Title: The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature as a Reaction to Dictatorship: Disjunction and Dissidence in the Inner Emigration
Abstract: The term “Inner Emigration” invariably elicits a response. While some insist that the idea of resistance by authors whom the National Socialists tolerated is oxymoronic, others staunchly defend them as subversive forces who deliberately and with dedication sought to counteract the entrenchment of Nazi values. Dissidence itself, to complicate matters, has been variously interpreted, with many critics questioning the value of texts which, as a result of the political situation, were forced to be oblique. While camouflage techniques such as the setting of a novel in a remote time and/or place and the use of complex metaphor are well documented, the use of nature in the expression of dissidence is an area which merits further consideration. As an integral concern in Germany within the remit of history, culture and identity, nature was well suited to eluding censorship, and yet through the exploration of ideas such as the simple life, the verkehrte Welt and the concept of subjectivity in relation to political power, some authors of the Inner Emigration constructed a challenge to the Nazi self-conception of omnipotence and to the thoughtless adoption of the Party’s values. Such achievements are recognised almost universally in the context of explicit dissidence, and this paper examines the extent to which they are valid claims within the Inner Emigration’s literary application of nature.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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