Quo vadis ars?
The situation in the cultural sector has been
described and discussed in numerous interviews, corona diaries,
comments and reports in the past few weeks. Our annotated
collection
of currently 193 sources
gathers voices from different sectors and media.
This creates a picture of the cultural landscape in crisis,
whose temporal transformation can be explored interactively
via a dedicated
tag cloud.
Jagt den Krimi in die Luft! . Literatur und Corona
Blow up the thriller! . Literature and Corona
by Simone Buchholz (28 Oct 2020)
Original source: Zeit
Crises freeze time for a moment and divide our experience into a before and after. One of the central tasks of art is to tell about such times of crisis. One genre for which the crisis is a core element is the crime fiction,novel, and so it is not surprising that the German crime novelist Simone Buchholz reflects on a new orientation of the genre in the weekly newspaper »Die Zeit«.
In order to finally gain a firm place in the genre of society novels, the crime fiction would have to throw overboard a whole range of its previous characteristics, above al l a simplistic narrative and the German idyll. Instead, the new crime fiction must shake at the genre's boundaries, leave every safe haven and devote itself to the completely unknown. Only the individual can be at the center of such a new novel. The characteristics that Buchholz now lists are the human striving for knowledge, his sense of solidarity and an idea of social cohesion. This reads as if Faust was crossed with Gretchen. The new crime fiction novel should also be a contemporary witness and, in addition to documenting the state of the crisis, it should also document how the crisis was withstood.
Is the genre abolishing itself? asks the experienced crime novelist at the end of her dream of a new crime fiction novel. We will know when her new novel is published. Read More Read Less
In order to finally gain a firm place in the genre of society novels, the crime fiction would have to throw overboard a whole range of its previous characteristics, above al l a simplistic narrative and the German idyll. Instead, the new crime fiction must shake at the genre's boundaries, leave every safe haven and devote itself to the completely unknown. Only the individual can be at the center of such a new novel. The characteristics that Buchholz now lists are the human striving for knowledge, his sense of solidarity and an idea of social cohesion. This reads as if Faust was crossed with Gretchen. The new crime fiction novel should also be a contemporary witness and, in addition to documenting the state of the crisis, it should also document how the crisis was withstood.
Is the genre abolishing itself? asks the experienced crime novelist at the end of her dream of a new crime fiction novel. We will know when her new novel is published. Read More Read Less
tag Corona-Roman Kriminalroman Neuausrichtung von der Krise erzählen Quo vadis ars Literature/ Text Reflexion
Von Zombies, Würmern und Corona auf dem Land . Lola Randl über „Die Krone der Schöpfung“
About zombies, worms and Corona in the countryside . Lola Randl on the „The Pride of Creation“
by Lola Randl, Frank Meyer (28 Aug 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Lola Randel wrote one of the first pandemic novels with her novel "The Pride of Creation". The novel is set in a village and deals with life with and in nature, as well as with how to deal with the pandemic, which breaks into the village idyll width townspeople fleeing in their vacation homes. Whether the first-person narrator is actually infected remains open. The novel consists of short, small chapters, which are listed again in a register at the end. The almost lexical chapters structure the fictional text and help the narrator to grasp the situation. The st ructure of the lexica also provides the narrator with support, however, as she gets lost in her research on the Internet. Randel thus finds a narrative picture of how many people at the beginning of the pandemic obtained information on the Internet in a patchwork of images.
The narrator is working on a zombie story, which is why the undead play an important role in the narrative. They have a metaphorical role, since they stand for the virus as the smallest zombie, the smallest undead. In the interview, the author herself is surprised that the zombie story has taken up such a large space in the novel at the end.
The motto of the novel is a poem from the baroque era. Mortality, which the baroque author Andreas Gryphius deals with, is a counter position to the repression of death in the present. In dealing with the transience of life, the author poses the question of how to explain society's reactions to the current threat in relation to the pandemic.
The interview gives the impression that Randel's narrative is controlled by emotions and experiences. Themes and motifs are imposed by the narrative and are given space in the novel. Whether the handling of the pandemic in the narrative is just as unreflected as the author would like to make us believe, the readers must probably find out for themselves. Read More Read Less
The narrator is working on a zombie story, which is why the undead play an important role in the narrative. They have a metaphorical role, since they stand for the virus as the smallest zombie, the smallest undead. In the interview, the author herself is surprised that the zombie story has taken up such a large space in the novel at the end.
The motto of the novel is a poem from the baroque era. Mortality, which the baroque author Andreas Gryphius deals with, is a counter position to the repression of death in the present. In dealing with the transience of life, the author poses the question of how to explain society's reactions to the current threat in relation to the pandemic.
The interview gives the impression that Randel's narrative is controlled by emotions and experiences. Themes and motifs are imposed by the narrative and are given space in the novel. Whether the handling of the pandemic in the narrative is just as unreflected as the author would like to make us believe, the readers must probably find out for themselves. Read More Read Less
tag Corona-Roman Zombies Gesellschaft Metapher Literature/ Text Interview
Martin Meyers Buch »Corona« – die Pandemie wird Literatur
Martin Meyer's book "Corona" - the pandemic becomes literature
by Christoph Leibold, Martin Meyer (19 Jul 2020)
Original source: BR24
The Swiss journalist and longtime NZZ columnist Martin Meyer has published with »Corona« one of the first Corona novels at Kein & Aber publisher. The text was developed from an idea during the lockdown. For the author, the subject of Corona is particularly interesting - as he describes it in an interview - because it asks basic questions and throws the individual back on his or her own ego. The examination of such existential situations is a characteristic of literature.
The old main character Matteo is also in a lockdown. The name of the dis ease that made the state of emergency necessary is not mentioned. Matteo reads epidemic literature to deal with his situation. The literature from the Bible to Albert Camus leads to philosophical activity. Martin Meyer understands the fact that the novel itself is entitled »Corona« as a reference to man as the pride of creation (in German: crown of creation). But the crown, according to Meyer, can also be seen as a crown of thorns, considering how fragile human existence is.
Asked whether literature does not need distance from an event in order to be able to reflect on it, Meyer makes a different claim. Literature can also emerge from personal affection. Read More Read Less
The old main character Matteo is also in a lockdown. The name of the dis ease that made the state of emergency necessary is not mentioned. Matteo reads epidemic literature to deal with his situation. The literature from the Bible to Albert Camus leads to philosophical activity. Martin Meyer understands the fact that the novel itself is entitled »Corona« as a reference to man as the pride of creation (in German: crown of creation). But the crown, according to Meyer, can also be seen as a crown of thorns, considering how fragile human existence is.
Asked whether literature does not need distance from an event in order to be able to reflect on it, Meyer makes a different claim. Literature can also emerge from personal affection. Read More Read Less
tag Corona-Roman Seuchenliteratur Martin Meyer Albert Camus Pest Literature/ Text Interview
Kritische Verteidigerin der hiesigen Demokratie . Neues Buch von Juli Zeh
Critical advocate of democracy . New book by Juli Zeh
by Andrea Gerk, Arno Orzessek (25 May 2020)
Original source: Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Juli Zeh's novel "Corpus Delicti" has already been published in 2009. So it is not a Corona novel, even though it fits perfectly into our time. In her dystopia, Zeh deals with the topic of health dictatorship by describing the seductive power of a health policy that promises everyone a long and healthy life. The bible of the system is entitled "Health as a principle of state legitimation" and establishes the METHOD, which in the novel legitimizes the primacy of the health of the individual and society in a purely logical way. In order to keep the promise of health, all possible data is collected from citizens. Zeh's criticism of people's self-subjugation in terms of health, fitness and performance optimization is unmistakable.
Since the novel is school reading, the author has now published a volume of interviews in which she answers the questions that students were asking her. The book is a self-portrait of the citizen Juli Zeh and allows for critical reflection on the Corona crisis. Zeh's statement - »It is really not easy to recognize the unreasonable in reason.« - can certainly be transferred to the present.
The critic Arno Orzessek appears to be very taken with Zeh's book, as he shares her »criticism of comprehensive preventive thinking, of reward systems for correct, i.e. conformist, systems of living«, as they can currently be observed in China. »Once you believe that life and politics are primarily about defending against any form of threat, then all other values fade away and I fear she is right about that.«
With regard to the Corona pandemic, Orzessek considers the book to be quite remarkable. He himself is very irritated by the at times »extreme authority of the virologists« in recent weeks and months. To reduce reality merely to the current case and death figures reported by the Robert Koch Institute neglects many important aspects of our everyday lives. The author and constitutional judge Juli Zeh, together with other philosophers and politicians, also pleaded in late April in »Der Spiegel« for the preservation of proportionality and made constructive suggestions as to how the rights of the individual could be preserved in the present. Read More Read Less
Since the novel is school reading, the author has now published a volume of interviews in which she answers the questions that students were asking her. The book is a self-portrait of the citizen Juli Zeh and allows for critical reflection on the Corona crisis. Zeh's statement - »It is really not easy to recognize the unreasonable in reason.« - can certainly be transferred to the present.
The critic Arno Orzessek appears to be very taken with Zeh's book, as he shares her »criticism of comprehensive preventive thinking, of reward systems for correct, i.e. conformist, systems of living«, as they can currently be observed in China. »Once you believe that life and politics are primarily about defending against any form of threat, then all other values fade away and I fear she is right about that.«
With regard to the Corona pandemic, Orzessek considers the book to be quite remarkable. He himself is very irritated by the at times »extreme authority of the virologists« in recent weeks and months. To reduce reality merely to the current case and death figures reported by the Robert Koch Institute neglects many important aspects of our everyday lives. The author and constitutional judge Juli Zeh, together with other philosophers and politicians, also pleaded in late April in »Der Spiegel« for the preservation of proportionality and made constructive suggestions as to how the rights of the individual could be preserved in the present. Read More Read Less
tag Corona-Roman Dystopie Gesundheitsdiktatur Grundrechte Corpus Delicti Juli Zeh Konformismus Literature/ Text Rezension
Es gibt sie, wie bald Martin Meyers Erzählung »Corona«, es gibt sie nicht . Der Hype um die Corona-Literatur
It exists, as soon Martin Meyer's novel . The Hype around Corona Literature
by Gerrit Bartels (06 May 2020)
Original source: Tagesspiegel
Do you want to read a Corona novel now? This is the question posed by literary critic Gerrit Bartels in the taz. For two months, one could hardly escape the subject of Corona, and he can hardly imagine enjoying it now in literary adaptation. Especially since the plot of Martin Meyer's story "Corona" promises little that is new. After all, the old bookseller Matteo helps himself in quarantine by reading epidemic literature, as thrashed out by the feuilletons in recent weeks.
The publication of the story prompts Bartels to ask some publishers whether a Corona novel is already planned for the fall, or whether an author has announced that he or she will work on one. Klett-Cotta, Luchterhand, and Kiepenheuer & Witsch have no plans for corona novels. Either they had no corresponding manuscripts on the table or they were afraid they would be outdated by the time they were published. Only the author Joachim Lottmann is writing a current novel on the subject, according to information from KiWi, but it will not be published this year.
Doesn't it take some time to reflect on the topic? With a view to 9/11, he notes that the really good novels on the subject needed a distance of several years. But it doesn't necessarily have to be the case that Corona has to be at the center of a novel. It can also change a narrative being out of focus - as well as the quality criteria of the readers. Read More Read Less
The publication of the story prompts Bartels to ask some publishers whether a Corona novel is already planned for the fall, or whether an author has announced that he or she will work on one. Klett-Cotta, Luchterhand, and Kiepenheuer & Witsch have no plans for corona novels. Either they had no corresponding manuscripts on the table or they were afraid they would be outdated by the time they were published. Only the author Joachim Lottmann is writing a current novel on the subject, according to information from KiWi, but it will not be published this year.
Doesn't it take some time to reflect on the topic? With a view to 9/11, he notes that the really good novels on the subject needed a distance of several years. But it doesn't necessarily have to be the case that Corona has to be at the center of a novel. It can also change a narrative being out of focus - as well as the quality criteria of the readers. Read More Read Less
tag Corona-Roman Seuchenliteratur Qualitätskriterien Martin Meyer Joachim Lottmann 9/11 Literature/ Text Interview
Ohne Lesungen, Publikum und Geld . Literarische Debüts in Zeiten von Corona
Without readings, audience and money . Making literary debuts in the times of Corona
by Kristine Harthauer (06 Apr 2020)
Original source: SWR 2
Authors finance themselves primarily through readings. If these were canceled due to the corona pandemic, it is a financial loss. However, the debutants are particularly affected. Since they do not yet have a regular readership, they are now barely able to find a place on the market. With online offers, you can only reach those you already know.
