English world rights (Seagull)
»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 with global impact. The author aims neither to take sides nor to make an appeal. Rather, he is concerned with the »mole that is war«, its tenacious and often subterranean survival, with how it changes people and the life of its own that it can develop.
What the author...
»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 with global impact. The author aims neither to take sides nor to make an appeal. Rather, he is concerned with the »mole that is war«, its tenacious and often subterranean survival, with how it changes people and the life of its own that it can develop.
What the author intends to create, following an iconic model, is a primer. For this he pens simple stories and adds image montages and film sequences. Kluge was ten years old when – on his school desk and with his finger on the map – he traced the path of the German tanks on their way to Stalingrad. Throughout the intervening years, until his 91st birthday in February 2023, Kluge, the »chronicler of emotions«, has studied the different guises of war time and again: War is mortal, but it does not die quickly. How can we respond to its impositions?
»The impossibility of not crying« is one of our strengths, says the sixth and last station of the book. The petrified and the armour of character in us are a delusion. Tears in our eyes make us blind, but also clear-sighted. Humans are creatures unsuited for war. But our weakness contains hope.
»Kluge helps us learn and yet the development of something like understanding remains an unfinished task.« Erik Zielke, neues deutschland
»Alexander Kluge’s War Primer 2023 is … an absolute must-read as food for thought about the nature of wars, whose deadly dynamics are a growing threat to humanity.« Angela Gutzeit, Deutschlandfunk
»Kluge helps us learn and yet the development of something like understanding remains an unfinished task.« Erik Zielke, neues deutschland
»Alexander Kluge’s War Primer...
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)
Circus / Commentary
English world rights (Seagull)
The Book of Comments
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)
The Labyrinth of Tender Force
English world rights (Seagull)
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)