Th 4th issue of ARIEL-ART 2020 has Show Your Face as its main topic and is dedicated to all those poets who frequently enough still do not get the due attention they deserve. Thus, in this issue, the poems of socially suppressed women poets, of politically silenced male poets as well as of all those poets, who define themselves as authors of QUEER POETRY, will be represented in this issue.
Two literary STELAE are dedicated to two extraordinary women who were destined for a difficult life with an all too early death: Edeltraud Eckert (East-Germany) and Yona Wallach (Israel).
Edeltraud Eckert from the former Soviet zone of East Germany died 65 years ago. Even before her quite extraordinary poetic and musical talent could fully develop, Ms. Eckert was arrested in a cloak and dagger operation by the Soviet NKWD because she had taken part in flyer actions that drew attention to the crimes against humanity performed by communists in the National Socialists’ concentration camps that were continued after World War II by the Soviets. Without trial, Edeltraud Eckert was sentenced to imprisonment, to which, due to inhumane treatment, she succumbed at the age of only 25.
Yona Wallach was an Israeli lyricist who received psychiatric treatment as a teenager because of her „deviant“ sexuality and the considerable social problems resulting from it. Despite all the adverse circumstances in a male-macho dominated society, she succeeded in expressing herself lyrically in a highly artistic way. Today she is considered one of the first feminist poets in Israel. Exactly 35 years ago Yona Wallach died of cancer at the early age of 41.
This issue`s INTERVIEW is dedicated to another famous female poet, who fortunately, is still alive: Rati Saxena (India). She shares with us her poetics, her aesthetics, and her Indian back-ground that has impacted her poetry. Also, several of Saxena’s poems are printed in the POEMS section.
This issue’s PORTRAIT is dedicated to the great German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, whose 250th anniversary coincides with this year of pandemic. Kai Bleifuß (Germany) dedicated his impressive homage to this important German poet, who made significant contributions to German poetry, while his own life still seems to be elusive.
In the DISCOVERIES section you will find a short essay on the definition and literary significance of the fascinating genre of Flash Fiction. The wit of this essay resides not least in the fact that it consists of exactly 750 words, thus, being itself flash fiction.
In an important ESSAY the author and poet, Stefan Hölscher (Germany), discusses novel developments in Queer Poetry and the question, whether there is such a thing as genuine queer poetry. He mentions the achievements of prominent queer poets, such as Sappho from Lesbos, August von Platen and Wystan H. Auden, and then points to contemporary LGBT poets, who often still are facing quite grave problems in a number of countries, particularly those governed by Islamic and other forms of totalitarianism. In contrast, Hölscher rightly stresses the positive developments in Western style democracies. Hölscher shows that queer poetry addresses specific themes and issues related to the self-understanding of LGBT poets in general and to LGBT-associated problems in specific countries.
Thus, the term queer poetry seems to be just as justified as, say, the term political poetry, even though one may wonder, if not a large part of what defines itself today in zeitgeist diction as queer poetry is just love poetry.
Inthe MAIN TOPIC ZONE, matching Hölscher’s essay, several well-known LQGBT poets, such as Klaus Anders (Germany), CRAUSS,(Germany) Mátyás Dunajcsik (Hungary, Germany), Stefan Hölscher (Germany), Eilzaveta Kuryanovich (Russia, Germany) and Peter Salomon (Germany), contributed their poems to this issue. However, also other poets not associated to the queer society contributed poems, some of which are dedicated to recent political events.
Regarding the FICTION section we take pride in being able to present to our audience some very interesting texts that represent the intriguing genre of Micro Fiction that evolved from Flash Fiction. While these genres have been in vogue in the USA for quite some time, they actually are edgy in Europa and other continents. Thus, we are glad to present several micro fictions by Amadé Esperer (Germany) and Christine Schumacher (New Zealand) .