From Weimar to Tokyo in 2D – Goethe in the Focus of Contemporary Authors

In January 2025, author Yui Suzuki was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for his novel Goethe wa subete wo itta (Goethe Said Everything). For the Goethe-Institut Tokyo, Suzuki’s highly acclaimed novel offers a welcome opportunity to shed light on the literary traces of our namesake in the present day. Did Goethe say everything? Has everything been said about Goethe? As part of the event From Weimar to Tokyo in 2D, two young authors engage in a conversation that explores the figure of Goethe and his work from a contemporary literary perspective.
In Yui Suzuki´s novel, an unexpected encounter with a Goethe quote on a tea bag causes an identity crisis for a highly renowned Goethe scholar in the academic world. The unfamiliar quote on the tea bag unsettles the Goethe luminary and sets him on a bewildering journey through the world of literary quotations – one that ultimately leads to an encounter with Goethe himself in a dream.

Theatre author Bonn Park, nominated for this year's Mühlheim Drama Prize, was awarded the Innovation Prize at the Heidelberg Play Market in 2011 for his adaptation of Goethe's "Die Leiden des Jungen Super Mario in 2D" (The Sorrows of Young Super Mario in 2D). The reimagines Goethe’s early work The Sorrows of Young Werther through the lens of the gamer generation. Park merges the one-dimensionality of the iconic video game character Super Mario with timeless themes of classical literature: love, jealousy, fear of failure, the search for identity and autonomy.

Both authors, Suzuki and Park, share a passion for reading, a creative reception of world literature and a charming, humorous and innovative way of incorporating the influences into their own writing. At the event, both authors will present their approaches to Goethe and discuss the relevance of the iconic figure of Weimar Classicism as reflected in tea bag quotes and video games. Bonn Park will appear online in the event. The talk will be moderated by Germanist and literary translator Miho Matsunaga.

Biographies

Bonn Park
Born in Berlin in 1987, Bonn Park grew up in Berlin, Korea and Paris. In 2008, he began studying Slavic languages and literature at Humboldt University in Berlin. His first works as a director and writer were produced at the Volksbühne. Park was also a guest lecturer in directing at Zurich University of the Arts. From 2011 to 2014, he studied Scenic Writing at the Berlin University of the Arts. His plays have received numerous awards. Bonn Park lives in Berlin.

Yui Suzuki 
Born in 2001 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Yui Suzuki spent eleven years of his childhood living in Fukushima Prefecture before returning to Fukuoka, where he currently resides. In 2024, his text ‘Hito ni wa dore hodo no hon ga iru ka’ (How Many Books Does a Person Need?) received an honourable mention at the Fumiko Hayashi Literary Prize and was subsequently published as his literary debut.  In 2025, his novel ‘Gēte wa subete wo itta’ (Goethe Said Everything) was awarded the 172nd Akutagawa Prize. Suzuki is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in English literature at Seinan University in Fukuoka.

Miho Matsunaga (Moderator)
Translator and professor at the Faculty of Letters at Waseda University. From 1991 to 1992, she studied at the University of Hamburg as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 2000 she received the special award from the Mainichi Publishing Culture Prize for her Japanese translation of Bernhard Schlink’s novel The Reader (published by Shinchosha). Her translation of Kathrin Schärer’s picture book Johanna im Zug (Johanna on the Train, Nishimura Shoten) was honored with the Translator’s Prize of the Japan Picture Book Award in 2015.