Paper and Poetics

The essay investigates selected writing scenes with regard to a comprehensive poetics of paper. In these scenes, writing materials are subject to literary contemplation, in accordance with their specific material properties. Size, color, texture, and even the watermarks of paper are carefully chosen by writers and can thus become part of the message. The essay examines the nexus between the writing tool and literary production, between media use and reflections on media, with examples drawn from the work of Clemens Brentano, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Walter Benjamin.