Composition, Variation, Edition as Interpretation: On Publishing Poetry Collections

Abstract

Composition, Variation, Edition as Interpretation: On Publishing Poetry Collections

Clara Fisher

Dissertation under the direction of Professor Barbara Hahn

Around the turn of the century into the 20th, a phenomenon of poetry collections with multiple varying but interconnected publications began appearing. These do not fit a typical understanding of a single work published in a one final form, and have to date neither been classified nor sufficiently represented or considered in the field of literature. This dissertation highlights Else Lasker-Schüler’s Hebräische Balladen, published six times in six different forms over a span of eight years, alongside Arno Holz’ Phantasus and Bertolt Brecht’s Hauspostille, similar examples of the phenomenon here referred to as a work-group. Lasker-Schüler’s Hebräische Balladen form the focus of this research; her reasons for creating such a work-group are less explicit than with either Holz or Brecht, and a lack of viable scholarship on her own publications rather than on corrupt versions constructed and published by editors after her death make adequate presentation and reception a rather urgent matter. This dissertation examines the problem of terminology, including the concepts of work and version, as well as potential causes for this phenomenon stemming from publishing and the book market in the early 20th century and from the genre of poetry and its unique relationship between part-to-whole in the forms of collections and cycles. This is followed by an investigation of the edition and reception history of Lasker-Schüler’s Hebräische Balladen and a reflection on how such a work-group might be presented accessibly in an edition, with all publications made available, thereby enabling the reading and interpretation of what Lasker-Schüler created, as she created it.