SOURCE: Krispyn, Egbert. “Expressionists and Expressionism.” In Style and Society in German Literary Expressionism, pp. 25-43. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1964.

In the following excerpt, Krispyn presents an overview of “expressionist” writers in Germany, emphasizing that their goals and style diverged too widely to fit under the umbrella of Expressionism.

The ambivalent feelings with which the expressionists from their position on the periphery of society regarded their fellow citizens determined the expressionist world view. Their feeling of hostility towards the community from which they were excluded, and whose values they had recognized as spurious, accounts for the critical outlook which became their most striking common characteristic. As Fritz Martini declares, “Die alles aufregende, noch heute keineswegs nur historisch gewordene Wirkung der expressionistischen Bewegung lag darin, dass sie rücksichtslos alles Gegebene, Bestehende, Überlieferte in Frage stellte, alle verbürgten, scheinbar endgültigen Ordnungen umwarf und durchstrich.”¹

At the...