Mo Yan

Mo Yan in Hamburg (2008)

Mo Yan ( Chinese  莫言 , Pinyin Mò Yán ; born February 17, 1955 in Gaomi , Shandong Province , actually 管 谟 业 , Guǎn Móyè ) is a Chinese writer . In 2012 he was the first Chinese citizen to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature .

biography

Guan Moye was born in 1955 as a farmer's son in Shandong Province. During the Cultural Revolution , he had to leave school at the age of 12 and started working in a factory. In February 1976 he joined the People's Liberation Army , where he began his literary work as a soldier. In 1981 his first collection of short stories appeared . In 1984 he began teaching in the literature department of the Army's Academy of Culture. In 1986 he graduated from the People's Liberation Army Art School.

His stage name Mo Yan means “don't talk!” - he chose it because his parents had taught him in dangerous times to keep his mouth shut so as not to get into trouble.

His literary breakthrough came in 1987 with the publication of the cycle of novels Das Rote Kornfeld . The novel is part of the Chinese Xungen literature and also found international recognition through the film adaptation as Red Cornfield by Zhang Yimou . Mo Yan can be seen as a writer of the unvarnished life of the Chinese rural province, who left the constraints of officially sanctioned realism behind him at an early age and whose literary work is unmistakably and increasingly influenced by the current of magical realism .

In 2009 Mo Yan won the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature from the University of Oklahoma . Martin Walser called Mo Yan the most important writer of our age in 2012.

criticism

After receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature , some oppositional intellectuals criticized Mo Yan. The conceptual artist Ai Weiwei told the German newspaper Die Welt : “I don't accept Mo’s political behavior in reality. He might be a good writer. But he is not an intellectual who can represent today's Chinese times. "

The author and dissident Liao Yiwu , who lives in exile in Germany and who won the 2012 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade , said he was “stunned” about the award of the award to a “state poet” . Mo withdraw "when it comes down to ... into his world of artistry" and thereby rise above the truth.

Works

• The crystal radish ( 透明 的 红 萝卜 , Tòumíng de hóng luóbo ), 1986
• The red cornfield (红 高粱 家族 , Hóng gāoliang jiāzú ), 1986
  • German edition: The red cornfield . Translated by Peter Weber-Schäfer . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1993; Unionsverlag, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-293-20383-9 .
• The thirteen steps ( 十三 步 , Shísān bù ), 1988
• Thirteen Chapters of Joy ( 欢乐 十三 章 , Huānlè shísān zhāng ), 1989
• The Garlic Revolt ( 天堂 蒜 薹 之 歌 , Tiāntáng suàntái zhī gē ), 1989
  • German edition: The garlic revolt . Translated by Andreas Donath. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1997; Unionsverlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-293-20454-6 .
• The Republic of Wine ( 酒 国 , Jiǔguó ), 1993
  • German edition: The city of schnapps . Translated by Peter Weber-Schäfer. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002; Unionsverlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-293-20563-5 .
• The grass-eaters clan ( 食草 家族 , Shícǎo jiāzú ), 1993
• Big breasts and wide buttocks ( 丰乳 肥臀 , Fēngrǔ féitún ), 1996
• The red forest ( 红 树林 , Hóng shùlín ), 1999
• The Sandalwood Punishment ( 檀香 刑 , Tánxiāng xíng ), 2001
  • German edition: The sandalwood penalty . Translated by Karin Betz . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-458-17446-2 .
• The weariness ( 生死疲劳 , Shēngsǐ Pilão ), 2008
  • German edition: The weariness . Translated by Martina Hasse. Horlemann, Bad Honnef 2009, ISBN 978-3-89502-272-2
• Frosch ( 蛙 , wā ), 2009 - awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize 2011.
  • Frogs . Translated from the Chinese by Martina Hasse. Hanser Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-446-24262-3 .
  • Available as paperback from dtv, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-423-14346-2
• Thumb shackles ( 拇指 拷 , Mǔzhǐ kǎo ), (Novelle), In: Gela wird grown-up and other stories from China , Chinabooks E. Wolf Verlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-905816-19-8
• Manifesto for thick novels with social criticism, in: Chinese literature in German translation - China Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 / Symposium volume, Bochum: European University Press 2010, ISBN 978-3-89966-293-1
• My grave (essay), In: Monika Gänßbauer (Hrsg.): Children of the mountain gorge. Chinese contemporary essays , Projekt Verlag, Bochum / Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-89733-256-0
• Change (narration), 2010
  • German edition: How the tide turns. A story from my life. Translated from the Chinese by Martina Hasse. Hanser Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-446-24338-5
  • Available as paperback from dtv, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-423-14512-1

Selected volumes

• Dry river and other stories . Edited by Susanne Hornfeck and Charlotte Dunsing. Translation u. a. Frank Hegemann. Project, Dortmund 1997, ISBN 3-928861-94-8 . (Selection of stories from: Touming de hong luobo, Beijing 1986, Huanle shisan zhang, Beijing 1989 and Lianhe wenxue 3/1992)

literature

• Susanne Hornfeck: Magic and the grotesque. An epilogue . In: Mo Yan: Dry River and Other Stories . Projektverlag , Dortmund 1997, ISBN 3-928861-94-8 ( Arcus Chinatexte, Richard Wilhelm Translation Center 12).
• Mo Yan: "Of Living and Dying". In: The New China. Vol. 39, No. 4, December 2012, p. 32f. (Translation by Mo Yan, Six Lives in Search of a Character. The 2009 Newman Prize Lecture. Norman Oklahoma, March5, 2009.)
• Ylva Monschein (ed.): China's subversive periphery. Essays on the work of Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan . Projektverlag , Bochum / Freiburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-89733-283-6

Web links

Commons : Mo Yan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Mo Yan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Mo Yan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Mo Yan in the collection of articles in the Innsbruck newspaper archive
• Bio-bibliography on Nobelprize.org
• “China's truth is not elegant” , interview with Mo Yan in the Frankfurter Rundschau on July 12, 2009
• Mo Yan receives the Nobel Prize in Literature ( Die Zeit )
• Walser: Mo Yan "most important writer of our age" ( FAZ )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jim Leach: "The Real Mo Yan". Interview in: Humanities 32 (1), 11–13, January / February 2011, accessed on October 15, 2012 (English)
2. ↑ Inaugaural 2009 Winner: Mo Yan Wins Newman Prize For Chinese Literature. Retrieved September 30, 2019 . 
3. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung of December 10, 2012, accessed on October 15, 2017.
4. ↑  dpa, Reuters and dapd: Award: Ai Weiwei criticizes the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Mo Yan. In: zeit.de. October 12, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Peace Prize Winner criticizes honor for Mo Yan. In: Spiegel Online. October 13, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 . 
6. ↑ FAZ of January 13, 2010, p. 28: Controversy in hell
7. ↑ Mark Siemons, Beijing: I am guilty of myself. In: faz.net. February 26, 2013, accessed December 9, 2014 .