poetic autobiography. The Canadian poet, reflecting on his childhood memories in Nazi Germany, wrote a long poem in English and reinterpreted it in German – his mother tongue, which had been neglected for decades. The study offers a comparative reading of the two distinctly different versions of the poem, juxtaposing various perspectives, voices and recollections. Beissel’s bilingual project is depicted as “memory workshop”, that mediates between cultures. The work examines Beissel’s biography and the theories of memory, autobiography and bilingualism. It refers to metafiction, the poetic child’s figure and writing trauma, as well as explores poetic complexities of memory and identity.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Table of contents

Details

Pages
180
Publication Year
2023
ISBN (PDF)
9783631908341
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631908358
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631898826
DOI
10.3726/b21168
Language
English
Publication date
2023 (September)
Keywords
Canadian literature Self-translation comparative analysis post-war poetry German writer autobiographical memory
Published
Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2023. 180 pp.

Biographical notes

Paulina Katarzyna Nowak (Author)

Paulina Katarzyna Nowak-Kurzyna holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Szczecin (Poland) and is the member of Polish Association for Canadian Studies. Her academic interests focus on poetry, Canadian literature, bilingualism, memory studies and autobiographical writing.

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Title: Bilingual Autobiographical Poetry of Henry Beissel