Abstract
A Chinese examination requires one to record everything felt or recalled within a given time frame. It "tests" an entire life. Karin Kiwus' poetic tools for taking the exam are monumentality, the freezing of imagined history into the dimension of a statue—that then crumbles back into time; and metamorphosis, the subjection of moments and personae to quasi-musical structures of ceaseless variation.
Keywords:
- Keyword: Chinese examination
- Keyword: chinese
- Keyword: record
- Keyword: time frame
- Keyword: feeling
- Keyword: felt
- Keyword: recall
- Keyword: recalled
- Keyword: tests
- Keyword: test
- Keyword: entire life
- Keyword: life
- Keyword: Karin Kiwus
- Keyword: poetry
- Keyword: poetic tool
- Keyword: monumentality
- Keyword: imagined history
- Keyword: freezing
- Keyword: statue
- Keyword: metamorphosis
- Keyword: moments
- Keyword: personae
- Keyword: quasi-musical structures
- Keyword: variation
How to Cite:
Rolleston, J., (1997) “Modernism and Metamorphosis: Karin Kiwus' Das Chinesische Examen”, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 21(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1410
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