Berliner Futur: Symposium am Literarischen Colloquium Berlin

On a panel at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. Berlin Polylingual—Parataxe Symposium IV. 

Photo: Graham Hains.

Ich möchte gerne mit einer Behauptung anfangen: Eine deutsche Nationalliteratur muss nicht unbedingt auf Deutsch geschrieben sein.

Zahlreiche nichtdeutschsprachige Autoren, von denen viele seit Jahrzehnten in Deutschland leben, haben ihre Verlage, ihre gesamte Infrastruktur, ihre Leser hier. Nicht wenige werden primär im deutschsprachigen Raum wahrgenommen; die meisten bewegen sich zwischen Kulturen und sind als Essayisten, Kritiker, Moderatoren, usw. aktiv im Austausch zwischen den Sprachen. Dies alles übt einen enormen Einfluss auf die deutschsprachige Literatur aus und beleuchtet auch Themen in der Gesellschaft und der Politik, die vielleicht nur von „vertrauten Fremden“ beleuchten werden können.

Und doch: angesichts der immer fremdenfeindlicher werdenden Atmosphäre, angesichts der Tatsache, dass die AfD die Kultur als Kampffeld für sich entdeckt hat und nun u.a. die Strategie der parlamentarischen Anfragen verfolgt, um sozialkritische Arbeiten zu diffamieren und die Kulturförderung an sich immer wieder in Frage zu stellen, ist eine derartige Behauptung höchst politisch.

— full text to be published soon.

 

With Martin Jankowski, Eugen Ruge, Anne Fleig, and Mitja Vachedin. 

Photos: Graham Hains.

From the Statorec Prose Slam at Cornelia Street Cafe

Andrea Scrima, Jennifer Franklin, Eric Rasmussen, David Winner, Phineas Lambert, and Uche Nduka

 

Announcing a new anthology: “Strange Attractors”

An excerpt from my piece “all about love, nearly” has been included in the anthology “Strange Attractors,” published by University of Massachusetts Press.

Has a stunning surprise or lucky encounter ever propelled you in an unanticipated direction? Are you doing what you always thought you would be doing with your life or has some unseen magnetism changed your course? And has that redirection come to seem inevitable? Edie Meidav and Emmalie Dropkin asked leading contemporary writers to consider these questions, which they characterize through the metaphor of “the strange attractor,” a scientific theory describing an inevitable occurrence that arises out of chaos. Meidav’s introduction and the thirty-five pieces collected here offer imaginative, arresting, and memorable replies to this query, including guidance from a yellow fish, a typewriter repairman, a cat, a moose, a bicycle, and a stranger on a train. Absorbing and provocative, this is nonfiction to be read in batches and bursts and returned to again and again.

For review copies, contact Courtney Andree at the University of Massachusetts Press at cjandree@umpress.umass.edu. For other queries, contact the editors at strangeattractors1@gmail.com.

Press and Reviews

“A wonderful book, unique in all ways, truly and deeply full of wonder.  What a stunning constellation of seekers, believers, wanderers, questioners.  A collective spiritual autobiography like nothing I’ve read before.”
— Elisa Albert, author of After Birth

“Strange Attractors reminds us that even chaos has a pattern, and now more than ever, we are grateful for it. Attraction is evidence of the sublime. The very idea sparks revelation.”
— Annie Liontas, editor of A Manner of Being: Writers on Their Mentors

“Chance—the charm of chance—that permeates these stories is startling, often dazzling, and always life-affirming. You’ll wish most of these talented women writers were your friends.”
— Susan Fox Rogers, author of My Reach: A Hudson River Memoir

“Urgent and reflective, infused with a revelatory grace, Strange Attractors is a wondering wander of a book, a curiosity shop of stories filled with surprise and clarity, longing and transformation. Lyrical, experimental, or conversational, this collection’s voices explore encounters that change the course of our lives.” — Cathy Chung

Berlin POLYLINGUAL. PARATAXE SYMPOSIUM IV

I’ll be taking part in a panel today on language diversity in the literatures of Berlin.

Come to the Literarisches Colloquium in Wannsee! 

4:30 – 6 p.m.
PANEL III: Berliner Futur – entropische Literaturen?
Keynote: Anne Fleig
Participants: Andrea Scrima, Eugen Ruge, Mitja Vachedin, Anne Fleig
Moderation: Martin Jankowski
Featured Poet: Amora Bosco

Read the full program here. 

“How do you feel about being an American?”

A conversation with Patricia Thornley published on 3QuarksDaily

From November 17, Patricia Thornley’s work The Western, part of her series THIS IS US, is on view as part of the group exhibition “Empathy” at Smack Mellon Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The project is the latest in a seven-year series of installation and single-channel video works consisting of interviews and performances. Previous videos of the series are An American in Bavaria (2011), Don’t Cry for Me (2013), and Sang Real (2015). As a whole, THIS IS US  formulates multiple parallel inquiries into the collaborative fantasies Americans enact through popular media. In the current political climate, as the escalation of social and economic forces impacting millions of lives is cast into increasingly sharp relief, these fantasies take on new urgency and, in many cases, a new absurdity.

The Western’s cast of characters consists of these Civil War-era archetypes: Indian Scout, Beast of Burden, Frontiersman, Savage, Deserter, Justice, and Drifter. The work is conceived as a two-part installation in which the cinematic trope of the Western is used as a framework for inquiring into the American psyche. In the exhibition space, a projected “movie” is installed opposite a wall of screens playing a series of interviews with the seven participating characters.

Andrea Scrima: Patricia, a few years ago I conducted an interview with you about a previous work of yours, Sang Real (2015), for the online poetry magazine Lute & Drum. Now, with The Western, the overall structure of THIS IS US is coming more and more clearly into focus. The last time we spoke at length about your series was a year and a half before the last presidential election. How have recent changes on the political landscape affected your approach to the themes in your work?

Patricia Thornley: From the beginning in the THIS IS US series, one of the questions I asked in my interviews with the people who featured in the individual videos was “how do you feel about being an American?” Historically, there’s always been a certain political disconnect at play with Americans, due to less armed conflict on our own soil and a certain comfort level.

I didn’t ask this question because I was trying to be instructive, but because one of the most important aspects of my work is to observe opposing and conflicting states of consciousness and to create situations that attempt a kind of uncommon reconciliation of these states. So in terms of what has changed I would say that what I was perceiving as a state of unconsciousness (pre-Trump) has been pushed to the surface by outrage and fear.

Read the interview on 3QuarksDaily here.