Celebrating Sebald

Bridport Arts Centre is going to do so with a film screening and a talk by

Uwe Schütte, Head of German at Aston, his former student and acclaimed Sebald scholar, who will speak about “Sebald’s Legacy”.

The talk will be followed by a screening of “Patience”, a film after Sebald’s novel “The rings of Saturn” by Grant Gee. The Guardian called the documentary a “guide through the psycho-geography of the author”, taking the viewer on a literary stroll along the coast of East Anglia, where Sebald spent most of his adult life. Read the Guardian review here

Philip French commented in the Observer that watching the film made him want to read all of Sebald’s oeuvre. The images are accompanied by readings from the book, as well as by comments by friends, readers and fellow authors.

 

Tickets for the event are available at info@bridport-arts.com

 

 

 

 

Uwe Schütte gives laudation as Gerhard Roth is awarded prestigious literature prize

Austrian author Gerhard Roth has been awarded the Jakob-Wassermann Literaturpreis for his critical novels on Austria during the Nazi occupation and the memory processes and controversies in contemporary Austrian society.

Roth joins the ranks of famous colleagues Hilde Domin,  Uwe Timm, Sten Nadolny and Feridun Zaimoglu. The prize is named after German-Jewish writer Jacob Wassermann and has been awarded biannually by Wassermann’s hometown Fürth near Nuremberg.

 And who would be better suited to give Roth’s laudation than Dr. Uwe Schütte, Head of German at Aston University and internationally renowned Roth expert. Dr. Schütte is the author of 1997 monograph Auf der Spur der Vergessenen. Gerhard Roth und seine Archive des Schweigens and he has published extensively on Roth’s works in various academic journals.

Uwe Schütte on WG Sebald

In BBC Radio 3’s series “The Essay, listen to Uwe Schütte speaking about his teacher WG Sebald. Uwe relates his experience of studying with the German writer and academic, and talks about Sebald’s ambiguous relationship with British academia.

Click here for the podcast.

WG Sebald on BBC Radio 3

This week, BBC Radio 3’s The Essay is all about German writer and academic WG Sebald. All week, friends, colleagues and literary scholars will focus on different aspects of Sebald’s life, work and influence in Germany and Britain where Sebald spent years working at various universities.

Tomorrow, Tuesday Dec 6, at 22:45, Dr. Uwe Schütte from Aston University will reflect on the life and work of his former teacher in “Looking and Looking Away”.

For the full programme of broadcasts, click here.

Uwe Schütte discussing WG Sebald at Birmingham Book Festival

WG Sebald (1944-2001) was a German writer and academic whose work was mostly concerned with the theme of memory, both personal and collective. His literary oeuvre includes novels (Vertigo, The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn, Austerlitz), short stories, narrative texts and poetry, many of which deal with the difficulty of coming to terms with the trauma of World War II and its effect on the German people.

Educated in Germany, he moved to Manchester as assistant lecturer in 1966,  became lecturer in German in 1970 and finally Chair of German Literature at the University of East Anglia.  This year marks the tenth anniversary of his premature death in December 2001.

At this year’s Birmingham Book Festival, in Beyond Literature, Jo Catling and Uwe Schütte, Reader in German at Aston University, will examine aspects of his life and works that are hardly known: his role as an academic in the UK, his critical writings, his reception as a writer in Germany, and so on.

Obituary: WG Sebald, The Guardian, 17 Dec, 2001

“The last word” (last interview with WG Sebald), The Guardian, 21 December, 2001

W.G. Sebald Forum

Birmingham Book Festival: 6-16 October, 2011

Heiner Müller expert Uwe Schütte at Humboldt University, Berlin

Our resident expert on exceptional German author Heiner Müller has published extensively on the subject, and will present and discuss his latest publication, “Arbeit an der Differenz. Zum Eigensinn der Prosa von Heiner Müller”, at Humboldt Universität in Berlin next week.

The book analyses and categorises Müller’s extensive prose oevre which forms a bridge between his lyrical and dramatic texts and is characterised by its unwillingness to fit traditional moulds due to its open, procedural nature.

Details:

Uwe Schütte: “Arbeit an der Differenz. Zum Eigensinn der Prosa von Heiner Müller”

• Buchvorstellung und Gespräch
• Moderation: Kristin Schulz

21.06.2011, 20:00 Uhr

Ort: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für deutsche Literatur, “Heiner-Müller-Archiv / Transitraum”, Dorotheenstr. 24, 10117 Berlin, Raum 3 444

Uwe Schütte discussing Heiner Müller in Berlin

Heiner Müller has been called the most important German dramatist of the 20th century along with Berthold Brecht. What better place to discuss Müller’s work than the Brecht-Haus in Berlin. Our resident Heiner Müller expert Uwe Schütte will be in Berlin next week to talk to Prof. Theo Buck, the author of a new book about Müller’s performance text “Mommsens Block”, an epic poem written in 1992/93 as a critical commentary of German reunification.

Theodor Mommsen, a German classical scholar and historian, is considered the greatest classicist of the 19th century and was the first non-fiction writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902.

Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus

Do. 12.05. 20 Uhr

Buchvorstellung und Gespräch

Theo Buck „‚Die Adler im Sumpf‘ oder Die missratene deutsche Einheit. Zu Heiner Müllers ‚Mommsens Block‘“

 

„Tierlaute / Wer wollte das aufschreiben“ – Heiner Müller hat es getan, 1993, zu einer Zeit, als man ihm eine Schreibblockade attestierte, die in Wirklichkeit eine Unlust war, über das Neue Deutschland der „Lemuren des Kapitals“ zu schreiben. „Mommsens Block“ ist ein neunseitiges episches Gedicht über den großen Historiker des Kaiserreichs, den Untergang einer Hoffnung und unsere Gegenwart ohne Zukunft. Theo Buck stellt sein neues Buch zu Heiner Müllers „Mommsens Block” vor. Müllers Weggenosse B.K. Tragelehn und der Germanist Uwe Schütte diskutieren mit ihm.

Moderation UWE SCHÜTTE
Weiterer Gesprächspartner: B. K. TRAGELEHN

 

Go here for an English translation of the text.

Go here to learn more about the Brecht-Haus in Berlin.

Gerhard Roth to discuss his Orkus cycle with Uwe Schütte on German radio

Gerhard Roth was born in 1942 and is one of the most reknown Austrian authors living in and writing about his country. He is the creator of numerous books, theatre plays, essays and also wrote radio plays.

This year, he concludes his latest cycle of novels called Orkus with the book Orkus. Reise zu den Toten, which will be published in April. The closure of his most recent cycle, consisting of eight books, will end a major chapter in Roth’s own professional life. Having worked for 32 years on his series, the publication of this newest addition marks a cornerstone in recent Austrian literary history, too.

His work has been discussed by critics and scholars alike, and in 1997, our very own Uwe Schütte published a book on Roth’s Die Archive des Schweigens . Die Archive des Schweigens is Roth’s first cycle of novels and consists of seven books in total. They were all published between 1980 and 1991 and concern themselves with the art of memory, forgetting and writing it all down. Partly documentary, then fiction and again also essay and commentary, they assimilate various styles and genre categories. Overall, Roth’s work is interspersed with his life and his country’s history and he creates unique works that are written art- and skilfully.

On Februrary 26, Roth will discuss his latest work on German radio with Uwe Schütte and Günter Kaindlstorfer. For 2 hours, Deutschlandfunk will engage Roth in a discussion about his works, their prevalent themes and inner workings.

To learn more about the programme and how to listen in, click here.

Hi everyone !

Hi everyone!

We are the new teaching assistants for German Studies at Aston and pleased to soon meet you all. We are Elke Kösser, Mirja Gehring and Karolina Bielecka (from left).

Elke, who studied Education and Teaching German as a Foreign Language in Dresden, will give a grammar lecture and German classes. She is the new DAAD language assistant and will be here for the entire year.

Mirja is an MA student of English and American Literature in Paderborn and together with Karolina, who studies Teaching German as a Foreign Language at the Free University in Berlin, doing an internship in the German department. Both will be conducting conversation classes for you to improve your every day German. They will also offer grammar clinics each week, so that you will be able to ask any questions you have.

We are happy to be in Aston and looking forward to talking to you next week!

Elke, Mirja, Karolina

Stefan Manz meets Rick Stein!

 

In series 6 of the BBC’s hugely successful programme “Who do you think you are?”, tracing the family history of well-known Britons, celebrity chef Rick Stein delved into his father’s tragic experiences during World War I due to his German ancestry. To learn more, Rick met up with our own Dr. Stefan Manz whose research expertise shed light on the difficulties facing German immigrants during this period.

 

Here are some screen shots of Stefan’s chat with Rick Stein:

 

 

 

 

(c) Wall to Wall Media Ltd

 

 

 

 

(c) Wall to Wall Media Ltd

 

 

 

 

(c) Wall to Wall Media Ltd