Hans Magnus Enzensberger, an outstanding lyrical poet, a superb essayist and a prominent, controversial figure in the German post-war cultural scene, celebrated his eightieth birthday on 11 November 2009. For Enzensberger, political engagement, cultural critique and literary aesthetics are inseparable. His lyrical and essayistic oeuvre resonates with the pressing concerns of Germany and the world at large after World War II: the armament race, democracy, capitalism versus socialism, rampant consumerism, the dialectics of historical processes, the mind-altering influence of the electronic media and, more recently, German pre- and post-unification everyday “normalcy” and Islamic terrorism. Enzensberger has worked with and in a variety …
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Citation: Knapp, Gerhard P.. "Hans Magnus Enzensberger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 April 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12738, accessed 21 November 2024.]
