Krispyn Egbert. Anti-Nazi Writers in Exile

Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1978. — 212 p. — ISBN: 0-8203-0430-1In contrast to the sometimes overly generous treatment of German writers forced into exile by Hitler’s fascist regime, Egbert Krispyn’s assessment applies the strict aesthetic and historical standards of a professional literary critic and historian, putting aside any special pleading for their anti-Nazi political views. This critical approach leads finally to two important conclusions: that the emigrant writers’ sacrifices and opposition to Hitler’s Germany, however courageous, were ultimately futile and that the literature they produced was largely an aesthetic failure, due in part to the very nature of their exile experience. Throughout the study the author employs a wide perspective, examining the interdependence of the personal, political, and literary qualities that marked the emigration. Although generally chronological, the sequence of Anti-Nazi Writers in Exile includes a brief description of literary life in the Third Reich in order to place the exiles in a meaningful context. The later chapters then concentrate on the United States as the scene of the exiles’ greatest activity after the outbreak of World War II. Professor Krispyn concludes that the exiles’ failure to achieve their political and artistic aims constitutes an important political case history within the larger history of Nazi Germany. Artistic and intellectual activities seem powerless to oppose terror and guns, and the turn of the creative mind to political ends seemingly undermines the aesthetic force of creation.1933-1939Background
Between Two Fires
The Cassandra Syndrome
A Year of Decision
The Fall of Europe
Trapped
Excursus
The Other Side1939-1947America as Asylum
The Literary Scene
Victory?
The Aftermath
A Stone FiddleNotes
Bibliography