Abstract

Erich Arendt belongs to a generation of German poets, who, publishing their first works just before the second world war, were forced into the isolation of exile at a crucial point in their poetic development. Although many writers suffered severely under the demands of this aloneness, Arendt's creativity flourished in exile. This is the first book to examine the effect of exile on Erich Arendt's poetry, beginning with his earliest works, published in Der Sturm, tracing his contribution to the Republican effort in the Spanish Civil War as a front reporter, translator, and socially committed poet, and, finally, describing his fascination with the elemental in the tropics of Colombia. This study concludes with an examination of Arendt's difficult adjustment to life after exile, identifying his unique contribution to the literature of the German Democratic Republic.