IAS Invited Lecture Series on Contemporary German-language literature and its selected Nobel Prize winners

Lectures:

Organisers: prof. UAM dr hab. Joanna Drynda and prof. UAM dr hab. Justyna Krauze-Pierz

Errllauf - Herta Müller's poetics of obstinacy

Norbert Otto Eke, Prof. Dr. Hab., born 1958. Studied German and theology at e.g. the Free University of Berlin. Doctorate in 1988 with a dissertation on the playwright Heiner Müller, post-doctoral degree in 1995 – a study of the German drama on the French Revolution around 1800; since 2006 professor of modern German literary studies with a focus on literary theory, theatre and German-Jewish literature at the University of Paderborn; earlier professor of German literature at the Universiteit van Amsterdam; research stays in the USA and China as well as visiting professorships in Hungary (Budapest), USA (Athens / Georgia), Cuba (Havana), and Japan (Tokyo). His research focuses on literary theory and aesthetics at the interface of philology, theatre, cultural, and media studies. He focuses on literature and theatre from the 18th to the 21st century, in particular on the Vormärz and contemporary literature and German-Jewish literature.

Norbert Otto Eke is the editor of the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie and Amsterdamer Beiträge zuer neueren Germanistik as well as a member of the editorial board of German Monitor.

keywords: Herta Müller, poetics of obstinacy, “wild semiosis”, metaphorizations, metonymizations, experience of foreignness

Nobel laureate in literature Elfriede Jelinek: satirist, playwright and destroyer of myths

Dagmar von Hoff, Dr. Hab., university professor of modern German literary history with a focus on German media studies and the aesthetics of text-oriented media at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Doctorate in 1988 on Dramas of the Feminine. German Dramatists around 1800 at the University of Hamburg, post-doctoral degree in 2002 on Family Secrets. Return of Incest Themes in Contemporary Literature and Film at Humboldt University in Berlin. Visiting professorships at the Universidade Classica de Lisboa, Smith College (Massachusetts), the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and the Universidade de São Paulo. 2015 Awarded the Casimirus Magnus Medal by the Kazimierz Wielki University of Bydgoszcz as part of the joint German Institute partnership.

title: Nobel laureate in literature Elfriede Jelinek: satirist, playwright and destroyer of myths

keywords: (Jelinek), media, theatre, satire, violence, music

Peter Handke and the Nobel Prize

Klaus Kastberger, b. 1963 in Gmunden, professor of modern literature in German at the University of Graz Franz-Nabl-Institute and head of Literaturhaus Graz. Literary critic and cultural journalist, he works on concepts of exhibitions and series of events (including the literary show Robots with Mustard). Head of research projects, editor of the historical-critical edition of Ödön von Horváth and the book series Literature and Archive and Graz Lectures on the Art of Writing. Book publications (selection): On the obstinacy of writing. Modes of Production of Modern Austrian Literature (2007); Graz. With writers in special places in the city (ed., 2018), Heimat und Horror with Elfriede Jelinek (ed. with Stefan Maurer), Gerhard Fritsch: You can’t live as you want. Diaries (ed. 2019).

Keywords: Peter Handke’s complete works, Yugoslavia conflict, Austrian literature after 1945

Heinrich Böll: Nobel laureate in the no-man's land between the “classics” and the “contemporaries”

Georg Langenhorst (1926), Dr. Hab., since 2006 Professor for Didactics of Catholic Religious Education at the Catholic-Theological Faculty of the University of Augsburg. Research focus: theology and literature. Numerous book publications, including 30 Years of the Nobel Prize. Heinrich Boell. On the literary-theological effectiveness of Heinrich Böll, Münster 2002 LIT-Verlag; Theologie und Literatur. A manual, Darmstadt 2005: Scientific Book Society; In what word will our homesickness reside? Religious Motives in Modern Literature. Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2020: Herder-Verlag.

Keywords: Catholic literature; political commitment; teller of contemporary history; short story and novel; pending rediscovery

Günter Grass - a German author of the world

Volker Neuhaus, Universitätsprofessor (em.) Dr. b. 1943, studied German philology, theology and comparative literature from 1962 in Zurich and Bonn and graduated with state exams in 1967 and doctorate in 1968. Worked in cultural promotion, wrote his post-doctoral dissertation in modern German and comparative literature at the University of Cologne 1975, where he was professor from 1977 to 2008, focusing on Goethe and his time and the European-American novel, including the detective novel, and post-war literature, especially Günter Grass (editor of the 1987-2007 editions of the work, several monographs, a biography, and numerous articles on him). Visiting professorships in the USA and Australia, including the 1995 Max Kade Distinguished Professor at Indiana State University, Bloomington.

Keywords: Grass’s global renown; His personal gifts; His career; Chronological overview of his literary work; Grass as a man from the point of view of a long-time friend