Frame and Preparation
“mit anderen Augen” and “ein Seefahrer ertrank” from Geteilte Mündung: Gedichte
Conceptual Frames and Background
- Race and migration in Germany
- Body and language
- Alternative modes of seeing
- Visceral perception of language
- Dismembering precedes re-membering
- Fluidity, unity, inclusion
Introduction
These two poems were published in the collection Geteilte Mündung and focus on the fluid relationship between language, body, and perception.
The second poem (“ein Seefahrer ertrank”) is quite a bit more opaque than the first and would be more suitable for a very advanced class (e.g. at a graduate level)
Text and Discussion
Here you will find a word document with the two short poems:
Below is a series of questions, followed by answers as bulleted comments from which further discussion questions could be developed:
What is the individual’s relationship to language in these poems?
- Emphasis on the body; there is a visceral relationship to language
What are these poems about?
- Embodied language
- taking language apart that we perceive as a unitary whole
Is there an Other in these poems? If yes, what or who is it?
- Problematizes the separation between the “eigen” and the Other
Developed by Kristin Dickinson, Karl-Georg Federhofer , Ramona Uritescu-Lombard.