"sappho gibt es nicht"

Sappho from Lesbos, born in the seventh century BC, was the first canonical female voice in Europe. From antiquity on she was appreciated in art/ artistically received, even if – or perhaps precisely because – her biography lies in the dark and most of her poetry is lost. To this day, the fascination that emanates from the enigmatic poetess and her shattered homoerotic verses about longing, beauty and farewell has not diminished – on the contrary: This book/volume demonstrates that in the German-language poetry of the 20th and 21st centuries Sappho is more present than ever before. Single exemplary analyses that stick close to the text show the fruitful interplay between archaic and modern poetry. At the same time, the timeless modernity of Sappho’s poetry is explained from a literary perspective.