What are the libraries of tomorrow going to look like? Last month, during a dinner, I debated the question with Michael, an architecture student at Gothenburg University. In my view people who lick their fingers to leaf through the pages of books will be an extinct species in future, as printed books are going to…
2015
2015, Literary trends across Europe
What is Austrian about Austrian literature?/ Was ist österreichisch an der österreichischen Literatur?
by Peter Zimmermann •
In Austria, an audience attuned to culture gets indignant if Austrian writers are treated as German writers. This happens now and again – I last noticed it in Eva Menasse’s case in an anthology about German-Israeli relations. I have to admit, people used to get much more hot and bothered. For instance, a few years…
2015, The Migrants
Anyone who doesn’t feel good should go/ Wer sich nicht wohlfühlt, soll gehen/ من لم يشعر بالراحة في مكانه فليغادر نجم والي
by Najem Wali •
One of the magnificent quotes from Nobel Prize Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa about writers and exile is, “Anyone who doesn’t feel good, where he is, should go!” This statement becomes even more powerful when you consider that the Peruvian writer’s life is entirely permeated by politics. One of his works is entitled A Fish in…
2015, Literary trends across Europe
Fahrenheit 451
by Beat Mazenauer •
The ‘Perlentaucher’ website recently published a text by Wolfram Schütte “On the Future of Reading”. It was a flamboyant plea for a critical online journal that could be symbolically known as “Fahrenheit 451”. A lively debate followed, see https://www.perlentaucher.de/essay/perlentaucher-debatte-literaturkritik-im-netz.html Digital media threaten the traditional sinecures yet also offer opt-outs from awkward predicaments. Wolfram Schütte’s plea…
2015, Literary trends across Europe
Rainald Goetz: Reactions to the Georg Büchner Prize/ Reaktionen auf den Georg-Büchner-Preis
by Rainer Moritz •
German-speaking countries have no shortage of literature prizes and scholarships. When sales trends for non-mainstream literature are falling, not rising, such awards are an increasingly important way of providing writers with at least some financial freedom. Alongside the economic factor, literature prizes also serve to enhance writers’ reputation and to offer them the opportunity to…
2015, The Migrants
My experience of migration was prolonged/ Das Auswandern hat sich hingezogen
by Ilma Rakusa •
My experience of migration was prolonged: from my birthplace Rimavská Sobota, the journey led to Budapest, then to Ljubljana and onwards to the divided city of Trieste and in January 1951 to Zurich. I was five years old. My baggage contained three languages: Hungarian, Slovenian and Italian. At school, I soon learned the fourth language,…
2015, Innovations in the digital field, Literary trends across Europe
Tim Krohn’s Human Emotions/ Tim Krohns menschliche Regungen
by Beat Mazenauer •
In contemporary music the digital revolution has resulted in a heavy decline in profits from CD sales. Musicians must therefore find new incomes sources, for instance, with live appearances. Literature cannot expect a similar revolution, yet even writers are thinking about how to fund their lifestyle (apart from literary grants). Revenues from book sales are…
2015, Current, ELit Dossiers 2015
ELit Dossier April to June/ April bis Juni 2015
by Walter Grond •
“The Migrants” In preparation for the main theme of the European Literature Days (22 to 25 October 2015), writers present their views on literature, exile and foreignness. Iman Humaydan, a writer originally from Lebanon and now living in Paris, recounts her haunting (first) encounter with the Salon de Livre, which was boycotted by the Arabs…
2015, The Migrants
From migrant literature to migrant literature/ Von Migrantenliteratur zu Migrantenliteratur
by Lena Gorelik •
For the first novel that I wrote, they loved me – slightly for the novel and slightly for my story. I was twenty-three. I first arrived in Germany when I was eleven and I couldn’t speak a word of this language. Now I wrote a novel about an eleven-year-old girl who arrives in Germany without…
2015, Literary trends across Europe
An inside view of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations
by Judith Vonberg •
Renowned across Europe as a unique and progressive institution, the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations (CAGCR) at Queen Mary, University of London, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Its innovative MA programme, ambitious cultural events schedule and two journals stand testament to the German Embassy’s description of the Centre as ‘an important platform for intellectual debate…