Janne Teller

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Janne Teller in Bogotá, Colombia, 2016
Janne Teller, Mexico City, 2016
Janne Teller, Mérida, March 2015
Janne Teller, Gothenburg, 2014

Janne Teller (born April 8, 1964 in Copenhagen ) is a Danish writer who lives in New York and Berlin. She became better known through the publication of her book Nothing - What Is Important in Life .

Life

Teller comes from an Austrian - German family. As a macroeconomist , she worked from 1988 to 1995 as a consultant for the EU and for the UN in Dar-es-Salaam , Brussels , New York and Mozambique . Since 1995 she has devoted herself entirely to her work as a writer.

With Odins ø (1999; Ger. Odins Insel , 2002), Intet (2000; Ger. Nothing - What is important in life , 2010), Hvis der var krig i Norden (2004; Ger. War - Imagine if he were here , 2011), Kattens tramp (2004; German The Seven Lives of the Cat , 2008; new edition 2011 under the title Europe - Everything that is missing ) and Kom (2008; German Komm , 2012) are five of their six in Danish Language-written books have also been published in German translation. Teller's books have been translated from Danish into around 20 languages ​​(including Afar, Basque, German, English, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Catalan, Korean, Latin, Dutch, Swedish, Slovenian, Spanish). In addition to her work as a book author, Teller regularly publishes essays and other texts.

With her novel Nothing - What is Important in Life (2010), Teller sparked debates in the international literary scene about what can be expected of young readers in literary terms. In the German feuilleton, Nothing - What is Important in Life was described as a "harrowing parable about the search for the meaning of life" (Deutschlandradio) and "Breaking taboos with depth" (ZEIT). Nothing has been controversial in Scandinavia since the Danish edition was published in 2000 because of the physical and mental cruelty it portrays among children. The German edition of Nothing - What Is Important in Life has sold more than 200,000 copies in Germany.

In 2013, Janne Teller's book Alles - Wasum es geht was published as an original edition in German, a collection of short stories. Also in 2013, Janne Teller's story Afrikanske veje (African Paths) was published in Denmark .

In 2012 she was a member of the jury for the award The Extraordinary Book of the children and youth program of the Berlin International Literature Festival .

Teller has received several awards for her books, including the Youth Book Prize of the Danish Ministry of Culture (2001), the Le Prix Libbylit (2008) and the Michael L. Printz Honor Book (2011).

Janne Teller lives alternately in New York and Berlin.

Janne Teller in the quote

About nothing - what is important in life

“It's amazing that a book can be so combated in Western Europe these days. Not because of brutal or sexist or inflammatory content, but only because of the questions it raises. There have been difficulties in various countries, not just in Denmark, but in France and Norway, where it is still not allowed to read in some schools. The main debate took place between teachers, librarians and educators, many of whom felt the book was too much for young readers. "

- Janne Teller : Teachers said this book was harmful - Interview with Janne Teller, in: Die Zeit, August 5, 2010

Press review

Nothing - What is important in life (2010)

"A gripping story, a harrowing parable about the search for the meaning of life."

- Ute Wegmann : The best 7 books for young readers - The Deutschlandfunk best list in September , on: Deutschlandradio from September 4th 2010

“Janne Teller's award-winning parable, which was published ten years ago in Denmark, impresses with its ingenious scenario, which the author underlines in a stylistically effective way through repeated three-way formulas made up of positive, comparative and superlative. It shows how the search for meaning can fall from one extreme to the next and thereby derail completely because, after the radical disenchantment of the world, aiming at the absolute, it does not allow any nuances and threatens to extinguish any curiosity and desire for discovery. "

- Heidi Strobel : The Nihilist in the Plum Tree , in: FAZ of October 2, 2010

“Teller's book has an eventful history behind it, which in Denmark is marked by sharp rejection on the one hand and enthusiasm on the other. Nothing was awarded the highest children's book prize in the country and has since been banned from classrooms. In Germany, it now encounters a reading public who is used to book series such as “Philosophizing with curious children” or the “Children's University”. It is not difficult for adults to find this kind of good. At the reception of nothing it will become clear whether we can bear it when curious young people take philosophizing seriously. And what contribution we can make to ensure that the matter ends differently than in the book. "

- Tilman Spreckelsen : How to become a fanatic , in FAZ from September 23, 2010

“With relentlessness and consistency, the author forces her readers to grapple with questions like: What are your values? Which of these values ​​are so important that they withstand the threat of egoism, violence and greed for profit? Can you doubt the meaning of the world and still follow the principles of a decent life? Is it part of growing up to answer these very questions and live by them? Teller's story also takes children's and young adult literature one step further. What can not be tracked down in your text: philosophical discussion, biblical example story, folk tales, psychological lesson and last but not least a crime thriller, with perpetrators and their motives. This cross-over, playing with narrative traditions, develops a free space for images, actions and thoughts that allows and directs realistic depictions of violence and cruelty at the same time - a taboo break with depth and future. Nothing does not depress, but rather encourages readers to determine their own lives. It describes a search that everyone embarks on at some point, but which has rarely been told so grippingly. "

- Birgit Dankert : Is everything nothing? , in: The time of August 5, 2010

“All of this is disgusting and should be; unlike in many sword-smacking fantasy epics, however, the violence in Teller has a deterrent effect. It is the price that the author pays to make it unmistakably clear how fundamentalism arises and works. This is no small achievement. Anyone who does not want to expect anything is made ruthlessly clear that a meaning in life that costs life cannot be meaningful. "

- Wieland Freund : On the mountain of meaning , in: Die Welt from August 7, 2010

War - Imagine It Was Here (2011)

“Teller's thought game also has an aesthetic premise: The text is written in the second person singular, so the reader is constantly addressed and so slips completely into the skin of the German youth who experienced the war with all its destructive side effects and then with the family the expensive and illegal escape to Egypt succeeds. So Teller is about the empathy of her readers with war refugees, and the ideas she wants to evoke are part of the roller coaster these migrants are exposed to. "

- Tilman Spreckelsen : Stolen Years , in: FAZ from March 8, 2012

Come on (2012)

“How much is a writer allowed to depict the real world? Can he use the experiences and fates of his friends and fellow human beings for art? And is there even a line between art and morality? In this philosophical meditation on a cold winter night, which Peter Urban-Halle has smoothly translated into German, Janne Teller revolves around such questions again and again. The Danish writer, whose books are called War , Nothing, or Now Come and who regularly provoke debate among readers, is not afraid of big questions. "

- Sandra Kegel : What does art do? With us and for us? And what can she do? , in: FAZ of May 26, 2012

“This fall, a book caused a sensation that quickly made it onto the bestseller lists and is discussed in every feature section, Janne Teller's Nothing That Is Important in Life . It is now mentioned in the same breath as Morton Rhues The Wave or William Golding's Lord of the Flies , as a special form of discourse about the meaning of life. "

- Roswitha Budeus-Budde : The literary marketplace , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung from October 1, 2010

Danish author Janne Teller asks herself exactly this question in her novel Komm : Is art allowed everything? Or is there a moral limit at which the human conscience brings artistic freedom to an end? Big questions, which of course are not answered, just circled around in your mind and viewed from all angles. Janne Teller's book is both a novella and a philosophical essay. "

- Guilt, Art, Business , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of April 2, 2012

Everything - What It's About (2013)

“There are no prescribed morals and no teaching from Janne Teller, no simple good and no bad. Teller just tries to look into the soul of her hero, even when it hurts. And that is exactly what makes these heroes, this book so human. "

- Daniel Sander : Against Understanding , in: Kulturspiegel, October 2013, issue 10, p. 26

“Janne Teller's story is exciting, sometimes cryptic, but linguistically demanding. And as in her novel Nothing , which was first banned and then awarded internationally, this time too she lets her characters go to extremes - which she demands of the reader equally. "

- Every victim is a perpetrator , in: Die Zeit of November 14, 2013, No. 47, p. 51

bibliography

Books

Danish-language original edition German translation Remarks
1999: Odins ø , Janne Teller (text), Centrum (Viby), ISBN 87-583-1162-9 2002: Odins Insel , Hanne Hammer (translation from Danish), Goldmann Verlag (Munich)
2000: Intet , Janne Teller (text) 2010: Nothing - What is important in life , Sigrid C. Engeler (translation from Danish), Carl Hanser Verlag (Munich), ISBN 978-3-446-23596-0
2004: Hvis der var krig i Norden , Janne Teller (text), Helle Vibeke Jensen (illustration), Dansklærerforeningen (Copenhagen), ISBN 87-7996-001-4 2011: War - Imagine it was here , Sigrid C. Engeler (translation from Danish), Carl Hanser Verlag (Munich), ISBN 978-3-446-23689-9
2004: Kattens tramp , Janne Teller (text), Gyldendal (Copenhagen), ISBN 87-02-03095-0 2008: The seven lives of the cat , Hanne Hammer (translation from Danish), btb Verlag (Munich), ISBN 978-3-442-74027-7 ; New edition 2011 under the title Europe - Everything that is missing , Hanne Hammer (translation from Danish), btb Verlag (Munich), ISBN 978-3-442-74271-4
2008: Kom , Janne Teller (text), Gyldendal (Copenhagen), ISBN 978-87-02-05821-5 2012: Come , Peter Urban-Halle (translation from Danish), Carl Hanser Verlag (Munich), ISBN 978-3-446-23756-8
2013: Everything - what it's about , Janne Teller (text), Sigrid Engeler and Birgitt Kollmann (translator from Danish), Carl Hanser Verlag , Munich, ISBN 978-3-446-24317-0 Collection with the eight short stories Why? (1), Swaying on your hips and keeping your eyes on the ground (2), The Turkish carpet (3), Yellow light (4), Until death do us part (5), The birds, the flowers, the trees (6), Lollipops (7) and Everything - What I Can Tell (8), plus an afterword

The German-language edition is the original edition of the short stories as an anthology

2013: Afrikanske veje , Janne Teller (text), publisher: Brøndums 2014: African Paths , Peter Urban-Halle (translator from Danish), Hanser Box, Munich, ISBN 978-3-446-24824-3

Essays and texts

Nominations and Awards

Festival participation

Plays (selection)

Web links

Commons : Janne Teller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.dradio.de
  2. ↑ a b Birgit Dankert: Luchs No. 283: Is everything nothing? In: zeit.de. August 5, 2010, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Christine Lötscher: Who is afraid of the nihilist? . In: Tages-Anzeiger . August 17, 2010. Retrieved August 20, 2010.
  4. ↑ Susanne Gaschke: Janne Teller: "Teachers said this book is harmful". In: zeit.de. August 5, 2010, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  5. ↑ www.dradio.de
  6. ↑ Heidi Strobel: The nihilist in the plum tree. In: faz.net. October 2, 2010, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Tilman Spreckelsen: How to become a fanatic. In: faz.net. September 23, 2010, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Wieland Freund: On the mountain of meaning. In: welt.de. August 7, 2010, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  9. ^ Tilman Spreckelsen: Stolen Years. In: faz.net. March 8, 2011, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Sandra Kegel: What is art allowed to do? In: faz.net. May 25, 2012, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  11. ↑ www.buecher.de
  12. ↑ www.buecher.de
  13. ↑ juvenil.twoday.net ( memento of the original from March 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / juvenil.twoday.net
  14. ↑ www.dradio.de
  15. ↑ www.dradio.de
  16. ↑ www.stiftung-buchkunst.de
  17. ↑ www.ala.org
  18. ↑ www.djlp.jugendliteratur.org
  19. ↑ mls.provinz.bz.it
  20. ↑ www.dradio.de
  21. ↑ www.rowohlt-theaterverlag.de
  22. ↑ www.rowohlt-theaterverlag.de
  23. ↑ Preview at insidegreifswald.de accessed on January 6, 2013.
  24. ↑ www.staatsschauspiel-dresden.de ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.staatsschauspiel-dresden.de
personal data
SURNAME Teller, Janne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen