Adrienne Rich’s poem “What Kind of Times Are These” ends by stating that it is “necessary” to perform this action. For 10 points each:
[10h] Paul Celan’s poem “Ein Blatt” replies to a poetic remark about what action? In “To Those Born After,” Bertolt Brecht wrote that performing this action is “almost a crime / Because it entails a silence about so many misdeeds!”
ANSWER: talking about trees [or conversation about trees; or “Ein Gespräch über Bäume”; accept answers that use word forms or close synonyms of talking or conversing; prompt on partial answers]
[10e] Under the Nazis, many poets turned to “talking about trees” by writing nature lyrics on the model of Romantic poets, like this author of the ode “Des Morgens,” hymns like “Der Ister,” and Hyperion.
ANSWER: Friedrich Hölderlin [or Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin]
[10m] Celan showed off his extensive tree knowledge during his much-scrutinized 1967 visit to this building, which is discussed in Anne Carson’s Economy of the Unlost. Elfriede Jelinek’s play Totenauberg puns on the location of this building in the Black Forest.
ANSWER: Martin Heidegger’s hut [or Die Hütte; or equivalents of Martin Heidegger’s chalet, cottage, or house; prompt on Todtnauberg; prompt on hut, chalet, cottage, or house]
<JB, European Literature>