German Life & Civilization-The Creation of an Avant-Garde Brand

This book examines how the author Heiner Müller adopted branding strategies to present himself in the public sphere, investigating the impact that this had on his public persona. This study analyzes the self-presentation and promotion of an adversarial author who drew on the ideals of the avant-garde and the artistic critique of capitalism. «Pohlmann’s study offers points of departure for scholarship on authorship, authenticity, and irony in the public sphere; anyone entering debates surrounding Christian Kracht's tricky public persona, for example, would do well to read Pohlmann's study first. All in all, Pohlmann’s book is a clear, readable, well-argued, succinct, and insightful work on an author who often invites dense, impenetrable scholarship.» (Michael Wood, German Studies Review 47.3 (October 2024) «All das ist erkennbar in dieses Buch mit eingegangen, das neben statistischen Grafiken zu Interviewpartnern und Kurven für Aufführungszahlen ein Paradox des immer noch geltenden Müller-Bilds zu erhellen versteht: Nämlich, dass der avantgardistische Autor mit seiner Kapitalismuskritik nicht nur Preisverleihungsgesellschaften verstörte, sondern auch zum begehrten Personal von Boulevardmedien werden konnte.» (Thomas Irmer, Theater der Zeit, 05/2024) «Pohlmann’s study of Müller’s media presence is one of the few English-language books on this important postwar dramatist in the past two decades. Embedded in a discussion of avant-garde aesthetics and ‘branding’ in capitalist market contexts, its nuanced focus examines Müller’s strategies for navigating the East-West divide prior to and after Germany’s unification in 1990.» (Marc Silberman, Professor Emeritus of German, University of Wisconsin–Madison) «The Creation of an Avant-Garde Brand is an impressive scholarly…