Heinrich Heine: An Enduring Inspiration of World Literature

Abstract

This chapter situates Heine in an historical context by marking his role in the transition from the Kunstperiode (the age of art) to modernity. It also offers a comparison with Walter Benjamin, an unacknowledged heir to Heine in the subchapter, “The Signatures of Modernity Across Time: Heinrich Heine and Walter Benjamin.” A second subchapter “Atta Troll: The Modern Allegory in a Political Chord” illustrates Heine’s use of this poetic trope as a veiled socio-political commentary. A final subchapter, “Heine: Meditations of an Untimely Poet for an Age of Global Displacements” relates Heine’s work to that of modern writers of exile and offers a sketch of an Iranian novel written against and as spoof of censorship. The addendum, “Coda,” briefly summarizes Shahriar Mandanipour’s Censoring an Iranian Love Story as an analog to the Heinesque art of resistance against censors.