Durs Grünbein: poetiche dello spazio

My doctoral thesis is dedicated to the study of spaces and places in the work of the German poet Durs Grünbein. The first chapter deals with an excursus on the space studies, beginning with some of the canonical authors of the 20th century, to arrive to its latest theorists, which constitutes a useful methodological ground for the further development of my analysis. This section ends with the attempt to apply the space studies, in particular the so-called spatial turn, to the literary studies. Afterwards my thesis is carried out according a thematic criterion: the second chapter consists of an analysis of Grünbein’s work by means of the categories outlined in the first part (heterotopias, non-places, places of memory), while the third chapter focuses on some peculiarly grünbeinian poetics of space, such as borders, like in the long poem dedicated to the philosopher Descartes. The fourth and last chapter deals with the “water topic”: after sheding light on Grünbein’s persistence of the idea of water as a place I have investigated its poetic and poetological worth, as well as its proximity to the myth (Atlantis) and through it to the recent German-German history.