Reading Leselust

Window into the major works of German creative writing

Leselust is the monthly reading session of German literature at the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata. It offers German language students and lovers of literature a window into the major works of German creative writing, both classic and contemporary.

Sessions 2023:
  Short stories and poems by Herta Müller read by Astrid Wege, Director of Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata from original German and Subroto Saha, German language teacher and translator from translated Bengali.

Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literatur in 2009.
  Bertolt Brecht read by Astrid Wege, Subhoranjan Dasgupta and Parthapratim Chattopadhyay in German and Bengali.

Bertolt Brecht was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. He is often considered to be one of the most influential playrights of the twentieth century. His most notable works include Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui among others.
  Youth Literature

পরিযায়ী রূপকথা - Travelling Fairy Tales from the traditional and the modern will be read by Parthapratim Chattopadhyay and Ashim Chattaraj. All tales are translated from German into Bengali by Parthapratim Chattopadhyay. The reading will be followed by a demonstration of children's book illustration by Parag Roy.

Time: 6:30 pm
For 12 years and above.

  Museum of the World by Christopher Kloeble

Christopher Kloeble is a German novelist, playwright, and scriptwriter. In his book The Museum of the World he describes India of the mid-nineteenth century through the eyes of an orphan from Bombay who joins the exploration of the Schlagintweit Brothers. Selected parts will be read by Christopher Kloeble from Germany in German and by Shreyashi Bhose at Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata in English. The event will be moderated by Surjodoy Chatterjee.

It is a hybrid event and the author will be available online for interactions with live audience.
  Michael Ende (stories), Peter Wohlleben (short essays)

Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende was a German writer of fantasy and children's fiction. He is known for his epic fantasy The Neverending Story; other well-known works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver.

Peter Wohlleben is a German forester and author who writes on ecological themes in popular language and has controversially argued for plant sentience.

The stories and the essays will be read in German and Bengali. Subroto Saha, translator and German language teacher at the Goethe-Institut Kolkata will moderate the session and read along with Kasturi Sil, German language teacher at the Goethe-Institut Kolkata.

  Christa Wolf

Christa Wolf was a novelist and essayist from former East Germany. Her most famous works include the novel Divided Heaven on the partition of Germany and Cassandra on the Trojan war.

Selected parts from Divided Heaven will be read in German by Souvik Biswas, German language teacher at the Goethe-Institut Kolkata, and in Bengali by Sulagna Mukhopadhyay, German language teacher and translator. The film Der geteilte Himmel/Divided Heaven (1964) by Konrad Wolf will be presented by Raju Raman, Ex-Programme Officer of Goethe-Institut Kolkata and Expert of German Cinema. The film screening will be followed by discussions and audience interactions.

Time: 5 pm
For 18 years and above.

  Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Hans Magnus Enzensberger was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He was regarded as one of the literary founding figures of the Federal Republic of Germany and wrote more than 70 books and influenced the 1968 West German student movement.

Subroto Saha, translator and teacher of German language at Goethe-Institut Kolkata, has translated poems from Wirrwarr, Enzenberger’s last collection of poems. A selection of those poems will be read in original German and in the Bengali translation by Subroto Saha, Anita Mitra, Educational Cooperation Officer at the Goethe-Institut Kolkata and Sharmistha Sarker, Programme Officer at the Goethe-Institut Kolkata.
  Nelly Sachs

A literary evening devoted to the poetry of Nelly Sachs, the renowned Jewish-German poet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1966.

Subhoranjan Dasgupta will present an Introduction and read the Bengali version of Nelly Sach's poems translated from German by Sunanda Basu and himself. Kasturi Sil will read some of her poems in original German.


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Venue: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata Library
Time: 6:30 pm
For 18 years and above

 

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