"What is the poetry of Auschwitz?" — Vanessa Place
Heimrad Bäcker’s Seascape uses documentary material to recount a minor historical episode from World War II: the crew of a German submarine comes upon three men on a Norwegian lifeboat and refuses to take them on board. Bäcker’s account of Nazi inhumanity uncannily echoes Un coup de dés, Marcel Broodthaers’ A Voyage on the North Sea, and other nautical texts of the avant-garde.
Excerpt ˇExcerpt
0800 Qu. AL 0175, SW 4/5,
heavy rain, moderate
seas, poor visibility.
About the Author
Heimrad Bäcker (1925-2003) was an artist, poet, and influential editor of the Austrian avant-garde. He is the author of seven volumes of poetry, includingtranscript (Dalkey Archive Press, 2010). He published major works by Austrian artists and experimental writers in his journal neue texte (1968-1991) and under the imprint of Edition Neue Texte (1976-1992), the publishing house that he ran along with his wife Margret Bäcker. Most of his literary works draw on the methods of concrete and visual poetry to present documentary material about the Shoah. These books were historical and literary, and they were also part of a critical autobiography, an examination of Bäcker’s enthusiastic participation in the Hitler Youth and the Nazi Party. Seascape was Bäcker’s first book; it was published in German in 1985, when he was 60.
About the Translator
Links
Book Details
Hand-bound. 20 pp, 7.75 x 5.75 in.
Publication Date: November 1, 2013
Series: Lost Lit #11
Funding: the City of Linz, the State of Upper Austria, and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture.
- 05.06.15 |Seascape by Heimrad Bäcker reviewed in Rain Taxi
- 04.06.15 | Patrick Greaney's translation of Bäcker's Seascape reviewed in Rain Taxi
- 10.31.14 | Seascape featured on Covertext
- 10.07.14 | Heimrad Bäcker's Seascape reviewed in The Found Poetry Review
- 06.19.14 | Heimrad Bäcker's Seascape reviewed in JAB
- 02.24.14| Seascape exhibited at Abecedarian Gallery
- 01.09.14 | Response to Vanessa Place's review of Seascape for Constant Critic
- 01.06.14 | Seascape by Heimrad Bäcker reviewed by Constant Critic
- 01.01.14 | Heimrad Bäcker exhibition featuring Seascape reviewed in ArtForum
- 11.14.13 | The Poetry Foundation's Harriet: The Blog reviews Heimrad Bäcker’s Seascape
- 11.5.13 | Molossus reviews Heimrad Bäcker's Seascape
News and Reviews
Advance Praise
There is a story behind the few words here that speaks to a larger war, and, indeed, to the nature of humanity. Yet, story is not most important here. Instead, object becomes paramount, and the way Seascape is assembled provides a perfect union of shape and purpose; it offers the desolation of the open ocean, dredges up the consequences of Nazism, and honors the lives of those lost in World War II. The book is a manifestation of the lonely, vast, cold, bleak world with humanity cast as a mere blip on the radar. In fact, this is not a book that is read so much as it is held and examined.—Rebecca Hart Olander
Bernstein writes that Bäcker’s nachschrift “feels for the ground of a post-Englightenment, aftermodern poetry, as a blind person feels for another’s face.” He’s right, and Seascape succeeds not just as aftermodern poem, but as an emotionally compelling work of literature.—Harriet Staff
There is a poetic sort of comfort in the press of the letterpress in this book-object, in the creamy heft of the pages, in the way the work flirts...—Vanessa Place