The reception of the historical avant-garde in West Germany between 1945 and 1960 (working title)

Based on the thesis that a reception of the historical avant-garde did not only take place in the late 1950s and 1960s, as most research suggests, but was already resumed or continued from 1945 onwards, the dissertation aims to analyse the reception of the historical avant-garde between 1945 and 1960 in the Western zones and the Federal Republic of Germany on the basis of selected literary-critical and essayistic writings. The planned dissertation aims to close a research gap by analysing the early (non-literary) writings of various post-war authors (including Alfred Döblin, Gottfried Benn and Peter Rühmkorf) as well as essayistic and literary-critical contributions from selected journals (including Zwischen den Kriegen, Studentenkurier and Texte und Zeichen) with regard to their reference to the historical avant-garde and its function. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the reception of the historical avant-garde and to relate it to the debates on the state of literature in the literary field of West Germany between 1945 and 1960.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr Sabine Kyora

Daria Engelmann: Alfred Döblin’s literary-political commitment to Expressionism in the early post-war period (1946–1951). In: International Alfred Döblin Colloquium, Mainz 2024: Alfred Döblin’s Position in Post-War Society and Literature. Edited by Gabriele Sander. Bern [et al.]: Lang (= Yearbook for International German Studies. Series A: Conference Proceedings) [in preparation for publication].

Daria Engelmann: Backwarded Foreword. Peter Rühmkorf’s Continuation of the Historical Avant-Garde in the Context of the German Restoration Discourse after 1945. In: Journal of Avant-Garde Studies. Vol. 5 (2025) No. 2. pp. 139–172. DOI: 10.1163/25896377-bja10014

Daria Engelmann: Debates on the Assessment of Expressionism in 1947 in the Journals *Merkur*, *Das goldene Tor* and *Hochland*. In: Germanica. Vol. 74 (2024). pp. 17–34. DOI: 10.4000/11w1c

Daria Engelmann: The Path out of ‘Intellectual Displacement’ – Reflections on the post-war literary landscape through Egon Holthusen’s reception of the avant-garde. In: Karsten Schmidt and Haimo Stiemer (eds.): Bourdieu in German Studies. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2022. pp. 273–300. DOI: 10.1515/9783110761122-012

Daria Engelmann: Gottfried Benn in Hans Egon Holthusen’s *Der unbehauste Mensch*. On the literary reception of the historical avant-garde between 1945 and 1951. In: Benn-Forum. Essays on Literary Modernism. Vol. 7. 2020/2021. pp. 93–116. DOI: 10.1515/9783110729658-006

10 October 2026
Secret knowledge as a practice of distinction. Epistemic elites and social identity in Walter Moers’ Zamonia novels *The City of Dreaming Books * and *The Island of a Thousand Lighthouses*. Lecture at the conference ‘“A life usually begins at birth – mine did not.” The search for and construction of identity in Walter Moers’s work’ at Chemnitz University of Technology from 9–10 October 2026.

2 April 2025
The Reception of the Historical Avant-Garde in West Germany from 1945 to 1949. Lecture at the Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Research & Didactics workshop at the University of Oldenburg from 2–3 April 2025.

9 December 2022
‘And is a girl really the opposite of a boy?’ The subversive potential of trans life narratives in contemporary German-language children’s and young adult literature. Lecture at the 12th Gender Studies Day organised by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Oldenburg.

15 November 2022
The autonomous concept of youth in Boris Bas Backer’s *Küsse für Jet* (2020). Presentation at the conference ‘Childhood in the Media: Constructions of Childhood and Youth in Contemporary Comics’ at the University of Oldenburg, 14–15 November 2022.

6 October 2022
‘A Ham Tour into Modernity’. On the function of Peter Rühmkorf’s literary-critical reception of the historical avant-garde between 1953 and 1959. Presentation at the conference “Literature of the Early Federal Republic: Material Cultures and Media Public Spheres”, a postdoctoral workshop at Philipps University of Marburg from 6–7 October 2022.

26 September 2022
The continuation of the historical avant-garde in literary-critical debates of the early post-war period. Presentation at the conference ‘Ambiguities’, 27th Germanists’ Congress at the University of Paderborn, 25–28 September 2022.

8 April 2022
Negative reception of the avant-garde, or: Expressionism as a ‘spirit-hostile’ phenomenon in the work of Hans Rudolf Oehlhey. Online lecture as part of the Young Scholars’ Forum “Post-War Literature”, organised by the Johannes Bobrowski Society in co-operation with literary scholars from the Universities of Göttingen, Mainz/Germersheim, Nijmegen and Potsdam on 8 April 2022.

23 July 2021
The reception of the historical avant-garde in West Germany between 1945 and 1960. Online lecture as part of DocColloq, the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Colloquium at the University of Trier, 7 May–3 September 2021.

2 June 2021
Commitment in the poetry of Wolfdietrich Schnurre. Guest lecture in Prof. Dr Thomas Boyken’s online seminar on ‘Children’s and Young Adult Literature after 1945: Kästner, Bergengruen, Schnurre’ at the University of Oldenburg from 14 April to 14 July 2021.

25 March 2021
The West German literary scene of the early post-war period as reflected in Holthusen’s reception of the historical avant-garde. Presentation at the online conference “Bourdieu in German Studies” at the University of Oldenburg on 25 March, 26 March and 8 April 2021.