Arnold Stadler: Heimat and Metaphysics

This book is the first major study on contemporary German writer Arnold Stadler (*1954), the prize-winning author of numerous novels, poetry, and essays on literature, art, and religion. This study analyzes Stadler's concept of Heimat (homeland) as a larger German cultural phenomenon, showing the author's adaptation of the historical construct to contemporary phenomena, including globalism, new technologies, and multiculturalism. The book includes extensive discussion of history, theology, gender studies, linguistics, literature, and philosophy. With a focus on Stadler's poetry and his first four novels, the book argues that Stadler views Heimat as a mechanism for understanding larger issues in contemporary society. For Stadler, Heimat combines the hope of rejuvenation with resignation in the face of death and passing. These feelings of transitoriness and desire simultaneously enable refuge from the larger world and function as a means for coping with it. In Stadler's works, Heimat is a sign of loss, suggesting a pessimistic view of home, but it is also the object of desire and hope, providing a point of orientation for people adrift in an increasingly global world.