English world rights (Seagull)
In his four Lord Weidenfeld Lectures held in Oxford in 2019, poet Durs Grünbein deals with a topic that has occupied his mind ever since the moment he started to perceive his own position within the history of his nation, his language community and his family as historic: How is it possible that HISTORY, the fetish of the humanities since Hegel and Marx, determines the individual imagination into the private niches, into the ludic drive of poetry? Shouldn’t its poetry look at the...
In his four Lord Weidenfeld Lectures held in Oxford in 2019, poet Durs Grünbein deals with a topic that has occupied his mind ever since the moment he started to perceive his own position within the history of his nation, his language community and his family as historic: How is it possible that HISTORY, the fetish of the humanities since Hegel and Marx, determines the individual imagination into the private niches, into the ludic drive of poetry? Shouldn’t its poetry look at the world with its own, sovereign eyes instead?
In the form of a collage or »photosynthesis«, in image and text, Grünbein lets the fundamental opposition between poetic licence and almost overwhelming bondage to history appear in an exemplary way: From the seeming trifle of a stamp with the portrait of Adolf Hitler he moves through the phenomenon of the »Führer’s streets«, the autobahn that is, and into the inferno of aerial warfare. In the end, however, we are faced with an initial experience of powerlessness in writing and the realisation, valid to this day, that come from it: »There is something beyond literature that questions all writing. And there is literature, that intersects history in fictions.«
The renowned Lord Weidenfeld Lectures have been one of the highlights of the academic year at Oxford University since 1993. Invited are distinguished scholars in the humanities, writers and poets. Previous Weidenfeld Visiting Professors of European Comparative Literature include George Steiner, Umberto Eco, Amos Oz and Mario Vargas Llosa.
»[S]ardonic humor, the savagery, the violent candor – all expressed in lines of cool formal elegance.« Helen Vendler, New Republic
»For a rather long time now – approximately, since the Berlin Wall came down – the name Durs Grünbein has been the answer to the question: Who’s the leading young poet in Germany?« James Fenton, Guardian
»Grünbein loves to jump from one register to another – one moment he is the street poet of Berlin, the next ... all marble and ancient philosophy.« Philip Ottermann, Independent
»Durs Grünbein‘s fascinating attempt at an alternative history of the Nazi era.« Manfred Osten, DIE WELT
»With his – in the best sense – politically engaged lectures Durs Grünbein makes his contribution against the disastrous longing for a closed-off society.« Kai Sina, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»Durs Grünbein‘s brilliant stream of thought should be discussed and read by many.« Peter Helling, NDR
»Grünbein’s inspired reseach is as convincing as the different perspective with which he makes the familiar unfamiliar once more.« Hermann Wallmann, WDR
»Based on historic detail and equipped with enormous knowledge, [Durs Grünbein] traces historic coordinates and searches for the connections between technology, ideology and language.« Jörg Schieke, MDR KULTUR
»[S]ardonic humor, the savagery, the violent candor – all expressed in lines of cool formal elegance.« Helen Vendler, New Republic
»For a rather long time now – approximately, since the Berlin Wall came down – the name Durs Grünbein has been the answer to the question: Who’s the leading young poet in Germany?« James Fenton, Guardian
»Grünbein loves to jump from one register to another...
Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, read theatre studies in Berlin, after which he worked as a freelancer writing for various literary magazines. He is one of the most important and internationally influential German poets and essayists and the recipient of numerous prestigious literary prizes. His debut volume of poetry published in 1988 was entitled Grauzone morgens and he went on to publish nearly twenty collections of poetry including Vom Schnee oder Descartes in Deutschland (2003), Der Misanthrop auf Capri (2005), Porzellan. Poem vom Untergang meiner Stadt (2005) and Zündkerzen (2017). He is also the author of a collection of essays and opera librettos. He has translated the tragedies of Aeschylus and Seneca into...
Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, read theatre studies in Berlin, after which he worked as a freelancer writing for various literary...
»Now they were all mere playthings in the grasping arms of a state order such as had never existed before. An order that could only be destroyed from the outside by lightning and...
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People's Publishing House), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)
English world rights (Seagull)
The title of a book of poetry could not be any more provocative, and still the poet allows no room for doubt: »In general, that which we call reality is greatly overestimated.«...
France (selection; 17 Muscles)
Spark Plugs is a collection of 83 poems in diverse forms consisting of dream fragments, snippets of speech, prose poems, broken sonnets, and sequences that read like accident reports....
Italy (selection; Einaudi)
English world rights (Seagull), Sweden (Ersatz)
What is going on? The Americans are abandoning the moon, leaving the earth’s seemingly dead companion to stragglers. Time to recapitulate: On a Sunday afternoon in Berlin, on the airfield of the disused Tempelhof Airport, poet Durs Grünbein makes a momentuous observation.
What if humanity only ever wanted to return from its adventures in space exploration? Yesterday it was the...Durs Grünbein’s volumes of poetry are known for grasping their subjetcs in larger and larger circles, in their concentric sprawl they seem made for this age of globalisation. His new collection of poetry follows the outline of an exhibition. Works from the last five to eight years are presented in seven sections.
There are images of a journey, excursions into the unknown routine,...
Proceeding on the observation that poetics that create norms and set benchmarks no longer existed, Grünbein traces his poetic career as a »sketch of a personal psychopoetics«.
This...
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Turkey (Ketebe)
The term »metaphor« derives from the Greek metà phérein (»to carry elsewhere«), which, in Antiquity, usually meant »by ship«, so that sea travel itself soon became a metaphor for poetry....
English world rights (FSG), Sweden (Ersatz), Albania (Aleph Klub)
Durs Grünbein visited Japan four times, in pursuit of a long elective affinity for the East that is also reflected in his works. During all of the four journeys he kept a travel journal in the...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Voix de Plumes)
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Sweden (Ersatz)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
This volume contains 25 essays. It provides a chronological rip cut of Durs Grünbein‘s rich essay writing over the course of more than 15 years – from the early, much-quoted texts...
Italy (Einaudi)
English world rights (Seagull)
The Misanthrope on Capri (a reference to emperor Tiberius) gathers Durs Grünbein’s »histories«, printed in various publications and in his own volumes of poetry – poems that mainly deal...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (Slowo)
France (Greges), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Greece (Keedros)
In the nine essays and speeches collected in this volume, Durs Grünbein circles the prerequisites, conditions and consequences of writing.
»The intimate tries to assert itself through writing,« he says, »paradoxically by exposing itself publicly. But it soon becomes clear that the public is nothing by a particularly impervious protective layer.« Grünbein lets the reader partake in...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Hungary (Jelenkor)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)