George Steiner

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George Steiner (2013)

Francis George Steiner (born April 23, 1929 in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris ; died February 3, 2020 in Cambridge , United Kingdom ) was an American professor of comparative literature , writer , philosopher and cultural critic .

Life

childhood

George Steiner was born as the son of the Austrian Jews (Friedrich) Frederick George Steiner and Elsie Steiner in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. His father (* 1890 in Lidice ) came from a humble background and had become an influential banker in Vienna. His mother came from Alsace. A great-uncle on his mother's side was Karl Emil Franzos . Steiner's parents emigrated from Vienna to France in 1924 in view of the growing anti-Semitism . George learned to speak French, English and German equally and read, inspired by his father, classics of the educational canon . First he attended the Parisian Lycée Janson de Sailly in the 16th arrondissement . In May 1940, after the start of the western campaign , his family fled to New York via Genoa . Less than four weeks later the Wehrmacht occupied Paris. With the exception of himself and one other person, all the Jewish students in his Lycée class were murdered in concentration camps .

Steiner attended the French Lycée and made the Baccalauréat in 1947 ; In 1944 he was granted citizenship of the United States .

academic career

Steiner studied in Chicago ( MA ), Harvard ( BA ) and was at Balliol College of Oxford University doctorate. He began to publish as a student and worked from 1952 to 1956 as an editor for the magazine " The Economist " in London.

He then returned to the USA and attended the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University from 1956 to 1958 , where he was also able to give his first lectures in 1959/60. In 1958/59 Steiner received a Fulbright Professorship at the University of Innsbruck , and from 1961 he taught as a Founding Fellow at Churchill College in Cambridge. In 1974 he moved to the University of Geneva as Professor of English Literature and Comparative Literature , where he worked until his retirement in 1994. He then took over the Lord Weidenfeld Chair for Comparative Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford University in 1994/95 . In 2002/03 he completed his teaching with a professorship at Harvard University (as Norton Professor of Poetry ).

As a specialist in comparative literary studies, his books and essays dealt with questions of cultural philosophy relating to translation and the nature of language and literature. He preferred to examine the relationship between literature and society, especially in the light of recent history. In Language and Silence (1967), for example, he wrote essays on the dehumanizing effects of World War II on literature. His study Nach Babel (1975) on language and translation is considered a fundamental work of comparative literature .

In addition to scientific contributions, he regularly wrote reviews and articles for magazines and newspapers such as the New Yorker , the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian . Steiner spoke and wrote in five languages. He was a member of the British Academy .

family

In 1955 he married Zara Shakow , with whom he had been introduced by his friends in 1952. They have a son, David, who is the Dean of the School of Education at Hunter College in New York, and a daughter, Deborah , who is Professor of Classics at Columbia University .

George Steiner died in February 2020 at the age of 90 at his home in Cambridge, UK. 10 days after him, his wife Zara died at the age of 91.

Works

In chronological order according to the publication of the English original edition:

  • Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. Analysis of the occidental novel. From the English by Jutta and Theodor Knust. Piper, Munich, Zurich 1990 (German first: Langen Müller, Munich, Vienna 1964; English original edition first under the title: Tolstoy or Dostojewsky. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1959).
  • The death of tragedy. A critical essay. Langen Müller, Munich, Vienna 1962 (first under the title: Death of Tragedy. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1961).
  • Language and silence. Essays on language, literature and the inhuman. From the English by Axel Kaun. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1969 (first under the title: Language and Silence: Essays on Language, Literature, and the Inhuman. Atheneum, 1967).
  • In Bluebeard's castle. Notes on redefining culture. German by Friedrich Polakovics. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1972 (= Suhrkamp taschenbuch 77; initially under the title: Notes towards the Redefinition of Culture. University of Kent, Canterbury 1971).
  • Extraterritorial. Papers on Literature and the Language Revolution. Penguin Books, Middlesex 1975 (= Suhrkamp Taschenbuch 77). First published by Faber & Faber, London 1972 (First published in USA 1971).
  • The Sporting Scene. White Knights of Reykjavik. Faber & Faber, London 1973.
  • After Babel. Aspects of language and translation. Extended new edition. German by Monika Plessner with the assistance of Henriette Beese. Translation of the foreword and the revised and new text passages by Peter Sillem. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-40648-5 (German first 1981; English original edition 1975 first under the title: After Babel. Aspects of Language and Translation. ).
  • Martin Heidegger. An introduction. Translated from the English by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1989 (= Edition Akzente, ISBN 3-446-15358-6 . First under the title: Martin Heidegger. The Viking Press, New York 1978).
  • The Antigones. History and present of a myth. Translated from English by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-446-14850-7 ; Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-423-04536-1 (first under the title: Antigones. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York 1984).
  • From the real present. Does our speech have any content? With an afterword by Botho Strauss . Translated from the English by Jörg Trobitius. Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-446-15823-5 (first under the title: Real Presences. Faber and Faber, London 1989).
  • Archimedes' garden. Essays. Translated from the English by Michael Müller. Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-446-18957-2 (first under the title: No Passion Spent. Essays 1987-1996. Faber and Faber, London 1996).
  • Errata: Balance of a life. Translated from the English by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1999 (first under the title: Errata. Faber & Faber, London 1999). dtv: ISBN 3-423-30855-9 , autobiography.
  • Grammar of creation. Translated from the English by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-446-20077-0 (first under the title: Grammars of Creation. Faber & Faber, London 2001). dtv: ISBN 3-423-34095-9 .
  • The master and his students . Translated from the English by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-446-20549-7 .
  • Why thinking makes you sad. Ten (possible) reasons. Translated from the English by Nicolaus Bornhorn. With an afterword by Durs Grünbein. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-41841-6 .
  • My unwritten books. Translated from the English by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-446-20934-3 -
  • The logocrats. Translated from the English and French by Martin Pfeiffer. Hanser, Munich, 2009, ISBN 978-3-446-23322-5 (essay and discussion volume).
  • In the room of silence. Readings. Translated from the English by Nicolaus Bornhorn. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42231-1 (essays from The New Yorker ).
  • Compose thoughts. Translated from the English by Nicolaus Bornhorn. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2011 (first under the title: The Poetry of Thought. New Directions, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-8112-1945-7 ).
  • A long saturday. A conversation with Laure Adler . Translated from the French by Nicolaus Bornhorn. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-455-50377-7 (first under the title: Un long samedi. Flammarion, Paris 2014. The discussions were held between 2002 and 2014.).

Quotes

“ We are now aware that extreme forms of collective hysteria and cruelty can go hand in hand with a parallel maintenance or even further development of the institutions, bureaucracy and professional ethics of a highly developed culture. [...] We also know - and this concerns knowledge that has been carefully documented but has so far in no way found its way into rational psychology - that in one and the same individual there are clear characteristics of a literary and aesthetic sensation with a barbaric, political one sadistic behavior can go together. People like Hans Frank , who directed the Final Solution in Eastern Europe, were avid connoisseurs and in some cases interpreters of Bach and Mozart. We know that some of the helpers and accomplices of the bureaucracy of the executioners and the cremation ovens were Goethe experts and liked to read Rilke. "

- George Steiner, In Bluebeard's Castle , 1971

“(G. Steiner on his relationship with Israel :) Israel is a pure miracle, a magically fulfilled dream from hell. It is now the only safe refuge for the Jew when things get going again. And it will start again! Perhaps one day Israel will host my children and grandchildren. Which Jew has the right to harbor doubts, even mourning, about Zionism? However: During more than two thousand years of persecution, mass murder, ghetto and mockery, the Jew was unable to humiliate or torture another person. In my opinion there was no higher distinction, no prouder aristocracy, than to belong to the people who did not torture! I have been so proud of it almost since childhood, of such arrogance: I belong to the highest race because we do not torture. We are the only ones. We didn't have the power to do it. Alleluia! "

- George Steiner: We are all guests of life and truth. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 31, 2003, p. 39.

“(Steiner's favorite joke with which he gets through the day :) God has finally had enough of us and announces the coming of a new flood within ten days. No ark will be launched this time. Out. Enough. End of working day. From Rome the Pope calls on Catholics to obey God's will and to await the end in prayer. The Protestants say: let's pray, but first arrange our bank accounts, the balance sheets have to be correct. The rabbi, on the other hand, exclaims: Ten days? But that's enough to learn to breathe underwater. "

- quoted by Volker Breidecker: The art of being at home everywhere. Review. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 7, 2016, p. 15.

Awards (excerpt)

literature

  • Paul Bellebaum: Thinking About Art. Plato - Goethe - Tolstoj - Rudolf Steiner - George Steiner. Five essays. Möllmann, Paderborn 1998, ISBN 3-931156-31-1 .
  • Christoph Ebner: Steiner, Murdoch , Strauss - elements of an aesthetic of the absolute. Graz 2009, ISBN 978-3-7011-0150-4 .

Web links

Wikiquote: George Steiner  - Quotes
conversations
Obituaries

Single receipts

  1. ↑ a b munzinger.de
  2. ↑ Durs Grünbein : On the weight of the poem. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 23, 2019. See George Steiner: After Babel. Aspects of Language and Translation. 3. Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York 1998, p. 120 .
  3. ↑ Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, William Grimes: George Steiner, Prodigious Literary Critic, Dies at 90. In: The New York Times , February 3, 2020.
  4. ↑ George Steiner, The School of Reading. In: Sternstunde Philosophie , December 4, 2011.
  5. ↑ Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, William Grimes: George Steiner, Prodigious Literary Critic, Dies at 90. In: The New York Times , February 3, 2020.
  6. ^ Willi Winkler: Obituary - George Steiner, the last coffee house guest. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Review by Wolfram Schütte : "The Master and His Students". In: Cover culture magazine , April 7, 2005.
  8. ↑ Gertie F. Bögels: Psychoanalysis in the language of Alice Millers. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 1997, ISBN 3-8260-1321-2 , (University of Amsterdam, dissertation, 1992), p. 80.
  9. ^ Award: writer George Steiner receives Ludwig Börne Prize. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 25, 2003 ( dpa report).
personal data
SURNAME Steiner, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steiner, Francis George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American literary scholar, writer, philosopher, and cultural critic
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 2020
Place of death Cambridge