Schiffbau-Box
Botho Strauß, for half a century one of the most significant and controversial voices in German-language literature—and still one of its most frequently performed playwrights—is not a "contemporary author." Convinced that poetry has always been destined to defend a world already lost, he has made his retreat behind the curtain of history not only a poetic program but a guiding principle of life. But how does one engage with a writer who so deliberately steps out of time?
In his essay Thinking After Botho Strauß, recently published by Matthes & Seitz, Philipp Theisohn (Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Zurich) embarks on a search for a man and the traces of his thought—a journey through abandoned texts, landscapes, and republics.
