“Imago für imago von der Schöpferwelt dort draußen”—Durs Grünbeins Vom Schnee oder Die Melancholie der Sprache.

Images play a major role in the works of the contemporary German poet Durs Grünbein, especially in his volume Vom Schnee oder Descartes in Deutschland. At first glance this complex epic poem seems to focus on modern rationalism and the logic of language, yet closer analysis reveals it to be a poetic meditation on the erratic nature of images. In a Baroque orbis pictus Grünbein's Descartes sets out on a highly emblematic Winterreise through thought, only to discover that what remains is the enigma posed by images themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]