Transfer and Exchange

Author Joshua Groß is taking over the prestigious poetry professorship at Goethe University. Starting on June 9, 2026, he will explore the literary self in our digital age under the title “Thinking in Avatars” at the Westend Campus.

Joshua Groß, Frankfurt’s new poetry professor, on his writing practice, the languages of change, and his influences in contemporary German-language literature.

An interdisciplinary series by the Frankfurt Humanities Research Centre and Frankfurt University Library

Literature is a miniature reflection of society – both of the fundamental upheavals that are occurring at an ever-faster pace and of the very crises that define our social, political, economic, and aesthetic present. In 1989, writers were once again thrust onto the grand stage of history. During the demonstrations on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, many looked to East German author Christa Wolf for political and moral orientation. But the years after reunification fundamentally reshaped Germany’s literary public sphere. Fierce debates erupted as part of the so-called “German-German literary dispute” (deutsch-deutscher Literaturstreit) surrounding figures such as Botho Strauß, Peter Handke, Martin Walser, and Günter Grass, reflecting broader conflicts over memory, identity, and political responsibility. By the late 1990s, Popliteratur had reduced authors to brands among many others, while Amazon quietly began testing the mechanisms of digital capitalism through the book market. Literature had entered a new era – though not the one many had once hoped for.