Christoph Zanon

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Christoph Zanon (born March 12, 1951 in Lienz ; † December 17, 1997 ) was an Austrian author and high school teacher .

Life

Christoph Zanon was born on March 12, 1951 as the son of Fridolin and Elisabeth Zanon in Lienz in East Tyrol. Zanon grew up with seven siblings in Leisach. After graduating from school in 1970 and completing military service, Zanon began studying construction technology at the University of Innsbruck . Following his vocation to literature, Zanon switched to studying German and Latin. In 1975 Zanon married his wife Olga, b. Gander, teacher for drawing education, German and English. The marriage has four children. In 1980, Zanon began teaching at the grammar school in Lienz, where he taught German and Latin until his death on December 17, 1997.

Zanon's writing career began in his youth with journal entries. His first publication Am Fluß appeared in 1980 in the Tyrolean cultural magazine Das Fenster . In the following years numerous poems and prose texts by Zanon appeared in cultural magazines such as Thurntaler , Wort im Gebirge , Erlesene Zeit , Brachland , in the Kleine Zeitung and in the Tiroler Tageszeitung . 1984 his first work, appeared as the day is long . But it was only with The Blue Ladder and Shadow Fight that Zanon was also successful outside of his native East Tyrol. In 1988, together with Heli Gander, Oswald Blassnig, Uwe Ladstädter and Josef Pedarnig, Zanon founded the Lienzer wall newspaper , a medium for spontaneous word art and everyday literary culture.

His works are mainly concerned with the search for home, whereby the paths lead the author out of self-reflection in the primeval nature of the mountains into the human depths and shallows of city bars and the futuristic architecture of a fantastic tower. Zanon's literary work is reflected in a variety of forms, as a collection of poems and fragments of thoughts such as in Am Trödelweg and How the Day Is , as a confrontation with one's own past in In a trusted society or as stories in the shadow fight and in The Blue Ladder . Zanon's works are characterized by the transfer of one's own fields of tension into the contrasting world of the archaic landscape and the gutter of the city in the mountains. Family idyll and human abysses, traditional and self-chosen homeland are essential components of his work. Zanon himself named the writer Peter Handke as his most influential role model .

Zanon's literary estate was handed over to the Brenner Archive, a research institute at the University of Innsbruck, in 2003. Among them are over fifty diaries and notebooks in which Zanon describes the impressions of his hikes through Tyrol.

Zanon is now one of the most important and well-known authors on the East Tyrolean literary scene. Every two years the Lienzer Wandzeitung announces the Christoph Zanon Literature Prize .

In addition to writing, Zanon also painted and sculpted throughout his life. His works include sketches, etchings, drawings and paintings, with Zanon using various means of expression such as oil paints, charcoal pencils and self-mixed paints made from natural ingredients on wood, paper, stone and plastic. Zanon made his sculptures out of wood and stone, metal sometimes complemented the created bodies. The covers of his books The Blue Ladder , Am Trödelweg , In a trustworthy society and the posthumously published joy and farewell are designed with works by Zanon.

Works

  • Christoph Zanon: How long is the day . Ed. Ropac, Lienz / Salzburg, 1984.
  • Christoph Zanon: The blue ladder . Haymon-Verlag, Innsbruck 1988, ISBN 3852180457 .
  • Christoph Zanon: Shadow Fight. Texts from home . Haymon-Verlag, Innsbruck 1992, ISBN 3852181119 .
  • Christoph Zanon: Into a cozy company . Edition Bohemia, Graz 1994.
  • Christoph Zanon: On the junk route. Scattered items from 1986–1988 . Edition Raetia, Bozen 1997, ISBN 8872831032 .
  • Christoph Zanon: joy and farewell. A story . Vienna-Dublin-New York 1999, ISBN 3901953299 .
  • Franz Klug (Ed.): East Tyrol. A declaration of love . Edition Löwenzahn, Innsbruck 2000, ISBN 3706622319 . (Texts by Christoph Zanon with photos by Klaus Dapra)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://webapp.uibk.ac.at/brennerarchiv/bnr_langtext.xsql?id_in=177
  2. ↑ http://www.uibk.ac.at/brenner-archiv/projekte/zanon/
  3. ↑ http://www.uibk.ac.at/brenner-archiv/projekte/zanon/nachlass.html

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zanon, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian author
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Lienz
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1997
Place of death Lienz