Poetry and Politics

What does literature have to do with politics?

Why are we interested in the political opinions of writers?

Can politically questionable literature be admired?

From the Enlightenment to the present day: an incisive history of the fraught relationship between literature and politics

Writers, poets and playwrights are often regarded as being well-versed in politics. Why is that? After all, aren’t some novelists closely associated with autocrats? Don’t some poets praise dictators, not to mention antisemites? Some of them toe party lines but some write outstanding literature. Jochen Hörisch traces connections between poets and politics from Wieland to Goethe, and Zola to Amanda Gorman. Those who write important books are not necessarily better versed in politics than anyone else. Important literature – sometimes even if it’s politically incorrect – can, of course, open up new perspectives and in doing so develop our political acuity.


“Associative, roving and steeped in culture, Hörisch makes effortless leaps back and forth in time and between disciplines such as literature, art, music, film and philosophy.”
Manfred Papst, NZZ am Sonntag