We Don't Need to See Anything Out of the Ordinary. We Already See So Much.
A symposium on Robert Walser's microscripts
Sunday, February 26th, 2012, 3 pm
150 N. Michigan Ave. #200, Chicago
English
Donation
On the occasion of Thomas Schütte’s visit to Chicago, the Goethe-Institut presents a symposium with Thomas Schütte, Jörg Kreienbrock, Susan Bernofsky, Reto Sorg und Michal Pawel Markowski.
Thomas Schütte is best known for his sculpture, prints, drawings and watercolors. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the world and is included in top museum collections including the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Golden Lion Award at the 51st Venice Biennale. Schütte has had a long standing interest in Walser's writings.
For the symposium Schütte will pose the question why Walser's exquisite and extensive writings, that are so interesting to read, could not sustain his existence, rather choosing to disappear for nearly 40 years.
Jörg Kreienbrock received his Ph.D. in 2005 from the Department of German at New York University. In 2006 he joined the German Department of Northwestern University as Assistant Professor. Professor Kreienbrock is the author of: Kleiner. Feiner. Leichter: Nuancierungen zum Werk Robert Walsers.
Jörg Kreienbrock will present Bad Careers: Kafka (not) reading Walser As early as 1909, Franz Kafka, predicted Robert Walser’s as well as his own unsuccessful career as a writer. What does Kafka see in Walser’s work (as well as his own) that makes such a prediction possible and what does it mean to talk about literature in terms of success and failure, the great and the small, the healthy and the insane?
Susan Bernofsky has translated six books by Robert Walser. She received the 2006 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize as well as awards and fellowships from the NEH, NEA, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Lannan Foundation. She currently serves as Chair of the PEN Translation Committee and teaches in the MFA program at Queens College of the City University of New York. Her most recent translation of Walser is Berlin Stories.
The topic of Ms. Bernofsky’s presentation is -- Secrets, Not Code: On Translating Robert Walser's Microscripts; reflections on the particular difficulties and quirks of microscript translation.
Reto Sorg is the director of the Robert Walser-Center in Bern, Switzerland, and teaches new German literature at the University of Lausanne. He has published extensively on literary and art history topics of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Reto Sorg and the photographer and director Robert Frank are preparing a homage exhibition on Robert Walser, “Ferne Nähe/Distant Closeness,” which will be shown starting the end of March at the Robert Walser-Center in Bern. Reto Sorg will examine how the idea took hold and why Robert Frank is so fascinated with Robert Walser.
Michal Pawel Markowski, the Hejna Chair in Polish Language and Literature, and Head of Slavic Department at UIC, is author of books on literature and philosophy, translator of Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, and Gilles Deleuze and editor of Friedrich Schlegel's "Fragments" in Polish. Michal serves as the Artistic Director of the Joseph Conrad International Literary Festival in Krakow. The most recent edition of the Festival held an exhibition, discussion, and events on Robert Walser.
Mr. Markowski will present The Meaning of the Small: Walser-Benjamin-Adorno.Please RSVP with Denise Eiserman
Tel.: 312.263.0472
Supported by Donald Young Gallery and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Consulate General of Switzerland in ChicagoFor information about the exhibition
