Leslie Kaplan

Leslie Kaplan (2018)

Leslie Kaplan (* 1943 in New York City ) is a French writer who comes from a Jewish family. She has lived in Paris since 1945 and studied philosophy and political economy at the Sorbonne and in Arras from 1962 to 1966. 1968–1970 she worked in the factory, according to her worldview as a Maoist at the time . Then she studied clinical psychology . She writes in French and her works have appeared in ten languages.

Works, style and thinking

In recent years she has published five volumes in the series Depuis maintenant (From now on), the first four episodes of which have not yet been translated into German. It is the time picture of an epoch, the modernization of France since the 1970s and its burden, in which collaboration and the Algerian war were massively suppressed. The first volume is about the 68ers . The fifth episode is the novel Fever . The series was initially planned in three volumes.

In 2009, her collection of essays, Die Werkzeuge , a selection from Les Outils, will appear in German . Here Kaplan gives an insight into her writing process, which seeks to "encounter" the world. Good writing is enough for the reader to have displaced, condensed and symbolic elements to interpret reality. Kaplan urges ethics in thinking and writing, she provides a draft for it. Your thoughts develop in a spiral, always starting anew, with many quotes from psychology and political philosophy. Man lives “in a desolate world, naked, exposed to the frost of this unfortunate age” ( Franz Kafka ), in the midst of a world of “stillborn children” ( Dostojewski ), his freedom is dangerous (you can think anything, even murder). The Shoah is constant food for thought for her, following Robert Antelme .

However, in the midst of darkness there are breaches through which light falls, a hope germinates, true life becomes visible in its fullness. Kaplan wants to sharpen our perception, look at it from a perspective of amazement, think and write. In addition to those just mentioned, she repeatedly quotes Flaubert , Balzac , Maurice Blanchot , and Sigmund Freud . About Blanchot: I mean that ever since I've been writing, this transition from the open, which is the factory, to the open, which the poem is the subject of my questions, has been, and I also believe that THE WORDS Blanchots make it possible for me have to both express things that way and learn more and more to keep that question open. I always had the feeling that I was heard, welcomed, supported and driven by the words of Blanchot. Maurice Blanchot: his exact way, that very special way of speaking about misfortune. “Someone starts to write, determined by desperation” ... The absolute mildness of this “someone”, a mildness that makes it possible to speak of this brutal matter: despair. Talking about it and turning it into a question. (See "Works, French" about Blanchot, French original: the link there)

Kaplan is also influenced by film , she names ( John Cassavetes , Luis Buñuel , Jean-Luc Godard , Jacques Rivette ), and writes in film magazines, e.g. B. in "Cinema" (Paris) and "Trafic" (Paris), where she is a member of the editorial board. Above all, however, she focuses on the connection between literature and politics, because writing also means not placing oneself in the row of killers , but rather jumping out of this row (Kafka, diary January 27, 1922).

In her first novel, The Excess (1982), Kaplan describes - with no actual plot in fragments and without metaphors - the crazy extreme life without any stop in a factory. In the appendix Die Fabrik to the second French edition, she talks about the motives for her letter in an interview with Marguerite Duras . It is never said how extreme the factory really is ... When I thought of actually writing L'excès-l'usine , I realized that any discourse completely perverts the matter ...

Kaplan's books primarily reflect the experiences of her life as a woman of Jewish origin in Paris, shaped by the contradictions of France, from the factory work , which she tackled as an intellectual with political claims, to the country's unresolved past, based on the German occupation or the Nazi collaboration of the Petain regime .

Great thinkers from many countries serve as a guideline. Kaplan's strictly reduced art of language reflects the content in an idiosyncratic way. Excess , in particular, depicts the alienation of women in Fordist factory work , not only as a motive, but above all in language . Ultimately, all of Kaplan's books are philosophically based.

In addition to writing, which also includes numerous articles on literature , film and theater , Kaplan runs writing workshops in public institutions and educational institutions. Some of her works have been adapted for the theater.

The novel Fever , published in 2005, contains numerous quotes from philosophy - especially from Hannah Arendt - and other literature . Arendt touches on the basics of political thought and, above all, portrays the figure of Adolf Eichmann , his career aspirations, his clichéd thinking and talking: he was a banal mass murderer, that is, he was a desk clerk.

Shortly before graduation, two 17-year-old boys commit a murder of a young woman without any motive (as Arendt also thinks: Eichmann murdered without a motive). In addition to her adolescence problems, the relationship with the attractive philosophy teacher also plays a role. In the confusion that follows, they set out to explore the history of their families and come across the grandfather of one, who was a pétainist and possibly a Nazi collaborator, and the other's Jewish grandmother, who was the only one in her family to survive the concentration camp. Since then, her husband has suffered from an eloquent silence. The parent generation of the two appears to be superficial. When the boys realize that their deed cannot be judged differently than the crimes of the collaborators, they become more and more insecure, more fearful and, in the end, more and more crazy.

The novel interweaves three themes: the philosophical question of freedom of will and the responsibility of humans along the terrible banality of evil (Arendt); the motive of adolescence : the main characters are misogynistic; and the political question of France's unresolved past, which last appeared in the Papon trial about a French Nazi criminal in the late 1990s. The local geography of the 14th arrondissement in Paris Montparnasse plays a role. The lessons in high school classes in Paris are vividly described.

Kaplan's language begins with extremely laconic forms in Excess and approaches complex language structures in Fever . The sentences are often incomplete, they sometimes only consist of one word. People's feelings and interactions are looked at very carefully. Moral evaluations are almost completely absent. Reality is reflected in the feelings of the characters.

In their later works we increasingly find authors of Jewish origin listed, primarily Kafka and Arendt. In "Fever" the (non-religious) Judaism of one family forms a foil to present some remnants of Jewish tradition, a Talmud verse adorns the tea shop. From the Holocaust and the deportations, which form the thematic focus in the last third (in addition to the Eichmann topic) using the example of French collaborators around the Papon process, it is deduced that people can choose between good and bad, even in extremely extreme situations and has death, which he often does not use (out of career addiction, because of the fulfillment of duty).

Kaplan commented on her self-image as an author in a radio interview with Christoph Vormweg in August 2006: This is part of my writing standpoint, my writing ethics: I want to write books that allow the reader to be mentally active, that is, those that allow him Leave space to think for yourself. I don't want to take him by the hand, I don't want to force you to think this or that. The omission of judgment is very important, I think. You give the reader the components of the story - and then it is up to them to get an idea of ​​them. For me this is really essential.

Text samples

One thinks of books, movies, pictures, music, one thinks, what one happens to what is going on, you think the story and their own history, the world and life, and this with is a sign of a particular way of thinking, a Thinking that takes into account the encounter, the encounter between a subject and a work, namely at a certain point in time of this subject and this work ... In terms of this with , we are talking about tools , thinking tools , thinking with Dostoevsky , with Faulkner , with Kafka, with Robert Antelme , with Maurice Blanchot , with Cassavetes , Rivette , Bunuel , Jean-Luc Godard ... "(from: Les outils, German 2007)

... think with a work: with a thing that has been created by one or more people, is closed and cannot be closed at the same time, that, when put into circulation, encounters other people and some will actually be able to reach them, or not. This with is of interest for the works themselves and at the same time for what is thought thanks to him, a different way of seeing the work, a different way of seeing life. Another kind: the works are not products that are piled up in cupboards, chambers or anywhere else, signs of wealth, or preserved, venerated remains of it. They - the works - are also not the basis for opinions, anecdotes (I believe that, I mean that, I I I).

A work is a special thing altogether especially open to the other, facing the symbol has not the making sense, but sense the relationships between things, moments, creatures, relations between what is in front of it for unrelated held (new relationships: amazement, surprise), which can therefore provoke resistance. You can hate surprises, you can hate being surprised, but these relationships are bridges to walk over, to jump over . Connections, associations, overlaps, confrontations, relationships. And the fact that it is an encounter certainly does not mean that a work has been created for anything. As little as any human being has ever been created for anything (for the glory of his mother, his country or God). Rather, a work interprets life, or it can do so.

Art is not outside the world. The elsewhere that art aims at is of this world: in life, in contact, in conflict with life, living life (Dostojevski), and culture is one of those dimensions that bind people together - also by being excludes. "(ibid.)

In Le Psychanalyste I put it this way: The killers Kafka speaks of are, contrary to what you might think, those who stay in line, who follow the usual course of things, who make the bad life as it is , always start over and repeat. What do they kill? The possible in general, everything that could start, interrupt, change. To jump you need a stop: when you write, the words are that stop. (ibid)

Works

• The book of heaven (French Le livre des ciels 1983) poems, Dt. & French translator Ilma Rakusa . Ferdydurke, Zurich 1991 ISBN 3-905604-02-7 , text samples: Dt. Copybook (magazine) H. 28/1986. Again: Baumann & Lerch: Extreme presence ... . French: [1]
• The excess (French: L'excès - l'usine 1982). Translated by Christiane Baumann & Gisela Lerch. Manholt, Bremen 1988. In the appendix from the 2nd French edition. Die Fabrik, a conversation between Leslie Kaplan and Marguerite Duras , ISBN 3-924903-63-8 .
  This last-mentioned important essay again in: Les outils , see there (also included in the German version "Die Werkzeuge" 2009). First version of the appendix in duras. Chaplain: L'excès-l'usine L'autre journal 5 (May 15, 1985). This appendix also in copybook. Zs. F. Lit. H. 27, 1986. Frz. L'Excès - l'usine ou l'infini morcelé In: "Liberation", Paris, February 24, 1987, p. 35 - Additional translations of the book: Italian, English (USA), Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish (Verlag Modernista , Överflödet - Fabriken 2006 ISBN 91-85453-10-2 )
• Der Verbrecher (French: Le criminel 1985) Translated from C. Baumann & G. Lerch. Manholt, Bremen 1989 ISBN 3-924903-75-1 .
• Brooklyn Bridge - Junctions (French: Le Pont de Brooklyn 1987 and as TB) Translated by C. Baumann & G. Lerch. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989 ISBN 3-499-12438-6 (excerpt from: writing booklet. Zs. For literature. Issue 32/1988)
• The other side of the river (French: L'épreuve du passeur 1988) Translated from Sigrid Brinkmann & Marlis Micha. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990 ISBN 3-499-12709-1 .
• Forms to be invented in: Christiane Baumann & Gisela Lerch Ed .: Extreme Presence. French literature of the 80s Berlin, European Capital of Culture 1988. Manholt, Bremen 1989, ISBN 3-924903-70-0 , pages 115–118 ( The publisher's edition of The Interrupted Dialogue shortened by "Guyotat" . A series of events on contemporary French literature as part of "Berlin European City of Culture" 1988 , with the writers Jean-Luc Benoziglio , Philippe Djian , Jean Echenoz , François Bon , Leslie Kaplan , Valère Novarina, Marie NDiaye , Pierre Guyotat , Literaturhaus Berlin (folder, at the German National Library Frankfurt))
• Fever 2005. Translated by Sonja Finck . Berlin-Verlag, 2006 ISBN 3-8270-0628-7 , (see web links: Reading sample of chapter 1) Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag btv, March 2008: ISBN 3-8333-0518-5 ISBN 978-3-8333-0518- 4 , (Volume 5 of the series "From now on - Depuis maintenant"). André Gide Prize for German-French literary translations 2006
• The tools (French: Les outils , a selection) Translated from Barbara Heber-Schärer. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2009 ISBN 3-930916-77-0 .

Works (french)

The first 10 pages of all books can be read online, see web links (on the website of the publishing house POL-Éditeur, Paris)

• Les amants de Marie (from the series: Depuis maintenant, Volume 4) is available as an e-book in addition to the print edition from www.libri.de, provider: Numilog
• L'enfer est vert ( Hell is green prose poem, March 2006) As a print (Paris: inventaire / invention édition) or as an online text [2]
• Du lien social (from the society band ) and Une forme particulière de pensée (a special way of thinking) about the work in the writing workshops [3] both texts in German in: Die Werkzeuge 2009
• Au roman le dernier mot. La litterature et l'inhumain (The novel has the last word. Literature and inhumanity) on the theory of writing [4] from Liberation September 7, 2000
• Qui a peur de la fiction? (Who is afraid of fiction ) on literary theory [5] ibid. February 13, 2001 German in Die Werkzeuge (French: Les outils , selected) Translated from Barbara Heber-Schärer. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2009
• Translating is sexy ( Translating is sexy) Poem [6]
• Maurice Blanchot prose and poem [7] German in: Die Werkzeuge (French Les outils , a selection) Translated by Barbara Heber-Schärer. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2009
• Cafés parlés Examples from an attempt to bring poetry to the people [8]
• L'expérience du meurtre (preface to: Fedor M. Dostoievski Notes du sous-sol ) POL 1993 [9] German in: Die Werkzeuge (French: Les outils , a selection) Translated from Barbara Heber-Schärer. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2009
• Écrivains dans la cité Redaktion LK, ed. La Maison des écrivains DRAC, Ile-de-France, 1996, 2nd edition 1999 (French - about writing workshops ) ISBN 2-9506166-3-1
• Règne - Reign poem (English and French) in: French Poets of Today, Ed. Jean-Yves Reuzeau, Toronto: Guernica, 1999 ISBN 0-920717-82-9 (pp. 53-61) (from: Banana Split )
• Leslie Kaplan & Naruna Kaplan da Macedo: La Mort de Monsieur Lăzărescu in: Trafic. Revue de Cinema ISBN 2-84682-168-2 . No. 60, Hiver 2006, pp. 71-74. POL Paris Nov. 2006. About Romania . Summary in: see literature, author Finck
• Toute ma vie j'ai été une femme POL, Paris 2008 ISBN 2846821453
• Mon Amérique commence en Pologne , 2009
• L'Enfer est vert , 2009 (édition numérique)
• Louise, elle est folle , 2011
• Les Mots , 2011 (édition numérique)
• Millefeuille , 2012 - prix Wepler 2012
• Déplace le ciel , POL, 2013
• Mathias et la Révolution , POL, 2016

Plays

• L'Excès-l'usine (1982), directed by Marcial Di Fonzo Bo, 2002
• Le Criminel (1985), directed by Claude Régy, 1988
• Le Pont de Brooklyn (1987), directed by Noël Casale, 1993
• Depuis maintenant (1996), directed by Frédérique Loliée, 1996
• Tout est faux! (2003), directed by Alain Brugnago and Didier Stéphant, 2004
• Fever (2005), directed by Christine Faure (2011)
• Toute ma vie j'ai été une femme (2008), directed by Elise Vigier and Fréderique Loliée, (2008)
• Louise, elle est folle (2011), directed by Elise Vigier and Fréderique Loliée, (2011); Performed in 2013 by the Compagnie Le chien au croisement .

literature

• Lore Ditzen: The open accuracy. Reading experiences with LK's books in: Extreme Presence (for details see works), pp. 106–114 (about: Factory, Excess, Brooklyn Bridge and River)
• Renate Kroll: Writing until the author no longer speaks (on the similarity to music in "Excess") in: Music and Literature. Comparative studies on structural affinity Hg. Albert Gier et al. Peter Lang, Bern a. a. 1995, 2nd edition 1997 ISBN 3-631-31939-8
• Reinhard Finck: author in psychoanalytic duty. Back on the German book market: LK in: Critical Edition. Zs. For German Studies and Literature Summer 2007, Bonn ISSN  1617-1357 pp. 108–110 [10]
  • dsb .: Leslie Kaplan. in Jan-Pieter Barbian (Red.): Vive la littérature! French literature in German translation. Ed. & Verlag Stadtbibliothek Duisburg 2009 ISBN 9783892796565 , p. 18
• Maurice Blanchot : The dismembered infinite. Leslie Kaplan's "The Excess - The Factory" (Translator: Peter Gehle) exercise book. Zs. For literature Rigodon, Essen. Issue 27/1986, p. 24 (More: Excerpt from the novel. The conversation with Duras, as in the appendix of the 2nd edition)
• Wolfgang Asholt: Experimental female writing: Leslie Kaplan in dsb .: The French novel of the 80s, WBG Darmstadt 1994 ISBN 3-534-11994-0 , pp. 60–70

Remarks

1. ↑ Source , Liberation , May 22, 1998, special issue May 1968
2. ↑ The author should not be confused with the US authors of the same name, Leslie S. Kaplan (school, psychology of adolescents) or Leslie C. Kaplan (travel writer). (There are other namesake women in the USA.)
3. ↑ Bibliogr. here under "Shapes to be invented" and under secondary literature: Lore Ditzen

Web links

• Literature by and about Leslie Kaplan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Leslie Kaplan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Works by and about Leslie Kaplan at Open Library
• All French editions (except the paperbacks) with detailed reviews: [11] (French). The TB editions of Les Amants de Marie, Le Pont de Brooklyn, Le Psychanalyste and Fever at Gallimard, Paris. Le Psychanalyste can also be heard as an audio file on the radio in 25 sequels (Sept. 2005, from August 29th - search in the archive) See
• [12] > Kaplan, Leslie (also: translations made by her, theater adaptations) Frz. National Library BNF (press button "se reconnecter", last name, then enter first name)
• [13] All books available on loan in Germany (German, French)
• [14] Beginning of Le Psychanalyste translated into English
• More reviews [15] (French)
• For artistic or moral models, see Kaplan's commented collection of quotations [16] , under the title: What is a free person? (French) there further texts by LK, e.g. B. Les mots (2006) and on the unrest in the banlieue (2005)
• Contents of the novel Fever , instructions for the lesson and an interview Kaplans with young people (German) [17]
• Kerstin Heyd Text structure and feminine subjectivity in the texts of LK Diss. Univ. Gießen 2002 (about: Excess Criminal Brooklyn Bridge) [18] (PDF; 666 kB)
• Kaplan's online texts on language theory and lit. Role models: see above, works (French), meanwhile also z. Some in German, see there
• Reading sample "Fever", 1st chapter (German) [19] (html) or [20] (pdf)
• [21] Comparison of the novel with Hannah Arendt's thoughts, the Eichmann problem
• About the writing workshops of LK u. a. informed [22]
• [23] Charity Scribner, John Berger , Leslie Kaplan, and the Western Fixation on the "Other Europe" (about "Excess") 2001, also in: Moritz Csáky u. a. (Hgg), stagings of collective memory. Self- images, external images pp. 236–246. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2002 ISBN 3-7065-1772-8
• doi : 10.15122 / isbn.978-2-8124-4927-7.p.0239 Detailed biography, p. 239f. from the anthology "Leslie Kaplan", Verlag Classiques Garnier, 2016, series Écrivains francophones d'aujourd'hui, 3 ISSN  2430-9222 (in French)