Censored Works, Exiled Lives, Poetic Remembrances

Abstract

This chapter situates Heine in the family history of writers, who write in countries, where they face the constant threat of censorship and in resisting censors, develop coded languages within tropes that instruct the reader in reading between the lines. The epic verse, Germany, A Winter Fairy Tale, is a work par excellence of a censor resistant allegory. While the volume, in which the epic appeared was continuously banned, the poem circulated in many parts of Germany in shorter form. This chapter also offers a comparative reading of Germany with two non-European epic poems, Human Landscapes from My Country by the Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet (Ran) and Canto General by Pablo Neruda of Chile. These two world-renowned poets of the twentieth century echo Heine’s experience of persecution and exile but also infuse their poetry with an intense affection for their compatriots and for humanity.