Public and Poetic Wars of Liberation: August von Platen’s Ghazals, Patriotism, and Homoeroticism

Abstract

ABSTRACT August von Platen responded to Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan by composing original German ghazals that allowed him to explore his sexuality and relationship to the Fatherland through the rigorous embrace of a foreign poetic form. This ‘Divanic approach’ was neither exoticizing nor Orientalizing because it focused on the pre-existence of the Other within the Self. Platen’s response helps clarify that Goethe called for intracultural dialogue to serve as a prerequisite for intercultural engagement.