“Writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.”

— Theodor W. Adorno

[N]ach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch...
Full quote: Kulturkritik findet sich der letzten Stufe der Dialektik von Kultur und Barbarei gegenüber: nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch, und das frißt auch die Erkenntnis an, die ausspricht, warum es unmöglich ward, heute Gedichte zu schreiben.
Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft [Cultural Criticism and Society] (1951); this quote is more famously known in the forms "No poetry after Auschwitz" or "There can be no poetry after Auschwitz." Sometimes a more specific proscription is made, such as "No lyric poetry after Auschwitz." The influence of the underlying idea can be seen in such derivative statements as "No history after Auschwitz."

Original

Nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch.

Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft, (1951). In: Adorno: Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. 10.1. Frankfurt/M. 1980. S. 11–30.
Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft

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German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for … 1903–1969

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