Ingeborg Bachmann, one of the greatest German-language writers of the last century, delivered these astonishing lectures on the questions of poetics at Frankfurt University in 1959 and 1960.
In these lucid and dazzling lectures, Bachmann leads us to the essence of literature, which was, at least for her, the essence of everything. Almost like a curious astronomer, Bachmann guides us through different constellations of writers (Proust, Joyce, Kafka, Celan, Benn, Pound), their forms, orbits, and interactions, as well as through the disruptive force of poetics, the naming of things, and the nebulous and immersive language of utopia.
Bachmann’s voice is rare and strong—strong enough to transport us to a new domain of fiction.
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
Bachmann writes in a Cubist prose of sudden cutoffs and reconnections that is acute and moving. She manages to convey that women are playing out the Europe of their time and before their time.
— The New Yorker
Her vision is so original that the effect is like having a new letter of the alphabet.
— The Guardian
The most intelligent and important woman writer our land has produced this century.
