#germanlit

[buzzbookstore]

“Faust” by Goethe, in the original German [Hardcover, 1956]. Only $9 and can be found in the “Vintage Classics Under $10” link in my linktree, along with roughly 100 other titles. #faust #goethe #cheapreads #vintageclassics #germanlit #vintagebookstagram #bookcollecting #usedbookstore #treatyourshelf #booknerd #bibliophile https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYEEL1hXhm/?igshid=8zc3r7vbidpo

[omgsatisshroffme]

SATIS SHROFF'S GERMAN PROSEPOEMS

SATIS SHROFF’S GERMAN PROSEPOEMS

Mein Alptraum (Satis Shroff) 

 Wenn die Nacht nicht so Kalt ist, Wenn ich im Bett bin Träume ich von einem entfernten Land. Ein Land wo ein König über seinen Reich regiert Ein Land wo es noch Bauern gibt, ohne Rechte, Die Felder bestellen, die denen nicht gehören. Ein Land wo die Kinder arbeiten müssen, Und keine die Zeit für Tagträumerei haben. Wo Mädchen das Gras schneiden Und schwere…

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[theblankgarden]

Memories lie slumbering within us

Dear Winfried, The Rings of Saturn (tr. Michael Hulse, 1998. Original: Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt, 1995) is beautiful, and melancholy, and strange. It is this paradox: a journey…

[greasyhairandaccidentalclothing]

Ein Mann kam ihnen entgegen, typischer Fall von aristokratischer Restauration mit nicht zu weit aufgeknöpftem Hemd und Männertool in der Hand - dem Tricoflex-Gartenschlauch, mit welchem er zuvor der Geste wegen seine hektargroßen Sukkulentenfelder gesprengt hatte. Man sah ihm an, dass die Pflanzen aufgrund der Anpassungsfähigkeit ihrer flüssigkeitsreichen Zellmatrix auch blendend ohne ihn zurechtgekommen wären. Die drei begegneten sich am Eingangsportal.

Helene Hegemann: Jage zwei Tiger. Frankfurt/Main: 2015 (2013). S. 78.

Introducing characters Helene Hegemann-Style.

[sweetestshaboo]

Hark! Noble feelings are in vain if modesty flees from thy soul. What use is an immodest heart if it has shed its crowning glory like feathers from a moulting bird, thus keeping company with Hell. Thou art distinguished by thy looks, and surely born to be a leader. Let not thy nobleness decline, nay, let it soar to lofty heights by taking pity on the needy and help the poor in their distress, with gentleness and charity. Always observe humility

An excerpt from Gurnemanz' advice to Parzival

(from Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic Parzival written between 1200 and 1210)

Found in the book I am currently reading- Classical Readings from German Literature From The Middle Ages To The Present Day

[startothesoutheast-blog]

Heiner Müller

Heiner Müller was one of the most controversial East German writers and he lived through the entirety of the DDR regime in East Berlin and this and his obsession with the past history of Germany are the foundations and inspiration for his work. Why do I bring him up? Well for my DDR + Post DDR Literature seminar at the university I (naturally enough) must write an essay and mine will be examining the various contexts surrounding, inspiring and in his production play "Der Lohndrücker" which I actually only picked because it was one of the few texts I had fully read and fully translated....I did not pick it because it was in any way interesting! It's based on the true story of Hans Garbe, a worker in the Siemens-Plania factory in Berlin and how he repaired an oven in 1948/49 whilst it was still ablaze, earning him a medal for his exceptional service to society and led to him being the "model worker".... sounds vaguely interesting but try reading a play where most of what they say is related to ovens/bricks and/or communism... add to that that the scenes are not in an organic order, rather the scenes are linked conceptually... and it makes it easy for a female such as myself to quickly lose interest! 

However, due to this essay I have been reading a lot about the play, Heiner Müller and his other plays in the last few days (hence I'm behind in blogging) and it seems that he does actually have more interesting plays - I'm intrigued by his Germania Tod in Berlin for example - but alas we didn't get to read them in this seminar....I'm pretty such our lecturer (the pompous idiotic Mr.W) purposely chose the most boring texts possible from the DDR period! 

Heiner Müller himself had an interesting life and was a pretty interesting sounding man. The most interesting thing I have learnt so far about him (from a budding historian's point of view) was that he had a traumatic childhood and as a young child he witnessed Nazis beating his father up before arresting him (his father was a member of the KPD). He however then pretended to be asleep when his father looked in instead of helping him - I mean he couldn't have done anything but still this guilt permeated into his work and he felt, according to Theresa M. Ganter (who is one of the many authors I have been reading recently) that this traumatic experience "exposed him as a flawed human being in whom the seeds of treason and betrayal" were present. Treason, betrayal and violence consequently feature heavily in his plays, especially the latter ones. 

I think that is enough about Heiner Müller for the moment but hopefully I'll get the chance to read some of his later Geschichtsdrama at some point in my life as a student of German and History! 

[clericalerror]

"The present intrudes upon remembrance, today becomes the last day of the past. Yet we would suffer continuous estrangement from ourselves if it weren't from our memory of the things we have done, of the things that have happened to us. If it weren't for the memory of ourselves. And for the voice that assumes the task of telling it."

- Christa Wolf, Patterns of Childhood