Louise Erdrich

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Louise Erdrich (2015)

Karen Louise Erdrich (born June 7, 1954 in Little Falls , Minnesota ) is an American writer . She lives in Minneapolis .

Life

Erdrich is descended from a German butcher on his father's side, and her maternal grandfather was chief of the Chippewa in North Dakota . Her father Ralph Erdrich works in the Wahpeton reservation in the Indian affairs office and teaches German and English. It was through him that Louise Erdrich became aware of Karl May's Indian books. Her mother Rita Erdrich was a social worker who looked after alcohol-damaged children.

Erdrich grew up as the oldest of seven siblings on the reservation, later she attended college on the east coast (Dartmouth). From 1976 to 1979 she studied anthropology at Johns Hopkins University . After jobs as a waitress, literature teacher in a prison and secretary for a construction company, Erdrich became editor of Circle magazine .

From 1981 to 1996 Louise Erdrich was married to the anthropologist and writer Michael Dorris . The couple have three adopted children and three of their own. In 1997 Dorris died by suicide.

In addition to her writing activities, Erdrich runs an independent bookshop. In 2001 she gave birth to her youngest daughter.

Works

Erdrich's novels are mostly set in a fictional Indian reservation in the US state of North Dakota , from 1912 to the present, and deal with the author's family history. They describe the relationships between the Indians, the fate of white families, some of whom are of German origin, and the relationships between “red” and “white”. Erdrich places special emphasis on people who are of both Indian and European origins.

The novel The Antelope Wife (1998, dt. The Antelope woman ), differs from the first by the famous setting. In it, Erdrich particularly explores the question of how people who have both Indian and European heritage can deal with the trauma of the past and live in the multicultural society of the USA without denying their Indian heritage.

The characters in all of Erdrich's novels are complexly drawn. Erdrich shows their light and dark sides and creates a high potential for identification. Her style is plastic and humorous and is often reminiscent of the Indian tricksters and the European picaresque novels . Because of the juxtaposition and coexistence of reality and magical elements, her works have also been assigned to magical realism .

About her writing

“I think the separation between 'native writers' and 'American writers' is academic. You only do that to set up a course program. I'm a mixture and that's the only reason I have the artistic veracity and conciseness to portray all the different characters. I don't feel obliged to write in any particular way. I don't make up such a thing. These stories are somewhere. I'm just listening. I used to assume that if I sat down to write my characters would be on time, but that's just not true anymore. I've used up a lot of childhood experiences. Since I have had children, I have understood some things differently, such as the transition from childhood to adulthood. I don't worry when my daughters read my books, but I have concerns about my dad because it often revolves around sex. I tape over the pages of the book that he shouldn't read, it's like a ritual avoidance in native families. If I had ever cared about what other people advised me or wanted from me, I would not have written anything. "

- Louise Erdrich The creative instinct. Being the mother of five children has deepened her art, says the author of “Love Medicine” and the new “Tales of Burning Love” :

Honors

Works

Novels

  • Love Medicine. 1984.
  • The Beet Queen. 1986.
  • Tracks. 1988.
    • Traces. German by Barbara von Bechtolsheim, Helga Pfetsch. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1990, ISBN 3-499-13148-X .
  • with Michael Dorris: The Crown of Columbus. 1991.
    • The crown of Columbus. German by Edith Nerke, Jürgen Bauer. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-498-01649-0 .
  • The Bingo Palace. 1994.
    • The bingo palace. German by Edith Nerke, Jürgen Bauer. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-498-01658-X .
  • Tales of Burning Love. 1996.
    • Stories of burning love. German by Adelheid Zöfel. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3-499-22698-7 .
  • The Antelope Wife. 1998.
    • The antelope woman. German by Juliane Gräbener-Müller. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2001, ISBN 3-498-01665-2 .
  • The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. 2000.
  • The Master Butchers Singing Club. 2003.
  • Four souls. 2004.
  • The Painted Drum. 2005.
  • The Plague of Doves. 2008.
  • Shadow day. 2010.
  • The Round House. 2012.
  • LaRose. 2016.
  • Future Home of the Living God (2017)

Poems

  • Jacklight. 1984.
  • Baptism of Desire. 1989.
  • Original Fire: Selected and New Poems. 2003.

Children's books

  • Grandmother's Pigeon. 1996. (Illustrations Jim LaMarche)
    • The pigeon secret. German by Sylke Hachmeister. Sauerländer, Aarau 1999, ISBN 3-7941-4329-9 .
  • The Birchbark House. 1999. (illustrations by herself)
    • A year with seven winters. German by Sylke Hachmeister. Sauerländer, Aarau 2001, ISBN 3-7941-4770-7 .
  • The Range Eternal. 2002.
  • The Game of Silence. 2005.
  • The Porcupine Year. 2008.
  • Chickadee. 2012.

Non-fiction

  • with Michael Dorris: Route Two. 1990.
  • The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birthyear. 1995.
  • Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. 2003.
    • Of books and islands. German by Adelheid Zöfel. Frederking and Thaler, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89405-481-6 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Norbert Höfler: The anger of a declining people. In: Stern . 13, March 20, 2014, pp. 125f.
  2. ^ Poetry Foundation: Louise Erdrich. July 7, 2020, accessed on July 7, 2020 .
  3. ^ Louise Erdrich - 8 books - Perlentaucher. Retrieved July 7, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Quelle, Zs. "Salon", June 5, 1996, with Robert Spillman. Prop. Trans.
personal data
SURNAME Erdrich, Louise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Erdrich, Karen Louise (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Indian writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Little Falls