Michael Amon

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Michael Amon (born February 25, 1954 in Vienna ; † November 11, 2018 in Gmunden ) was an Austrian writer , playwright and essayist or columnist .

Life

Michael Amon was raised by his grandmother. He attended a Catholic boys' boarding school in Vienna for eight years, then the commercial academy I of the Viennese merchant class . He worked for the Association of Socialist Middle School Students (Member of the Federal Executive Board, Deputy Chairman of the State of Vienna) and as Managing Director of the Austrian School Newspaper Center. After graduating from school, he worked in the private sector from 1977, most recently as commercial director of a media company. Amon also wrote part-time as an essayist and columnist in der Furche , in the Wiener Journal and other Austrian and German magazines. In 1992 he left the private sector completely and worked as a freelance writer full-time. Amon had been married since 1985 and lived alternately in Vienna and Gmunden .

author

Early years

From around 1973 Michael Amon wrote part-time for various magazines and newspapers. Over 500 articles by Michael Amon have appeared in various Austrian and German print media in the course of his literary work. In the beginning he wrote mainly theater reviews and texts on topics from culture and art, later also political and socially critical essays and commentaries.

Amon wrote a total of four plays. One world, so to speak (1984), which addresses the civil war in Austria of 1934 , he wrote together with his co-author Helmut Mayer. Amon received the International Götzner Theater Prize for Villach or Provinz ist everywhere (1988, Edition Reinhard Deutsch) . Two further plays followed: Horvath Roth Celan - Die Toten von Paris (1999) and 91st Floor or the window to the world (2016, publisher eDITION).

Michael Amon's oeuvre also includes the volume of poetry Aus und über (1986) and the volume of short stories Nachtcafé (1989). In 1986 he received the Peter Altenberg Prize for the story of the same name.

His first novel Lemming - Geschichte einer Aufstiegs came out in 1998 in Edition Atelier . Amon also worked for film and television, and has written texts for several projects: The wild years of the OK (treatment for a TV film about Oskar Kokoschka , ORF , 1989), next year everything will be better (ORF, Vienna 1990), Taxman (Treatment for a series production, ORF, 1990). In addition, the author's contributions have appeared in anthologies such as B. Most recent Wiener Lesebuch (Ed. D. Axmann, Edition Atelier, 1988), Österreich-Literatur-Jetzt Almanach 1989 (Ed. R. Götz, Droschl Verlag , 1989).

The 2000s

Two further novels appeared in 2002 with Yquem or sleeping accounts and in 2006 with Solar Eclipse . “Yquem” is not only well received by reviewers, Amon is now also perceived as an author by a broader readership. The patriarchal capitalism serves as a magnifying glass in solar eclipses , under which love, life-born and contemporary history are merged.

With the takeover of government in 2000 by the ÖVP - FPÖ coalition in Austria, the public profiling of the author as a critical voice in the media began. For the volume of essays Collateral Damage - Essays on the Blue-Black Turn in Austria , in which Amon criticized Robert Menasse , Konrad P. Liessmann and Rudolf Burger , among others , Amon was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the political book in 2005. Amon submitted three more sets of essays in the next few years: After Prosperity - Politics Beyond People (2007), 1968 - A Short Smile in Long May (autobiographical essays, 2008), And They Lie - 100 Tantrums (2009 ). The power of globalization is presented in After Prosperity based on its dogmas, which dissolve independent action into potential for complexity. Amon warns against authoritarian capitalism.

Contributions by Michael Amon from this period can also be found in four anthologies: Solidarity - Yesterday Today Tomorrow (2004), Political Culture in Austria 2000–2004 (2005), Justice - All everything or everyone his own? (2006), Every Other Side, 46 Kubinesques by Alfred Rossi (2009).

From 2010

From 2010, Amon will concentrate more on monographs. In addition to political and socially critical publications, he also devotes himself to his crime book series Library of Futility , in which he embeds a political worldview in his characteristic political prose. A total of 4 crime stories have been published in this book series: The Shine of the World (2012), Woe to the Defeated (2013), Obituary Committed (2014), The Price of Glory (2016).

In contrast to earlier contributions, which dealt intensively with political change in the 2000s. B. argued under the government of Black-Blue, in the later years economic questions and life-philosophical topics increasingly take place in the work of the author. In his panic novel in 2014, for example, he presented a description of everyday fear in uninhibited financial capitalism: Whether a speculator with millions in investments or a faceless victim of the speculative bubble, no one can escape the dreaded or actual crash. In 2011, Fromme Begierden was published , his second autobiographical work after 1968 , in which the author tells of abuse and violence in a Catholic school home for boys.

Individual aspects of the work

In 2009, Amon's sarcastic reckoning with neoliberalism appeared and yet they lie . Under the pretext of dealing with well-known proverbs, Amon deals with the dogmas of neoliberal, market-extremist ideology and the consequences of the global economic crisis it caused . He himself assigns this discussion to the literary form of the angry essay .

In 2010 the short story collection Krisennovellen - Stories from the trough of the economy was published by Wiener Neustädter Verein Everyday Verlag, a literary examination of the capitalist crises since 1973 (oil crisis). In addition to the previously unpublished texts, three stories from the first book, Nachtcafé , which are out of print, will be published again.

In 2011, Styria-Verlag withdrew the detective novel The Shine of the World , which had been announced for March . It developed a controversy between the author and the publishing house management, during which Amon the publishing political censorship accused because the crime in some persiflierender way with the controversial business of the former finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser busy and the unexplained events surrounding the former trade union bank BAWAG . The IG authors and the Austrian PEN declared their solidarity with the author and demanded in public statements that the publisher immediately print the work and distribute it. The author had announced that a court would force the printing of the commissioned work. The publishing director Gerda Schaffelhofer rejected this accusation. In the meantime, an agreement has been reached between the author and the publisher, which speaks of a number of misunderstandings with regard to mutual expectations, the crime thriller should appear in another publisher (as part of a Viennese trilogy) and new projects at the same time are in preparation with Styria.

Since the middle of August 2011, a revised new edition of the novel Yquem (now following the author's request with the originally planned title Yquem or Sleeping Accounts ) was published as an e-book for Kindle / Amazon. The revised new edition as hardcover followed in mid-September. Also in autumn 2011, the Viennese Klever Verlag published the autobiographical novel Fromme Begierden , in which Amon dealt with the issues of abuse and sexually connoted violence during his time in the Catholic boarding school in Neulandschulsiedlungen , as well as the question of why this school, which was originally shaped by reform pedagogical approaches, which could end up with black pedagogy. The Viennese daily Kurier (November 26, 2011, Peter Pisa) wrote about the novel: "It spares no one. It enlightens. It is a document."

The first volume of the Viennese tetralogy of futility , once withdrawn from the Styria-Verlag , was published under the title Der Glanz der Welt 2012 in the Viennese echomedia-Buchverlag. In the literary form of the detective novel, the author presented an ironic description of fine Viennese society and at the same time dealt with the corruption during the era of the former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel , which was also the subject of investigative committees of the Austrian parliament. The volume was designed as a prelude to the series, a kind of exposition of the motifs and people.

The second volume of the cycle now known as the Vienna Library of Futures was published in the spring of 2013 by echomedia-Buchverlag in Vienna. The satirical sounds of the first volume gave way to a sharper, more serious tone. In Vienna Prater uncanny happens: famous landmarks like Big Wheel or toboggan to the scene of murders of priests. The traces lead to mysterious circles in the Vatican and a notorious SS massacre in Rome in 1944 ( massacre in the Ardeatine caves ). Connections with the so-called rat line , through which many Nazis fled with the help of an Austrian bishop in the Vatican, Alois Hudal , after the end of the Second World War , are established. According to the STERN recommendation, a "nifty crime thriller" whose "parallels to the real existing Austria cannot be dismissed".

The panic novel was published by Klever Verlag in Vienna at the end of February 2014 . The novel was told exclusively in present tense, a "stream of consciousness" of a stock exchange trader. The result is the psychogram of both an individual plagued by panic attacks and a psychogram of panic financial markets.

Obituary obliged , the third volume of the novel cycle now known as the Library of Futility , was published in August 2014 . With this novel, the author continued the exploration and exploration of the "detective novel" genre. The satirical elements that were still predominant in the first volume had largely disappeared; in addition to dealing with the manifestations of corruption, the concern with the consequences of extreme religious interpretations was promoted. The Order of the Knights of the Resurrection , which in this novel unfolded its rather sinister doings, drew from the Bible and the apocryphal writings as well as from the knowledge of modern genetic engineering . Amon described a religious mania carried out with scientific meticulousness, as a result of which the members of the order do not shy away from the most serious crimes, even justifying them as God's will.

In October 2017, the fourth volume appeared library of futility in echomedia buchverlag (Vienna) under the title The price of glory . In autumn 2018 the anthology was thought through to the end. Austria after turquoise-blue , about the consequences of the black-blue federal government in office since December 2017, with a contribution by Michael Amon (publishers Nikolaus Dimmel and Tom Schmid, Verlag Mandelbaum).

Translations

  • Translation: Ahrens, Thomas & Larkin, Ed (2019). Fabulous; in: Cole, Isabel Fargo & Derbyshire, Katy (eds.): No Man's Land. New German Literature in English Translation; 1/2019; Excerpt from: panic novel; Klever Verlag, Vienna, 2014.

reception

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Michael Amon was inspired by authors such as Joseph Roth , Franz Werfel , Kurt Tucholsky and Alfred Polgar . His works are characterized by light, clear language and structure. Topics of tragedy, death or crisis are put into a lively linguistic context. The abysses and dramas work in the light of descriptions of everyday life, in which the narrative of the interwoven dark past and present progresses transparently and yet gently. Reviewer Wolfgang Paterno describes Amon in the magazine Profil (No. 17, April 23, 2012) as a “polter virtuoso” and a “radical political novelist”.

As a political commentator, Amon has repeatedly received wide responses. His requests to speak were often among the most-read articles in DiePresse.com, for example . In the courier , Peter Pisa portrays the author as a "contentious commentator on Austrian domestic politics."

His autobiographical work, which addressed child abuse in public and Catholic educational institutions in Austria and was and remained an almost lonely voice of the victims in the popular media public, also achieved lasting importance. In 2018 he draws a bitter summary in "Victim protection in the land of great oblivion"

In summary it could be said that Amon was never an author of l'art pour l'art. The criticism and irony cultivated in his books, media comments, essays and comments to speak is borne by a convinced optimism. As a feature writer, Amon attracted attention because he expresses himself about concrete places, concrete past, and concrete actors, while not allowing his political convictions to be captured by party representatives. While he was considered a political writer, his work was not partisan. On the other hand, he did not try a hopeless illusion of equdistance, but a well-measured distance that could not be overwhelmed by current hysteria and emotional foam fights in public media debates. Both his literary and columnist work is characterized by clear objectivity and analytical thinking, but always empathetic and philanthropically linked to a human everyday context.

Contributions to anthologies (selection)

  • February 12, 1934/12. February 1984 Materials / Exposés, Scenes, Thoughts - Ed .: Volkstheater Wien / Österr. Ges. F. Cultural Policy, Vienna 1984
  • Latest Vienna Reader (Ed. D. Axmann), Edition Atelier, Vienna 1988
  • Austria Literature Now Almanach 1989 (Ed. Rainer Götz), Droschl Verlag, Graz 1989
  • All of Vienna is a Beisl (Ed. Franz M. Eybl), Döcker Verlag, Vienna 1998
  • Solidarity - Yesterday Today Tomorrow, Verein Alltags Verlag, Wr. Neustadt 2004
  • Political Culture in Austria 2000–2004 (Ed. N. Dimmel / J. Schmee), Promedia Verlag, Vienna 2005 (Contribution: Praying for the Ständestaat) with the Bruno Kreisky Recognition Prize for the political book 2005
  • Justice - everything to everyone or his own ?, Verein Alltags Verlag, Wr. Neustadt 2006
  • Equality - Questions of Identity, Similarity, Diversity and Difference, Association Everyday Publishing, Wr. Neustadt 2007
  • Every other page, 46 Kubinesques by Alfred Rossi accompanied by just as many literary associations, publisher Helmuth A. Niederle, with contributions by Michael Amon, Marianne Gruber, Gerhard Jaschke, Konstantin Kaiser, Ulrike Längele and others, platform Johannes Martinek Verlag, Vienna 2009
  • Poverty and wealth - unequal life situations, opportunities, styles and worlds in Austria (Eds. Michael Rosecker and Sabine Schmitner), Verein everyday publishing house, Wr. Neustadt 2011
  • "Selective neoliberalism or It's a long way from Mont Pèlerin", in Dimmel Nikolaus & Tom Schmid (eds.): "To the end of thought. Austria after turquoise-blue", Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna, 2018

Further prices

  • various theater awards
  • Feuilleton award of the Tyrolean daily newspaper

Others

From 1998 to 2014 Amon was a board member of the Austrian Society for Cultural Policy, a preliminary organization of the Social Democratic Party of Austria ( SPÖ ), and from 2015 a member of the advisory board. From August 2011 to September 2013 he was treasurer of the Austrian PEN Center ( Austrian PEN Club ) in order to reorganize the PEN together with the new board after its bankruptcy / settlement in 2010. After serious differences with the majority of the board about the content of the PEN (Amon criticized the close ties of the Austrian PEN and some of its functionaries to the Confucius Institutes and the associated relativizing attitude towards Chinese dissidents), but also the form of leadership (accusation: Presidential dictatorship, ignoring the statutes) and financial management (administration), Amon resigned his functions in September 2013 and left the Austrian PEN. In August 2013, the General Secretary Susanne Scholl (journalist) , elected in 2011 , previously: ORF Moscow , did so in August 2013 because of similar criticism .

From autumn 2015 Amon was a member of the Grazer Authors Author's Assembly , the largest and most important Austrian organization for literary writers.

He was also a member of Das Syndikat - authors' group of German-language crime literature and the AIEP Austria - platform for Austrian crime writers.

swell

  • biography
  • Works
  • Wolfgang Paterno in profile no. 17/2012, pages 122/123: Always a gentleman, never a delict - Michael Amon from Vienna is considered a radical political novelist.
  • Walter Thaler: Haters loyal to the homeland: Writers and politics in Austria, new academic press 2013, ISBN 978-3-7003-1861-3 .

Reviews (selection)

  • "Lemming", in Die Presse (April 3, 1999), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (June 22, 1999), Wiener Zeitung (February 5, 1999), Kurier (September 5, 1998), Die Furche (March 11, 1999), The Alternative (September 1999), Maxima; Reviews of the new edition: Vorarlberger Nachrichten (7/8 February 2004), Ekzem Information Service (2/04), among others
  • "Pious Desires": Catalog of torments , Uwe Schütte (Wiener Zeitung, October 28, 2011).
  • "Yquem": Frankfurter Rundschau (December 14, 2002), Nürnberger Nachrichten (December 28/29, 2002), Format (No. 43, 2002), Tiroler Tageszeitung (August 16, 2003), Salzkammergut Rundschau (October 6, 2002 ), Ostthüringer Zeitung (No. 43, 2002), Book Culture (No. 83 A, 2002), Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (November 15, 2002), among others
  • "Sonnenfinster": Kurier (October 14, 2006), Austria (October 7, 2006), Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (December 20, 2006, local section Salzkammergut November 15, 2006), Wiener Zeitung (October 7, 2006).
  • "After Prosperity": Kurier (August 5, 2007), Austria (May 19, 2007), Wiener Zeitung (August 7, 2007).
  • "1968 - A short smile in long May": Neue Zürcher Zeitung (August 9, 2008), Kurier (May 15, 2008), Die Presse (April 40, 2008), Buchkritik.at (July 20, 2008), Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (August 7, 2008), etceterea (2008), et al
  • "And they are lying ...": Kurier (November 15, 2009), Wiener Zeitung (October 24, 2009), Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (October 10, 2009), among others

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Amon. In: Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2018/2019. Volume II: PZ. Walter de Gruyter , 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057616-0 , pp. 15-16.
  2. ↑ Literaturnetz.at | Detail. Retrieved March 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Vorarlberg State Library - Götzner Theater Prize. Retrieved March 18, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Kreisky Prize Winners 2005 | Karl Renner Institute. Retrieved March 18, 2019 .
  5. ↑ An essayist who goes to the kidneys - Niederösterreich-Magazin. Retrieved March 18, 2019 .
  6. ↑ No Man's Land | Fabulous. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  7. ↑ peter.pisa: Crime with demons from Vienna. Retrieved March 18, 2019 .
  8. ^ Victim protection in the land of great oblivion. February 22, 2018, accessed March 18, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Amon, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer, playwright and essayist or columnist
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 2018
Place of death Gmunden