oa ‘WAS HÄTTEN VERSE VON DIESER DEZENZ ZU FÜRCHTEN’

On homosexuality and poetry

Concepts of homosexuality circulate in the societal domain and affect literary culture. The first half of the twentieth century saw an increasing domestication of the public domain regarding homosexual practices. Using three perspectives – text, authorial posture, and reception – and focussing on a specific case, a volume of apparently homo-erotic poetry, this article identifies all kinds of tensions: poems touching on homo-erotic subjects while simultaneously covering them up by complex poetic devices; the poet’s posture invoking homo-erotic icons, yet refusing to be outspoken; a progressive critic reading the volume and struggling to reconcile extra-literary and literary norms.