Kjell Askildsen

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Kjell Askildsen

Kjell Askildsen (born September 30, 1929 in Mandal , Norway ) is a Norwegian writer who is often referred to as "Norway's Beckett " or is put in the vicinity of the US author Raymond Carver . Initially a novelist, Askildsen moved over time to minimalist narratives in which neither significant events nor developments take place. If it still captivates many readers, then it is because of its concise, accurate and profound language. Askildsen writes on Bokmål . He has received numerous awards, most recently (2009) the Svenska Akademiens nordiska pris .

life and work

Askildsen's first sensational prose work was the collection of short stories Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem (From now on I will accompany you home) published in 1953 , which was received with great controversy because of the treatment of taboo subjects at the time. Peter Deisinger: “The Oslo press was enthusiastic, but libraries refused to include the book in their collections. Askildsen's father, a churchman and regional politician in Mandal, burned it in public. However, Askildsen did not allow himself to be dissuaded from this desire to become a writer. ”In the following novels Askildsen mostly“ takes the perspective of a first-person narrator, who in an existentialist monologue - in the tradition of Albert Camus ' Der Fremde or Jean-Paul Sartre's Disgust - laconically reviewing his everyday life. ”During the 1970s, Askildsen gave an interlude in the Maoist movement that did little to benefit his literature. In the 1980s he developed the aforementioned style: "narrow-lipped, sober and disturbing with the big questions of life as a topic", as the Norwegian Wikipedia puts it. The critic Peter Urban-Halle is ambivalent. On the one hand, he calls the barreness of the stories recently presented in Alt som før (A beautiful place) "exciting and stimulating" and also amusing; on the other hand, he admits that Askildsen's style - if they should have one - shouldn't be to everyone's taste. “He writes in an unadorned, if not to say lazy, language whose only desire is to stamp out the last superfluous letter .. (..) .. And then Askildsen's heroes! They are quite unsympathetic contemporaries: old lonely, stubborn men who grumble to themselves, complete misanthropes, quickly offended, never satisfied, not even with themselves, so envious of anyone who has even a spark of self-confidence. They feel comfortable in their loneliness and yet again not. "

Askildsen's "Complete Works", translated into German by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel in autumn 2019, was chosen by the Darmstadt jury as Book of the Month for December 2019. In the reason it says u. a .: "Every word is in its place here, as the excellent translation by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel shows. Adjectives are rare. This resulted in ice-clear novels of just sixty pages, such as the one that practiced the game of passions under the conditions of permanent visibility Lighthouse narrative “Surroundings.” In its reduction, Askildsen's stories, which are populated by gnarled, taciturn and stoic figures and often revolve around the absurdity of relationships, are of a glacier-deep psychological truth. With safe movements, they open imaginary spaces in which one can feel at ease all readers can find it again. This splendid complete edition makes this splendid complete edition possible to get to know this brilliantly bright work in its concise, noble whole. "

Works (selection)

  • Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem (From now on I will accompany you home), stories, 1953
  • Mr. Leonhard Leonhard , Roman, 1955
  • Davids bror , novel, 1957
  • Backdrops , short stories, 1966
  • Omgivelser , Roman, 1969 (filmed in 1973 under the title Maria Marusjka , directed by Oddvar Bull Tuhus), dts. Perspectives , Witten, Berlin 1974
  • Kjære, kjære Oluf , Roman, 1974
  • Hverdag , Roman, 1976 (German: A Chance for Johan , Berlin 1980)
  • Ingenting for ingenting , short stories, 1982
  • Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten (F's last news to the public), short stories, 1983
  • En plutselig frigjørende tanke , Stories, 1987
  • Et stort øde landskap , stories, 1991 (German: A wide, empty landscape , Kiel 1992)
  • Hundene i Tessaloniki , Tales, 1996
  • Samlede noveller , short stories, 1999
  • Old som før. Noveller i utvalg , Stories, 2005, dts. A beautiful place , German by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, Munich 2009
  • Vennskapets pris , short stories, 2015
  • The complete works , German by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-630-87588-0 .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Also from The Times Literary Supplement , quoted on this website , accessed on December 23, 2010
  2. ↑ Quoted from this website , accessed on December 23, 2010
  3. ^ Also Peter Deisinger
  4. ↑ Review in Deutschlandradio , quoted from this website , accessed on December 23, 2010
  5. ↑ Book of the Month for December . darmstadt.de. Accessed January 1, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Askildsen, Kjell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Mandal