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From: "John Wieczorek" <[log in to unmask]>
DEUTSCHE SCHULE LONDON
Dear Colleague,
our guest at the 25th Dichterlesung at the German School in London is
the writer Hans Joachim Schädlich, who will be reading from his works
on Friday, 23rd April 2004 at 8pm at the German School, Douglas House,
Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7AH (tel: 020 8940 2510).
You and your students are cordially invited to what promises to be an
exciting evening. Tickets can be ordered from the school secretary at
the above address.
Hans Joachim Schädlich is one of the most intriguing contemporary
authors in Germany. He is highly regarded as a writer and publicist,
something indicated by the many prestigious prizes he has received over
the years.
Schädlich was born in Reichenbach, a small town on the Thuringian
border, in 1935, and he trained as a linguist. His literary works could
not be published in the GDR. However, he was allowed to leave in 1977,
the year which saw the publication of his first prose collection
Versuchte Nähe by Rowohlt. The previous year he had protested, together
with many other intellectuals, against the expulsion of Wolf Biermann.
His oeuvre ranges from light-hearted works for children (Der
Sprachabschneider, Der Kuckuck und die Nachtigall, Gib ihm Sprache) to
unflinching observation of illness and death.
In his novels Schädlich deals with questions of integrity and
responsibility. His fictional character Tallhover (1986), the epitome
of the eternal Spitzel who adapts easily to the various German regimes
in the 19th and 20th century, was taken up and transformed into the
Hoftaller figure in Grass' Ein weites Feld. After unification Schädlich
was to discover unexpectedly that many traits of this character bore a
close resemblance to his own brother who had spied on him and his
friends for the Stasi. The themes of deception and opportunism
resurface in later works: Trivialroman (1999) and Anders (2003).
Schädlich is a passionate humanist and believer in democracy, but he
never imposes this stance on the reader. He lets his characters speak
for themselves and keeps his distance. His skilful mastery of German
oscillates between the deceptively simple imitation of the spoken
language and the elaborate code of officialdom, the linguistic
contortions of the opportunist and the brutal frankness of the torturer
- revealing the lies and truth hidden beneath the surface of the words.
We have chosen this aspect as the title of this year's Leseheft "Als
Zeichen meiner Glaubwürdigkeit". It is through the medium of language
that people show themselves to be trustworthy or otherwise. This year's
translation competition, taken from Trivialroman, deals with the same
theme.
Yours faithfully
Elisabeth Lücking
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