Claudio Magris
Claudio Magris ( born April 10, 1939 in Trieste ) is an Italian writer, German scholar and translator. From 1978 until his retirement in 2006 he was professor of modern German literature at the University of Trieste.
Life and work
Claudio Magris studied in Turin and Freiburg im Breisgau German. He is an essayist and columnist for the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera and other European newspapers. He is regarded as the biggest supporter in Italy Through his numerous studies of Central European culture.
Claudio Magris lives in Trieste. The well-known retro coffee Caffè San Marco there, opened on January 3, 1914 by Marco Istrian Lovrinovich with its preserved, the Republic of Venice affiliated atmosphere, is regarded as his living room and study. And on his local Stammtisch (right rear) he wrote his countless, also influenced by the colorful crowd of Trieste coffee houses essays and novels. Legendary is his daily bath at the non - winter Barcolana.
Magris published as Trieste young German scholar with 24 years of his doctoral thesis written in Italian ( German on 1966: The Habsburg Myth in Austrian literature ). This is still regarded as the most important and influential theory that has ever been developed for the Austrian literature; it is about the Habsburg myth in modern Austrian literature. The Habsburg myth constituted by Magris basically three elements. As a first part, he sees the idea of a religiously charged, founded in characters of a higher idea of the kingdom with the survival tactics of defensive postponement and Sichtotlaufenlassens the conflict ( " The muddling around a multi-ethnic state to hold together "). The other element denotes the positive bureaucratic mentality and quality of the monarchy. Magris draws on Musil and Werfel and sees the monarchy of a " little tangible, all tips carefully trimmed bureaucracy " managed and called its embodied incorruptible service pragmatics the " workaholic " Kaiser Franz Josef. The third basic motif Magris locates the hedonism of the Habsburg subjects between opera, theater, dance halls, host and coffee houses with the musical mood of "The Bat ". The Habsburg- diagnostician Magris et al with the Grillparzer, Musil, Bernhard, Werfel, Zweig, Roth, Bachmann or the Menasses influencing "myth" of Austrian literature an intrinsic right (away from the Alpine - exotic appendage thinking) granted in German literature and, where.
He wrote essays on ETA Hoffmann, Joseph Roth, Henrik Ibsen, Italo Svevo, Robert Musil, Hermann Hesse and Jorge Luis Borges. The literary breakthrough came in 1986 with Magris his most famous work, Danubio ( Danube ), a literary journey along the river from its source to its mouth, in the middle the multicultural past of the Danube region is. His vision of a free and undivided by barbed wire and walls of Central Europe, which he designed in this work, was only a few years after this publication a reality.
Similar to become reality in Eastern Europe Vision Magris ' became his in 1963 to the " Habsburg myth" erfühltes or diagnosed Habsburg- bureaucratic nature of much debate in 2011 scientific and statistically proven. This transformed the Habsburg myth to the Habsburg effect. This refers briefly summarized that former institutions still continue to be effective after several generations by cultural norms, especially for people who live on former Habsburg territory, Measurable have more confidence in local courts and police and probably pay less bribes for public services.
Magris is a member of many European academies and was from 1994 to 1996 Senator in the Italian Senate. In 1987 he was awarded an Antonio Feltrinelli Prize. He sees himself as one of the last of Trieste coffeehouse literati, whose tradition is dying out - this is not crippling nostalgia, but as an opportunity for new.
Works (selection)
- Il mito absburgico nella letteratura austriaca moderna, 1963, new edition 1996 dt The Habsburg Myth in Modern Austrian Literature Übers Madeleine of Pásztory. Müller, Salzburg 1966; processed according to the Italian edition: Zsolnay, Vienna 2000 ISBN 3-552-04961-4
- French Le Mythe et L'empire dans la litterature autrichienne modern translator's Jean & Marie -Noelle Pastureau. Gallimard, Paris 1991 ISBN 2-07-078043-0
- German Far from where. Lost world of East European Jewry Übers Jutta Prasse. Europe, Vienna 1974 ISBN 3-203-50490-1