By analyzing how protest fused the politics of reading and writing in 1968 West Germany, author Peter Schweppe uncovers the vibrant history of alternative literary form during a watershed moment of social upheaval. Out of Line interlinks the politics of reading and writing with the verve of Global Sixties’ protest, where fringe books, underground newspapers, incendiary flyers, and furtive graffiti galvanized readers and writers alike. The phrase “out of line” scrutinizes the emerging performative relationship between visual and textual media in the late 1960s as it metamorphosed modes of West German literary production, channeled the agenda of the protest movement, and, in doing so, shaped new kinds of textual meaning. Through its engagement with theories of materiality and “things,” Out of Line interrogates the dynamic ways that protest readers and writers pushed and broke conventional boundaries. Schweppe’s exploration of form discloses how reading and writing out of line implicates a textual and material history of protest and the lessons it offers protest histories to come.

Peter Schweppe is Associate Professor of German Studies at Montana State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Literary Form and/in Protest
Chapter 1: Book Trouble
Chapter 2: Periodical Platform
Chapter 3: Revolting Marginalia
Chapter 4: Writing Walls
Conclusion: Literary Form and its (Dis)Contents
Bibliography