'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling

The First World War is a recurrent theme in the work of the contemporary poet Thomas Kling, whose texts engage with this harrowing period of European history through a wide range of personal and official, verbal and visual testimonies. Kling is particularly interested in the role of the Great War as...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Duttlinger, C
Other Authors: Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: W. S. Maney & Son Ltd. 2005
Subjects:
_version_ 1797095642460323840
author Duttlinger, C
author2 Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
author_facet Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
Duttlinger, C
author_sort Duttlinger, C
collection OXFORD
description The First World War is a recurrent theme in the work of the contemporary poet Thomas Kling, whose texts engage with this harrowing period of European history through a wide range of personal and official, verbal and visual testimonies. Kling is particularly interested in the role of the Great War as the first modern 'media war' whose depiction in the photography and film has shaped its perception by historical witnesses and present-day viewers alike. However, Kling's primary interest is not in the media as a source of accurate historical evidence; rather, he is interested in the deeply precarious, even paradoxical relationship between the technical media and personal memory. Although film and photography provide tangible testimonies of the past, they also symbolize the irreducible gaps between past and present, between official war propaganda and personal experience. Kling's poems highlight the failure of film and photography to capture an accurate image of the War, its chaos and destruction. The technological limitations of the media, however, have their parallel in the failings of human memory where personal trauma and collective repression likewise prevent any wholly successful engagement with the past.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T04:30:46Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:ce3aab48-dfe4-4e5c-a078-eb4b555cc1ac
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T04:30:46Z
publishDate 2005
publisher W. S. Maney & Son Ltd.
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:ce3aab48-dfe4-4e5c-a078-eb4b555cc1ac2022-03-27T07:34:16Z'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas KlingJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:ce3aab48-dfe4-4e5c-a078-eb4b555cc1acLiterature (non-English)Literatures of Germanic languagesEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetW. S. Maney & Son Ltd.2005Duttlinger, CModern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)The First World War is a recurrent theme in the work of the contemporary poet Thomas Kling, whose texts engage with this harrowing period of European history through a wide range of personal and official, verbal and visual testimonies. Kling is particularly interested in the role of the Great War as the first modern 'media war' whose depiction in the photography and film has shaped its perception by historical witnesses and present-day viewers alike. However, Kling's primary interest is not in the media as a source of accurate historical evidence; rather, he is interested in the deeply precarious, even paradoxical relationship between the technical media and personal memory. Although film and photography provide tangible testimonies of the past, they also symbolize the irreducible gaps between past and present, between official war propaganda and personal experience. Kling's poems highlight the failure of film and photography to capture an accurate image of the War, its chaos and destruction. The technological limitations of the media, however, have their parallel in the failings of human memory where personal trauma and collective repression likewise prevent any wholly successful engagement with the past.
spellingShingle Literature (non-English)
Literatures of Germanic languages
Duttlinger, C
'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling
title 'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling
title_full 'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling
title_fullStr 'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling
title_full_unstemmed 'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling
title_short 'Grobkörnige mnemosyne': picturing the First World War in the poetry of Thomas Kling
title_sort grobkornige mnemosyne picturing the first world war in the poetry of thomas kling
topic Literature (non-English)
Literatures of Germanic languages
work_keys_str_mv AT duttlingerc grobkornigemnemosynepicturingthefirstworldwarinthepoetryofthomaskling