Du holde Kunst. Poetry Reception in the Media after 1945

The radio programme "Du holde Kunst" is the longest regulary transmitted broadcast of the Austrian radio. Up to this day, it has followed an implicit concept that was basically developed when the programme was started in the autumn of 1945: sophisticated poems following the traditional paradigm interspersed with classical music, offering the audience a "wordly worship" (Ernst Schönwiese) on Sunday morning. The fact that the programme focussed almost entirely on poetry does not only emphasize the significance of that genre, but can also serve to elucidate - because of its continuity and only minor alterations in the concept - the conflicting paradigms of Austrian poetry since 1945, from the traditional and traditionalistic to experimental and avant-garde poetry. The aim of the project is to analyze the programme "Du holde Kunst" from a literary- and media-historical point of view as a constituent of the media history of the Second Republic and of the history of literature as a specific branch in broadcasting. Apart from a critical description of the concept in a literary historical context also the political and historical framework is described and discussed. An important section deals with the persons responsible for the programme which can be understood as a signifcant item of the literary system in Austria from 1945 to the present. By describing the literary network around the programme in particular and the persons responsible for it, the role of broadcasting as an institution conveying literature to the public is pointed out. In view of the enormous discontinuity and heterogeneity of literary conceptions and of contemporary poetry that have shaped literature and literary life in Austria over the last decades, the unbroken continuity of "Du holde Kunst" and its cultural and literary-political function has to be critically analyzed. This question in particular shall be the subject of a micro study on the significance of this programme in the literary context of the 1990`s. This is the period of time with a clear database and what is more, there were important personal, structural and programmatic changes in the ORF, which makes the fact even more astonishing that such a programme - that would have to be considered outdated according to several parameters - could still hold on. Thus it is not only the literary historical context of the programme that is supposed to be analyzed and critically assessed. Moreover, the position of literature in the media discourse (poetry reception and the media) shall be investigated and an empirical basis for the contribution of broadcasting to the forming of the image of poetry as a genre shall be worked out.

The radio programme "Du holde Kunst" is the longest regulary transmitted broadcast of the Austrian radio. Up to this day, it has followed an implicit concept that was basically developed when the programme was started in the autumn of 1945: sophisticated poems following the traditional paradigm interspersed with classical music, offering the audience a "wordly worship" (Ernst Schönwiese) on Sunday morning. The fact that the programme focussed almost entirely on poetry does not only emphasize the significance of that genre, but can also serve to elucidate - because of its continuity and only minor alterations in the concept - the conflicting paradigms of Austrian poetry since 1945, from the traditional and traditionalistic to experimental and avant-garde poetry. The aim of the project is to analyze the programme "Du holde Kunst" from a literary- and media-historical point of view as a constituent of the media history of the Second Republic and of the history of literature as a specific branch in broadcasting. Apart from a critical description of the concept in a literary historical context also the political and historical framework is described and discussed. An important section deals with the persons responsible for the programme which can be understood as a signifcant item of the literary system in Austria from 1945 to the present. By describing the literary network around the programme in particular and the persons responsible for it, the role of broadcasting as an institution conveying literature to the public is pointed out. In view of the enormous discontinuity and heterogeneity of literary conceptions and of contemporary poetry that have shaped literature and literary life in Austria over the last decades, the unbroken continuity of "Du holde Kunst" and its cultural and literary-political function has to be critically analyzed. This question in particular shall be the subject of a micro study on the significance of this programme in the literary context of the 1990`s. This is the period of time with a clear database and what is more, there were important personal, structural and programmatic changes in the ORF, which makes the fact even more astonishing that such a programme - that would have to be considered outdated according to several parameters - could still hold on. Thus it is not only the literary historical context of the programme that is supposed to be analyzed and critically assessed. Moreover, the position of literature in the media discourse (poetry reception and the media) shall be investigated and an empirical basis for the contribution of broadcasting to the forming of the image of poetry as a genre shall be worked out.