The fairy tale of the last thought

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The work The Tale of the Last Thought by the German writer Edgar Hilsenrath deals with the genocide of the Armenians in 1915. The epic, written in the form of a fairy tale and awarded numerous prizes, is one of the most important literary works on this historical event. In 2006 the poet received the President of the Republic of Armenia Prize for the work .

content

The tale of the last thought is the story of an Anatolian village destroyed by the Turks. The main character of the novel is the Armenian Wartan Khatisian, whose son Thovma is dying. The story of his ancestors, the suffering of the Armenian people, is told to his last thought - the last thought of a person, so it is said in the fairy tale, stands outside of time. The storyteller Meddah leads Thovma's last thought along the traces of his father's life, which lead from a small idyllic mountain village to the torture chambers of the Turkish rulers, and lets him witness the great pogrom against the Armenians in 1915.

Awards

The poet received numerous honors for his epic The Tale of the Last Thought . In 1989 Günter Grass presented him with the renowned Alfred Döblin Prize . In 2006, the President of the Republic of Armenia , where Hilsenrath is celebrated as a national hero, awarded him the Armenian National Prize for Literature. Also in 2006 Hilsenrath received an honorary doctorate from the State University of Yerevan for his work .

Reception and debate

After it was first published in 1989, the critic Alexander von Bormann wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung with reference to The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel , which until then was considered the best Armenian novel in world literature: “But I think Hilsenrath's novel is significantly superior to Werfels: he is more historical and poetic at the same time. "

Manfred Orlick judged: “It was said again and again that this is not the way to write about this topic. However, the author has managed to break down the atrocities in countless short dialogues, describe them in a touching way and convey historical facts in the process. An inhumane book of fairy tales, as only Hilsenrath can write it. "

Radio plays

literature

Monographs

Essays

  • Susanna Amirkhanyan: Edgar Hilsenrath and Armenia In: Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz. No. 114 (2001), no.4.
  • Silke Hassler : The fairy tale of the last thought. On Edgar Hilsenrath's historical novel from the Caucasus , Amsterdam contributions to recent German studies, travelers through time and space. The German-language historical novel, edited by Osman Durrani and Julian Preece, pp. 423–433. ( openurl.ingenta.com abstract).

Further publications

  • Susanna Amirkhanyan: When there is goal, enthusiasm and will. A German-Armenian theater coproduction. In: Armenian-German correspondence. No. 133/134 (2006), no. 3 & 4, p. 45 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Orlick: Hilsenrath, Edgar: The fairy tale of the last thought , buchinformationen.de accessed on July 1, 2008.