Klaus Modick

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Klaus Modick

Klaus Modick (born May 3, 1951 in Oldenburg ) is a German writer and literary translator .

Life

Klaus Modick attended the old grammar school in Oldenburg (Oldenburg) and passed his Abitur there in 1971 . He then studied German , history and education at the University of Hamburg . In 1977 he laid the first state examination for teaching at high schools in the subjects German and History from 1980 doctorate he in literature with a thesis on Lion Feuchtwanger Dr. phil. Modick then had various jobs and was among other things advertising copywriter and lecturer .

He has been a freelance writer and translator since 1984 . Modick has lived in Oldenburg again since 2000. He is a member of the PEN Center Germany . He read in the competitions for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 1988 and 1994 . From 1986 to 1992 he wrote monthly columns (paperbacks) for Die Zeit , from 1997 to 2002 for the daily newspaper . Klaus Modick was visiting professor at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and in the United States of America ( USA ) at Middlebury College and Dartmouth College . From 1996 to 2002 he was a lecturer in creative writing at Bielefeld University , and from 2000 to 2003 he was a member of the literature commission of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Art. From 2004 to 2008 he organized and moderated literary discussions for the Oldenburger Kunstverein . From 2014 to 2019 he was an advisory member of the culture committee of the city of Oldenburg (Oldb) .

After his literary debut with the critically acclaimed novella Moos (1984), Modick made his breakthrough with his novels Ins Blaue (1985), which was filmed by ZDF in 1990 and later followed up with September Song (2002), and Das Grau der Karolinen (1986), which has been translated into several languages. Modick's most successful books include the novels The Wing (1994), Twenty-Four Doors (2000) and The Cretan Guest (2003), an epic work about the German occupation of Crete during World War II.

One focus of Modick's work is on the subject of children and family, for example Father's Diary (2005). The novel Klack (2013) tells a family and puberty story that takes place at the height of the Cold War in 1960/1961 between the building of the Wall and the Cuba crisis.

The novels Weg war weg (1988) and Bestseller (2006), the hero of which is the writer Lukas Domcik (anagram by Klaus Modick), are satirical discussions of the literary world.

In the novels Der Flügel (1994) and Der Mann im Mast (1997) Modick has already dealt with German-American topics; In the novel Die Schatten der Ideen (2008), this complex of topics takes center stage: it tells the story of a German historian who emigrated to the USA in 1935 and finally fell into the hysteria of the McCarthy era . The exile theme is continued in Modick's novel Sunset (2011) using the example of the friendship between the writers Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger who emigrated to Los Angeles . In 2011 the novel was nominated for both the German Book Prize and the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize.

With the novel Konzert ohne Dichter (2015), Modick creates a panorama of the Worpswede artist group around 1900 based on the genesis of the painting Das Konzert oder Sommerabend auf dem Barkenhoff by Heinrich Vogeler and tells the difficult relationship between Vogeler and Rainer Maria Rilke . The novel became a bestseller immediately after its publication, achieved a circulation of over 100,000 copies in the year of publication, was also enthusiastically received by literary critics and reached number 1 on the SWR's list of best critics.

After sunset and a concert without a poet , Modick published another artist novel with Keyserling's Secret (2018). The focus is on the Baltic writer Eduard von Keyserling and the genesis of the portrait painting that Lovis Corinth made of Keyserling in the summer of 1901.

A kind of short novel about Leonard Cohen (2020) was published in the KIWI music library . Modick tells there, presumably tinged autobiographically, about the formative influence of the Canadian singer and poet on a young man in the 1970s.

Modick's essayistic and literary critical competence is documented in the edited volumes Das Stellen der Schrift (1988), Milder Rausch (1999) and Ein Bild und Tausendwort (2016).

As a literary translator, Modick has translated numerous English and American works into German.

Modick wrote the lyrics for the album Metamorphosen by the musicians Fröhling & Schicke ( Schicke Führs Fröhling ).

reception

"Klaus Modick has long since proven himself to be one of the great storytellers of the Federal Republic." ( Denis Scheck , hot off the press )

Klaus Modick's works are “an important example of a story that is both realistic and playful, profound and entertaining. His novels are multi-layered, characterized by complex processing of motifs and literary allusions, but on the surface always drinkable and, as they say, easy to read. "( Hubert Winkels , Deutschlandfunk)

Modick writes “with that specific ease that has a difficult time in Germany. It is well composed, it is told suggestively; and it effortlessly does everything that more strenuous literature demands of itself. "( Jochen Hörisch , Neue Zürcher Zeitung )

Modick "offers what according to the prejudice only distinguishes Anglo-Saxon books, excellent and intelligent entertainment at a high level." (Helmut Mörchen, Die Neue Gesellschaft / Frankfurter Hefte )

"You could say that Klaus Modick's novels are suitable to show future generations how people of our time lived and felt." (Thomas Schaefer, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung )

"His novels are, in the best sense of the word, what the English call readable: accessible, enjoyable and light-footed - with great consistency in the most carefully researched detail." (Frank Dietschreit, Der Tagesspiegel )

“The Wing” was also discussed in the Literary Quartet . While the other participants emphasized the entertainment value with some criticism, Marcel Reich-Ranicki criticized the book with harsh words: It lacks style, lacks language, it is boring communication prose, it is not bad, but “no literature at all”.

Works (selection)

Modick's autograph
  • Lion Feuchtwanger's novel "Success". Librarian, Kronberg / Ts. 1978 (with Egon Brückener).
  • Lion Feuchtwanger in the context of the twenties. Librarian, Königstein / Ts. 1981.
  • Moss. Novella. Haffmans, Zurich 1984.
  • Into the blue. Novel. Machwerk, Siegen 1985.
  • The gray of the Carolines. Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1986.
  • Way was gone. Novel. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1988, ISBN 978-3-8959-8518-8 .
  • The placement of the script. Essays. Affholderbach & Strohmann, Siegen 1988.
  • The font from the memory. Novel. Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main 1991.
  • The shadow cast by the hand. Sonnets. Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main 1991.
  • The light in the stones. Novel. Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  • The wing. Novel. Schöffling & Co, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 978-3-5961-2969-0 .
  • The cliff. Novel. Schöffling & Co, Frankfurt am Main 1995.
  • The man in the mast. Novel. Schöffling & Co, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 978-3492-24757-3 .
  • Mild intoxication. Essays. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1999.
  • Twenty-four doors. Novel. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2000.
  • September song. Novel. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-8218-0905-1 .
  • The Cretan guest. Novel. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 978-3-4922-4206-6 .
  • Father's Diary. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-4232-0573-3 .
  • Bestseller. Novel. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-4922-5218-8 .
  • The shadows of ideas. Novel. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-4922-5443-4 .
  • Crooked tours. Stories. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-8218-0880-2 .
  • Sunset. Novel. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-8218-6117-3 .
  • Clack. Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-462-04515-4 .
  • Concert without a poet. Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-462-04741-7 .
  • A picture and a thousand words. The genesis of “Concert without Poets” and other essays. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-462-04926-8 .
  • Keyserling's secret. Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-462-05156-8 .
  • Leonard Cohen. KIWI Music Library Volume 5. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2020. ISBN 978-3462053807 .

Editorships

  • Cable-like perspectives. Who's Afraid of New Media? (with Matthias-Johannes Fischer). Hamburg 1984.
  • Very recent past. Walter Benjamin's passage work. Hamburg 1984.
  • Dream dance. An intoxicating reader. Reinbek 1986.
  • Walt Whitman . Diary 1876–1882. Odisheim 1986.
  • You'd have to be 20 again, or would you rather not? A reader. (with Bernhard Lassahn ). Reinbek 1987.
  • Humus. Homage to Helmut Salzinger (with Michael Kellner and Mo Salzinger). Hamburg 1996.
  • Helmut Salzinger: Moor. An attempt to tell nothing (with Mo Salzinger). Odisheim 1996.
  • The ax in the house. Reinbek 1999.
  • Of the pleasure and burden of literary writing. Workshop reports of German writers. (with Helmut Mörchen). Frankfurt / M. 2001.
  • We'd love to turn you on. A declaration of love to the Beatles. (with Matthias Bischoff). Cologne 2012.

Translations (selection)

  • Aravind Adiga: Between the attacks. Beck, Munich 2009.
  • Sebastian Faulks: Singing from the great fire. Schöffling & Co, Frankfurt am Main 1997.
  • William Gaddis: The Redeemer. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1988.
  • William Gaddis: J R. Two thousand and one, Frankfurt am Main. 1996. New edition: Munich 2010
  • William Goldman: When the gondoliers were silent. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2003.
  • Alice Greenway: Narrow Paths. mare, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-86648-232-6 .
  • Sudhir Kakar: The Soul of Others. Beck, Munich 2012.
  • Victor LaValle: monsters. Beck, Munich 2004.
  • Guide for British Soldiers in Germany 1944 . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2014.
  • Andrew Motion: Silver. Return to Treasure Island. mare, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86648-188-6 .
  • Jeffrey Moore: The memory artists. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2006.
  • John O'Hara: Meeting in Samarra . Beck, Munich 2007.
  • John O'Hara: BUtterfield 8. Beck, Munich 2008.
  • Robert Olmstead: Hunting Season. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991.
  • Matt Beynon Rees: A Tomb in Gaza. Beck, Munich 2009.
  • Matt Beynon Rees: The Dead of Nablus. Beck, Munich 2010.
  • Matt Beynon Rees: The Brooklyn Assassin. Beck, Munich 2011.
  • Matt Beynon Rees: Mozart's Last Aria. Beck, Munich 2012.
  • Matt Beynon Rees: Signed in blood. Beck, Munich 2013.
  • Charles Simmons: Belles Lettres. Beck, Munich 2003.
  • Charles Simmons: Confessions of an Untrained Sinner. Beck, Munich 2005.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson: Die Ebbe (Original title: The Ebb Tide ). Haffmans, Zurich 1998.
    • New edition revised by the translator and provided with an afterword: Manesse, Zurich / Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7175-2244-7 .
  • Robert Louis Stevenson : My bed is a boat. A child's verse garden. Lappan, Oldenburg, Munich 2002.
  • Karen Usborne: Elizabeth von Arnim, a biography. (Original title: Elizabeth: the Life of Elizabeth von Arnim ). Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-89561-600-1 .
  • Nathanael West : The Day of the Locust . (Original title: The Day of the Locust ), with an afterword by Bernd Eilert. Manesse, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-7175-2272-0 .

Awards

Visiting professorships and lectureships

  • Lecturer in literary studies, University of Hamburg - 1980 to 1987
  • Writer in Residence, Keio University / Tokyo - 1992
  • Visiting professor at Middlebury College, Vermont / USA - 1994 to 2005
  • Visiting Professor Dartmouth College, New Hampshire / USA - 1995
  • Poetics lectureship “Creative Writing”, Bielefeld University - 1996 to 2002
  • Writer in Residence, Allegheny College, Pennsylvania / USA - 1996
  • Visiting professor at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig - 1998 to 1999

literature

  • David-Christopher Assmann, Eva Geulen: On the social situation of literature (with a case study on Klaus Modick). In: WestEnd. New journal for social research. 9 (2012), No. 2, pp. 18-46.
  • Klaus Bernath: Klaus Modick: The gray of the Carolines. In: Klaus Bernath: Suchwanderungen. opus magnum, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-95612-012-1 .
  • Petra Ernst: Modick, Klaus , in: Hermann Kunisch (ed.): New handbook of contemporary German literature since 1945. dtv. Munich 1993, ISBN 3-485-03550-5 .
  • Dirk Frank: Narrative mind games. The metafictional novel between modernism and postmodernism. Wiesbaden 2001.
  • Interview with Klaus Modick about his novel “Bestseller” and the literature business on www.lit06.de , magazine for literary criticism and literary public.
  • Sabine Jambon: Moss, accidents and an abrupt end. Düsseldorf 1999 ( online version ).
  • Brigitte Krumrey: Authorship in the fictional autobiography of the present. In: Matthias Schaffrick, Marcus Willand (ed.): Theories and practices of authorship. De Gruyter, Berlin 2017. ISBN 978-3-11055363-5 .
  • Helmut Mörchen: Klaus Modick - a contemporary author who should be known. Neue Gesellschaft / Frankfurter Hefte 5/2011.
  • Josua Novak: The postmodern comic novel. Marburg 2009.
  • Harry Nutt: Deep drilling into the blue. About the writer Klaus Modick. In: Mercury. 11/1988.
  • Stuart Parkes: The Disgrace of Late Birth. In: Helmut Schmitz (ed.): German Culture and the Uncomfortable Past. Routledge, Lodon / New York 2017. ISBN 978-1-13827286-6 .
  • Janina Richts: Staging of author-critic relationships in contemporary German-language literature. Munich 2009.
  • Ralf Schnell : History of German-Language Literature since 1945. Stuttgart 2005.
  • Bernd Stenzig: Rilke and Vogeler: misleading in Klaus Modick's “Concert without Poets”. Karl-Robert Schütze, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-928589-31-4 -
  • Tatjana Tempel, Melina Grundmann: Klaus Modick. In: Author's Lexicon. University of Duisburg-Essen 2019. Interpretations and catalog raisonné in the author's lexicon
  • Helmut Weil: Laudation for the novel "Ins Blaue" by Klaus Modick. YouTube 2015 ( [1] )
  • Hubert Winkels : Postmodernism made easy - Klaus Modick and the return of the family. In: Hubert Winkels: Can you love books? Cologne 2010.
  • Dieter Wrobel: Postmodern Chaos - Chaotic Postmodern. A study on analogies between chaos theory and German-language prose of postmodernism. Bielefeld 1998.

Web links

Commons : Klaus Modick  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Literary Quartet 32 ​​| 08/25/1994 | Isaak Babel, Botho Strauss, L.Begley, K.Modick, Paul Auster
personal data
SURNAME Modick, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and literary translator
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldenburg