1 Transnational Entanglements Switzerland’s Newly Emerging Literary Culture of the 1960s and the Anglophone World Robert Leucht [The German Quarterly 2019] (DRAFT) Keywords: German Swiss Literature, 1960s, Transnational Alliances Abstract: In 1966, Emil Staiger, one of the foremost literary scholars of the postwar era, gave a talk on literature and the public. In his speech, which initiated what came to be known as the Zürcher Literaturstreit, Staiger developed a normative idea of literature as an agent of social cohesion. Around the same time, a new literary culture emerged in Switzerland, one which challenged Staiger’s conception by exploring literature’s critical potential. The article argues that this more modern direction taken by German Swiss literature was the result of transnational entanglements. Focusing on three examples of the new generation (Walter, Federspiel, Bichsel), the article explores the various transnational alliances these writers built with modernist authors, mostly beyond the German-speaking world as a means to breaking with literary conventions. In distinction to the logic of national history the article argues that the local literary conflicts in 1960s Switzerland arose out of transnational dynamics. 1. Literature as an agent of social cohesion – Emil Staiger on literature and the public (1966) On December 17 1966, Emil Staiger (1908–1987) was awarded the Literaturpreis der Stadt Zürich. Staiger was already well known at the time for his Die Kunst der Interpretation (1955), one of the most successful works of literary theory written in the aftermath of WWII. In his acceptance speech, Staiger reflected on the relation between literature and the public sphere. Beginning with the statement that contemporary writers have benefited from the numerous literary prizes provided to them by the community, Staiger maintains that it would only be appropriate to ask how these very writers fulfill their responsibility towards the public. Following up on this question, Staiger goes on to develop the “scenario of a decline”: he claims that all preeminent protagonists of literary history, including Homer, Dante, Goethe, Schiller, and others, have helped to build social cohesion, acting, as he puts it, “verbindlich” (94) in their respective societies. Contemporary literature, on the other hand, has failed to perform this social contribution. According to Staiger, instead of providing the public with positive role models, “vorbildliche […] Gestalten” (95), contemporary novels and dramas are fixated on characters dangerous to the public, “gemeingefährliche […] Existenzen” (93). Furthermore, he claims, these literary texts are situated in dark settings, while only pretending that their negativity derives from an outrage about the present. While the 58-year old argues that writers should not principally avoid touching on the negative, he does expect