Richard Brautigan

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Richard Brautigan (born January 30, 1935 in Tacoma , Washington , † September 1984 in Bolinas , California ) was an American writer . Brautigan is regarded as one of the main representatives of the American West Coast underground of the 1960s and 1970s.

Life

Brautigan was in the time of global economic crisis was born. He came from a small family and lived an unsteady youth characterized by many changes of location and poverty. In the late 1950s he came into contact with literary circles in San Francisco . It was here that the first publications appeared in off-beat magazines among the City Lights literary group. With his volumes of novels and poetry, he became a small icon of the hippie generation in the late sixties . In 1967 he was "Poet in Residence" at the California Institute of Technology . He made several trips to Japan. However, he could not build on his earlier successes in the late 1970s, which made him increasingly bitter. Most recently, he lived in seclusion and alcoholism in Bolinas, California. In September 1984 he killed himself ; he was found on October 25, 1984.

Brautigan was almost completely forgotten after his death. In the 1990s there was a small bridal gigan revival. Brautigan has hardly been the subject of literary research so far. Most recently, a biography about him ( You Can't Catch Death , 2000) by his daughter Ianthe Brautigan was published.

Create

Great attention was his 1967 published novel Trout Fishing in America ( Trout Fishing in America ), the equally poetic as culturally pessimistic tone than many farewell to the American dream is interpreted.

subjects

The fact that it is difficult to identify a thematic focus in Brautigan's work has often been assessed by critics as evidence of an attitude of arbitrariness, his literary lightweight and thus his literary secondary importance. In fact, Brautigan mostly used the storylines as a backdrop for the, albeit highly original, processing of personal impressions, soul troubles and real inner fantasies. He was in line with the trend of the radically subjective gestures of his time . At the same time he rejected - unlike his environment, which was shaped by the beatniks and later the hippies - an open political engagement in his texts. His novels often take up genres of American popular culture in an ironic and parodying way and dissect them linguistically and thematically (examples are the processing of western topoi in The Hawkline Monster as well as hard-boiled and film noir elements in Dreaming of Babylon ) .

On subjects of his novels and poems are often absurd and tragic love stories, sex as well as the writing itself. The often radical and ruthless self-reflection is always humorvoll- laconically broken and so never slips into mere inwardness from. In later works a particular weakness for Japanese culture is shown, which is also expressed in the use of Japanese haiku poetry.

language

One of the main themes of Brautigan's poetry is the language itself. The plain tone of the texts at first impression is the result of a systematic reduction of expression with consequent concentration and condensation of the substance of the content. In his poems this is sometimes reminiscent of the methodology and form of expression of the imagists . The most important stylistic device of his prose and poetry is the analogy, which often builds abstract and multiple interleaved bridges of thought to what is meant to describe meaningful contexts. The language game seldom loses its amused, winking style . The high quality of his experimental linguistic style is evident in the alleged lightness of his texts and the fact that his work of reduction never sinks to mannerism. Brautigan is characterized by linguistic accuracy and versatility.

German translations

Brautigan's work is available in German in a translation by Ilse and Günter Ohnemus and was out of print for a long time. The works were first published as a book series by Eichborn Verlag , then in paperback by Rowohlt . The Kartaus Verlag has tackled the reprint of individual works . When Maro Verlag is from the estate of an unhappy woman appeared. Willard and his bowling trophies were published in 2008 by the Swiss Theodor Boder Verlag . A grotesque detective novel and 2009 Dreaming of Babylon ... - A detective story in San Francisco from 1942 in a new translation by Christiane Bergfeld. In 2018 Troutfischen in Amerika and in 2019 In Watermelonen Zucker were published in paperback by Kein & Aber .

Works

Prose works

  • A Confederate general from Big Sur . Roman, Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1989 ( A Confederate General from Big Sur , 1964)
  • Trout fishing in America . Novel. From the American by Céline and Heiner Bastian , Hanser (RH 73), Munich 1971 ( Trout Fishing in America , 1967)
  • Put sugar in watermelons . Novel. From the American by Céline and Heiner Bastian, Hanser (RH 46), Munich 1970 ( In Watermelon Sugar , 1968)
  • The revenge of the lawn. Stories 1962–1970 , Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1992 ( Revenge of the Lawn , 1970)
  • Abortion. A historical romance 1966 , Verlag Günter Ohnemus, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-921895-00-6 ( The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 , 1971)
    • New edition: Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1985
    • Revised new edition: Kartaus, Regensburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936054-06-4
  • The Hawkline Monster. A strange western with 2 killers, 2 beautiful women & 1 monster , Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1986 ( The Hawkline Monster , 1974)
  • Willard and his bowling trophies. A perverted crime novel , Ohnemus, Munich 1981 ( Willard and his Bowling Trophies , 1975)
    • Under the title Willard and his bowling trophies. A grotesque detective novel, newly translated by Christiane Bergfeld, Theodor Boder Verlag, Mumpf 2008, ISBN 978-3-905802-01-6
    • as an e-book Willard and his bowling trophies. A grotesque detective novel , Theodor Boder Verlag, Mumpf 2015, ISBN 978-3-905802-57-3
  • Sombrero from heaven. A Japanese novel , Rowohlt (rororo 13126), Reinbek 1994 ( Sombrero Fallout , 1976)
  • Dream about Babylon. A detective novel 1942 , Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1986 ( Dreaming of Babylon , 1977)
    • Under the title Dreaming of Babylon ... - A crime story in San Francisco from 1942, newly translated by Christiane Bergfeld, Theodor Boder Verlag, Mumpf 2009, ISBN 978-3-905802-05-4
    • Audiobook Dreaming of Babylon ... - The exciting and bizarre detective novel reading piece by Sascha Gutzeit , Theodor Boder Verlag, Mumpf 2010, ISBN 978-3-905802-08-5
  • Der Tokio-Montana-Express , Rowohlt (rororo 12638), Reinbek 1991 ( The Tokyo-Montana Express , 1979)
  • End of a childhood . Roman, Rowohlt (rororo 13124), Reinbek 1992 ( So the Wind Won't Blow it all Away , 1982)
  • An unfortunate woman , Maro, Augsburg 2002, ISBN 3-87512-263-1 ( An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey , 1982)
  • The gift for Edna Webster . Texts, Kartaus, 2005, ISBN 978-3-936054-04-0 ( The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings , 1999)

Poetry

  • The Galilee Hitch-Hiker , 1958
  • Lay the Marble Tea , 1959
  • The Octopus Frontier , 1960
  • All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace , 1963
  • Please Plant This Book , 1968 (eight sachets of seeds, each with a poem on the front and back of each sachet)
  • The Pill against the Springhill Mine Disaster and 104 other poems , Ohnemus, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-921895-06-5 ( The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster , 1968)
  • Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt , 1970
  • Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork , 1971
  • Japan through June 30th . Poems, Rowohlt (rororo 13112), Reinbek 1995 ( June 30th, June 30th , 1977)

anthology

literature

  • Claudia Grossmann: Richard Brautigan. Pounding at the Gates of American Literature. Investigations into his poetry and prose , Winter, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-8253-3756-1 .
  • Annegreth Horatschek: Knowledge and Reality. Language reflection and language experiment in the novels by Richard Brautigan , Narr (Mannheimer Contributions to Linguistics and Literature 15), Tübingen 1989.
  • Keith Abbott : Downstream from trout fishing in America: a memoir of Richard Brautigan . Vermillion, SD: Astrophil Press, 2015 (1989)
  • Ianthe Brautigan: Bring death. Memories of a daughter , translation by Robert Nesta. Kartaus, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-936054-00-2 (2001)
  • Arne Rautenberg : "I wed Emily Dickinson between the ribs of my heater in San Francisco." Arne Rautenberg on Richard Brautigan , essay, Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-88423-598-0

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Brautigan, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Tacoma , Washington
DATE OF DEATH September 1984
Place of death Bolinas , California