Josef Winkler (Author)

Josef Winkler (2009)

Josef Winkler (actually: Joseph Winkler; born March 3, 1953 in Kamering near Paternion in Carinthia ) is an Austrian writer .

Life and work

Josef Winkler grew up with his siblings on his parents' farm in his native Kamering. He describes his parents' house as a “speechless world”, his father's love was for the animals on the farm and violence for the children. The mother had lost her brothers during the Second World War and therefore fell silent. While he was attending the eight-grade village school in Kamering, he was already aware of the class difference in society, as as a farmer's child he could not afford books, but the village teacher's son could. Therefore, at the age of eight or nine, he stole money from his parents so that he could buy a book. They had no understanding of this. At this time, the young Winkler also got his first books - fairy tales by Oscar Wilde . Shortly afterwards he had read forty to fifty volumes by Karl May . After finishing school, Winkler attended the commercial school in Villach . As a fourteen-year-old, he said to someone that he didn't know what he was going to be, but one day he wanted to write a book. By then he had gotten away from his parents' village maybe two or three times. Soon he felt the urge to read something of a higher standard. He remembered the plague of Camus in his hand, and works by Peter Weiss , the French existentialists , and then also Peter Handke . For Winkler, the focus was on language. He observed, searched and studied the style and form of the works, because even then he was accompanied by the fear of speechlessness, which could be overcome by reading.

After graduating from business school, Winkler began to work in the office of the Upper Carinthian dairy . Later he attended the evening trade academy in Klagenfurt and worked during the day at Eduard Kaiser Verlag , which among other things produced Karl May books. From 1973 to 1982 he worked in the administration of the Klagenfurt University for Educational Sciences (the later University of Klagenfurt ); from 1979 he was exempted. At that time, Josef Winkler, in collaboration with Alois Brandstetter, organized a literary working group, within the framework of which readings and literary competitions took place, and published the literary journal Schreibarbeiten . The writing was intended as a pre-reading, which made the texts of authors who appeared at the events of the literary working group accessible to visitors in advance and thus facilitated subsequent discussions. Josef Winkler himself only published two articles in the magazine. It was discontinued after the 9th edition.

In 1979 he won second prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize with the debut novel Menschenkind behind Gert Hofmann . Together with the following novels The Ackermann from Carinthia and Mother tongue, the book forms the trilogy Das wilde Kärnten .

The themes of home, death, sexuality, Catholicism and country life play an important role in Winkler's texts. Based on autobiographical experiences, he describes the problems that an individual has to face in a patriarchal and Catholic world. Due to this thematic pool, his works are sometimes counted among the anti- homeland literature, but often set themselves apart from the characteristics of this genre and deliberately leave certain framework conditions behind. For his work he also created a frame of reference to other writers with whom he connected central themes such as death, isolation and homosexuality, including Jean Genet , Peter Handke and Hans Henny Jahnn , whereby he was also fascinated by the expressionist literary expression. His numerous trips to Italy and especially India found and are often incorporated into his work. Several times the author describes Indian rituals of the dead, as they take place in Varanasi , and contrasts them with the Catholic rituals of his homeland.

Since the beginning of his writing activities, Winkler has received numerous national and international recognitions, honors and awards. Its greatest success began in the late 2000s. In 2007 he won the Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature, followed by the Georg Büchner Prize in 2008 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Klagenfurt in 2009. In 2013, the Suhrkamp-Verlag , which has published Winkler from the start, published early texts by the author, thus taking a step back to the roots.

On the occasion of the opening of the 33rd Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2009 , he gave the traditional Klagenfurt speech on literature . It caused a stir because the writer in it severely criticized the rulers of the city of Klagenfurt and the state of Carinthia; For example, for the fact that Klagenfurt still does not have its own city library, which those responsible justify with a lack of funds, and for the fact that a tax advisor to the state government received a fee of six million euros during the sale of Hypo Alpe Adria to BayernLB , and the state and the city mutually Construction of the 70 million euro football stadium in Klagenfurt ( Hypo Group Arena ) could certainly afford.

At the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the donation of Klagenfurt to the state estates, Winkler caused a sensation on April 24, 2018 with a speech in which he criticized the decline of Hypo Alpe Adria and the construction of the Wörtherseestadion and suggested among other things to store the urn of the former FPÖ chairman Jörg Haider in a prison cell in future. The FPÖ Carinthia then announced on April 26, 2018 that it would file criminal charges against Winkler for incitement to hatred. In return, this triggered a reaction from the IG authors who wanted to investigate whether Winkler had to put up with the FPÖ's designation of left-wing hate preachers .

In particular, Winkler's books have been translated into French and Spanish, but also into Russian, Italian, Japanese and Slovenian. Josef Winkler is a member of the Graz Authors' Assembly and the interest group of Austrian authors . In October 2010 he was accepted into the Austrian Art Senate , of which he is President. Despite Winkler's split relationship with his home state Carinthia, the writer lived there for most of his life so far. Through many different journeys he gains new impressions and inspiration, which he allows to flow into his works. Josef Winkler still lives in Klagenfurt today with his wife, the photographer Christina Schwichtenberg, and their two children.

Awards

• 1979 Special prize of the Klagenfurt jury at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 1979
• 1980 Anton Wildgans Prize
• 1990 Kranichsteiner Literature Prize
• 1992 Austrian Prize for Literature
• 1994/1995 City Clerk of Bergen
• 1995 Bettina von Arnim Prize
• 1996 manuscript award of the state of Styria
• 1996 Berlin Literature Prize
• 2000 André Gide Prize for when the time comes. and for his translator into French, Bernard Banoun
• 2001 Alfred Döblin Prize
• 2001 Otto Stoessl Prize
• 2002 Floriana Literature Prize
• 2005 Franz Nabl Prize of the City of Graz
• 2007 Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature
• 2008 Georg Büchner Prize from the German Academy for Language and Poetry
• 2009 honorary doctorate from the University of Klagenfurt
• 2016/2017 working grant from the German Literature Fund

Publications

Josef Winkler (Vienna 2013)

• The town clerk of Calcutta , Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-518-47014-5
• Calcutta. Diary III. Provincial Library, Weitra 2018, ISBN 978-3-99028-322-6 .
• Let yourself be haunted, father or write death in my heart . Suhrkamp, ​​2018, ISBN 978-3-518-42796-5 .
• Farewell to father and mother . Suhrkamp, ​​2015, ISBN 978-3-518-46592-9 .
• Winnetou, Abel and me . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-42448-3 (with pictures by Sascha Schneider ).
• Mother and the pencil . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-42358-5 .
• Vocabulary of the night . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-42357-8 .
• Calcutta. Diary II. Library of the Province, Weitra 2012, ISBN 978-3-99028-048-5 .
• together with Pepo Pichler Mysterious Traveler. Provincial Library, Weitra 2012, ISBN 978-3-99028-151-2 .
• Saying reality as if it wasn't there anyway or The angels' outbursts. Suhrkamp, ​​2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42137-6 .
• The weather cocks of luck and The Totenkulterer of Carinthia. Wieser Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-85129-930-4 .
• Swimmer, cast your flesh. Images and texts. Provincial Library, 2010, ISBN 978-3-900000-71-4 .
• Calcutta. Diary I. Provincial Library, 2010, ISBN 978-3-902416-80-3 .
• The cat's silver wreath on Henselstrasse. Suhrkamp, ​​2009, ISBN 978-3-518-06132-9 . (= Speech at the Klagenfurt Bachmann Days 2009)
• Josef Winkler - The big screen goer. A film by Michael Pfeifenberger. Text: Josef Winkler. Provincial Library 2008, ISBN 978-3-85252-956-1 .
• I'll tear an eyelash out and stab you dead with it. Suhrkamp, ​​2008, ISBN 978-3-518-12556-4 .
• Roppongi. Requiem for a father. Suhrkamp, ​​2007, ISBN 978-3-518-41921-2 .
• India Varanasi, Harishchandra. Travel journal. Provincial Library, 2006, ISBN 3-85252-757-0 .
• Corpse, stalking his family. Suhrkamp, ​​2003, ISBN 3-518-12442-0 .
• Natura Morta . Roman novella, Suhrkamp, ​​2001, ISBN 3-518-41269-8 .
• When the time comes. Suhrkamp, ​​1998, ISBN 3-518-41011-3 .
• Domra. Suhrkamp, ​​1996, ISBN 3-518-40803-8 .
• Wild Carinthia. (= Human child. The Ackermann from Carinthia. Mother tongue ), Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-518-38977-7 .
• The pupil of Jean Genet. Suhrkamp, ​​1992, ISBN 3-518-40492-X .
• Graveyard of bitter oranges. Suhrkamp, ​​1990, ISBN 3-518-40292-7 .
• The serf. Suhrkamp, ​​1987, ISBN 3-518-02669-0 .
• The kidnapping. Suhrkamp, ​​1983, ISBN 3-518-11177-9 .
• Native language. Suhrkamp, ​​1982, ISBN 3-518-04674-8 .
• The farmer from Carinthia. Suhrkamp, ​​1980, ISBN 3-518-04683-7 .
• Human child. Suhrkamp, ​​1979, ISBN 3-518-04682-9 .

literature

• Michael Fisch: gestures and conversations. About Hubert Fichte. With Herbert Jäger, Hermann Peter Piwitt and Josef Winkler. Rimbaud Verlag, Aachen 2005, ISBN 3-89086-615-8 .
• Christina Höfferer, Andreas Kloner: Josef Winkler. Every sentence a human face. ORF radio feature 2008, 40 min.
• Dirck Linck: half-woman and makeup artist. Subjectivity and gay experience in Josef Winkler's work. rosa Winkel, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-86149-011-0 .
• Benoît Pivert: Josef Winkler or the prison of the past. In: Anne-Marie Corbin, Friedbert Aspetsberger (ed.): Tradition and modern. Historical and aesthetic analyzes of Austrian culture . Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck 2008, ISBN 978-3-7065-4448-1 .
• Christina Ujma: The dead do nothing to me. Baroque, obsessed with death and weird. Josef Winkler receives the 2008 Büchner Prize on: freitag.de
• Christina Ujma: Baroque Naturalism. Josef Winkler's Roman novella "Natura Morta". on: literaturkritik.de
• Michaela Schmitz: Confessions of a deadly serious swindler about "Saying reality as if it still wasn't" on Deutschlandfunk on March 5, 2012.

Web links

Commons : Josef Winkler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Josef Winkler in the catalog of the German National Library
• “Portrait Josef Winkler” at Suhrkamp-Verlag
• Short biography and reviews of works by Josef Winkler at perlentaucher.de
• Josef Winkler at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Winkler reads from “ Roppongi. Requiem for a father "
• Recordings by and with Josef Winkler from the online archive of the Austrian Media Library
• Josef Winkler in the Bergen-Enkheim town clerk archive

Individual evidence

1. ^ Austrian library association: Reading lounge: Josef Winkler in an interview with Günter Kaindlstorfer. In: Youtube. Retrieved February 13, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Josef Winkler: Winnetou, Abel and me . 1st edition. Suhrkamp , 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-42448-3 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Eigenaussage, Ö1 - in conversation, January 20, 2001.
4. ↑ onb.ac.at
5. ^ Haas Franz: Heretic prayers. or: Josef Winkler's poetological search for a hostel . In: Günther A. Höfler, Gerhard Melzer (Ed.): Josef Winkler . tape 13 . Droschl 1998, Graz, Vienna.
6. ↑ The silver cat wreath in Henselstrasse. Klagenfurt speech on literature, June 24, 2009.
7. ↑ Bachmann Prize: Josef Winkler settles political accounts. on: DiePresse.com June 24, 2009.
8. ^ Carinthian writer Winkler: Haider's urn moved to prison. Retrieved April 26, 2018 . 
9. ^ Carinthian FPÖ reports writer Josef Winkler. Retrieved April 26, 2018 . 
10. ^ After Winkler's celebratory speech in Klagenfurt, there is now also a complaint against the FPÖ , in the standard from May 1, 2018, accessed on May 4, 2018.
11. ^ Austrian Art Senate: Josef Winkler new member. on: derStandard.at . October 6, 2010.
12. ^ Homepage of the University of Klagenfurt : Honorary doctorate to writer Josef Winkler , October 13, 2009.
13. ↑ Commissioned by the Burgtheater. Retrieved March 9, 2018 . 
14. ↑ At the request of the author, the speech is not available at the ORF archive