Modern literature is characterized by its claim to singularity, originality, and inimitability. In order to create something new, however, knowledge of tradition is indispensable. The claim to finality exemplified by Thomas Kling’s ‘poetics of final difference’ goes one step further. In his poems “Das brennende Archiv” and “geschrebertes idyll für mike feser” Kling presents a detailed examination of tradition in order not only to destroy and overcome it but also to bring it to an end – by meta-phorically burning, shredding, and grilling it.

Keywords: tradition, claim to finality, poetics of final difference, Thomas Kling, de(con)struction