Zeitgeist: Contemporary German Literature
On the occasion of the annual Zeitgeist literature festival, the Goethe-Institut Washington, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Embassy of Switzerland invite three important emerging and established writers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to America’s capital to present and discuss their recent works. This year’s theme, ‟Queer as Volk,” will highlight new works in German that deal with themes of identification and queerness.
Following welcoming remarks by the Human Rights Campaign, readings will be in both German and English language; discussion led by the German professor
Dr. Hester Baer (University of Maryland) will be in English.
Books:
In the End we Throw with Gold (Am Ende schmeißen wir mit Gold)
German author
Fabian Hischmann studied Literature and Cultural Studies in Hildesheim and at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. His debut novel
In the End we Throw with Gold (Am Ende schmeißen wir mit Gold) tells the story of Max Flieger, a young teacher in his late twenties who seems not quite grown up. But this suddenly changes while he is taking care of his parent’s house: as the familiar surroundings are bringing back memories of the amorous twists of his youth, a disaster occurs which leads Max to Greece and then to New York. Hischmann's novel has the courage to take on the beauty and melancholy of memories.
The Window to the World (Das Fenster zur Welt)
The Austrian journalist and writer
Jürgen Bauer lives in Vienna, where he published his first novel
The Window to the World (Das Fenster zur Welt). After the death of her mother, the 80-year-old protagonist Hanna dares a late rupture with her stiff everyday life. At a speed-dating event she meets the young, unemployed actor Michael, who is stunned by his recent separation from his partner. A friendship develops between this very unlikely pair, and as Hanna goes on a journey through her past, Michael sits in the passenger seat. With his delicate language and subtle humor, Jürgen Bauer addresses the question of beauty and the transience of a moment.
Gotthard
The Swiss author
Zora del Buono grew up in Bari and Zurich. Before she started writing, she worked as an architect and construction manager in a male-dominated, heterosexual business. Deeply amusing, sensual and cunning, this novel relates behind-the-scenes drama during the construction of the Gotthard road tunnel through the Alps, one of the most impressive road engineering feats in the world. The multi-perspective narration entangles the tales and fates of the lesbian protagonist and seven other characters who are all involved in one way or another in the construction of the tunnel. Del Buono tells a story that is outside of the urban LGBT discourse. While homosexual self-conception is a constant theme in urban and scene contexts, in this construction site milieu the common link isn’t sexual orientation, but the work underground.
Organized in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Embassy of Switzerland, and the Human Rights Campaign. The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality.
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