v. 431

Quest for Modernity

by Rob Burns

Published 31 December 1981
The work of Arno Holz embraces a wide diversity of literary forms ranging from activist poetry and Naturalist prose to formalism and experimental writing. By tracing Holz's persistent concern with form and relating him to literary developments in the twentieth century this study assesses the claim made by Holz himself and reiterated by literary criticism in the sixties that he was the real pioneer of modernism in German literature.