English world rights (Seagull)
There is no human quality that is older and more vital to survival than love. He who loves, it is said, loves with every fiber of his being. At the same time, as Bizet's Carmen proclaims, love is »free as a bird«. How different it is from other good things, from simple friendliness, lasting peace, un-breached contracts and balanced accounts!
It is an »attractor«, undeniable as the gravity that sets the stars in their dance. Yet it is also so similar to that dark force that propels us into the unknown future. In this labyrinth of contradictions, one can lose his bearings. In times of emergency and financial crisis, the power of tenderness wields its full opposing force in its telling. There it possesses its own economy.
Most of the 166 love stories collected here were written long ago. They were hiding within Alexander Kluge's 2000 texts. Basisgeschichten was one of their names. Now they are reassembled by theme, brought into the company of new stories and reflections and sent on a flight across the topography of love. The flight ends on a high plateau, at the heart of the most beautiful love saga from an unsentimental tradition and a canonical text of the modern era on the economics of interpersonal relationships: Princesse de Clèves by Madame de La Fayette.
Persons
Alexander Kluge
Alexander Kluge, born in 1932, is the director of numerous films and countless TV broadcasts as well as an author, but: »My books are my most important work.« He has received numerous awards for his oeuvre.
Alexander Kluge, born in 1932, is the director of numerous films and countless TV broadcasts as well as an author, but: »My books are my...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Sand and Time
»Wisdom is the art of remaining faithful under shifting circumstances«
Anselm Kiefer and Alexander Kluge have been friends for many years – and they share an aesthetic and analytical interest in the deeply human possibility of reliability. But what is reliability?...
English world rights (Seagull)
War Primer 2023
»War is back.« Alexander Kluge begins his latest book with this first of six stations, prompted by a war of aggression that is initially being waged in a European setting, but...
English world rights (Seagull)
The Book of Comments
English world rights (Seagull)
Circus / Commentary
English world rights (Seagull)
Russia Container
Not just in light of a currently contested pipeline but also after centuries of both exchange and rejection, Russia and Germany were and are as far away from each other as they are connected. The...
English world rights (Seagull), Russia (Garage)
World-Changing Rage
Rage and obstinacy are closely related. In the work of Georg Baselitz and Alexander Kluge they are fundamental categories. Rage is dynamic: it can grow and suddenly erupt into flaming protests,...
English world rights (Seagull)
Kong’s Finest Hour
To dissolve theory in concrete stories has been Alexander Kluge’s lifelong approach. To him, there is music in the texture of thoughts, and so with this book, Chronicle of...
30 April 1945
English world rights (Seagull), France (P.O.L.)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (W.A.B.)
Dispatches from Moments of Calm
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture)
Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor
Alexander Kluge's work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, and the extermination of the Jews forms its gravitational center. Kluge is forever reminding us to keep our present...
English world rights (Seagull), Italy (Finis Terrae), Serbia (Kulturni Centar Novog Sada)
Drilling through Hard Boards
English world rights (Seagull), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa)
December
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture), France (Diaphanes), Italy (La Grande Illusion), Turkey (Everest)
Air Raid
Alexander Kluge’s account The Air Raid on Halberstadt on 8 April 1945 first appeared in 1977. Exactly twenty years later, it became one of the most important points of reference...
English world rights (Seagull), France (Diaphanes), Italy (Meltemi), Netherlands (Cossee), Korea (Moonji), Turkey (Ketebe), Israel (Pitom)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Machado), Poland (Ossolineum)
Cinema Stories
The 120 stories of this volume are literary essays told in Alexander Kluge's customary short and laconic style. At the same time, they also expose director Kluge's deep fondness for...
Spanish rights Latin America (Caja negra), France (Diaphanes)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (L'Orma), Turkey (Lemis)
The Devil's Blindspot
English world rights (New Directions), France (P.O.L.), Israel (Pitom)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Anagrama)
Chronicle of Feelings
Russia (NLO), France (P.O.L.)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (New Directions), Sweden (Brutus Östling)