Nelly Sachs’ second volume of poetry,
Sternverdunkelung[
Eclipse of the Stars], appeared in spring 1949 through Bermann Fischer (Amsterdam), a publisher largely dedicated to the production of work by exiled German-language writers. As in Sachs’ first poetry collection,
In den Wohnungen des Todes[
In the Dwellings of Death, 1947], much of the subject matter of
Sternverdunkelungconfronts the Nazi genocide of Jews. The style of confrontation and the questions engendered by this confrontation, however, expand beyond the immediate reference system of the Holocaust into larger questions of history, memory, time, and geo-politics. The themes and imagery explore boundaries: between nations (in particular Israel, both as a nation and as an idea), conditions (life and death, silence and…
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Citation: Hoyer, Jennifer. "Sternverdunkelung". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20749, accessed 23 November 2024.]