Robert Cohen (Germanist)
Robert Cohen (born April 13, 1941 in Zurich ) is a Swiss film director , literary scholar and writer .
life and work
Robert Cohen is the younger son of Mimi and Victor Cohen. After the Second World War, the father worked as a journalist for trade union newspapers and social democratic election and voting campaigns. During Bertolt Brecht's stay in Zurich (1947–1948), his parents were among his circle of friends. Victor Cohen later ran an internationally successful advertising agency.
Cohen attended the cantonal grammar school in Zurich (Matura 1960). From 1962 to 1964 he studied at the French film school IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques) in Paris. As a film director at Topic Film in Zurich, he made industrial, advertising and TV films from 1964 to 1976, for which he received several awards. He was a board member of the Swiss Film Center and the Association of Swiss Film Producers.
At the end of 1976 he gave up film work and spent a year as a diving instructor in the Caribbean.
Cohen has lived in the United States with psychologist Jenna Osiason since the early 1980s. In 1984 he began to study German at New York University, which he completed with a dissertation on Peter Weiss ' aesthetics of resistance . From 1991 to 2012 he taught at the German Department at New York University. Cohen has published several monographs on Peter Weiss, including Peter Weiss in his time (1992), the first comprehensive account of Weiss' life and work, as well as numerous academic articles on 20th century German literature. He is a member of the advisory board of the theory journal Das Argument and a member of the board of trustees of the Berlin Institute for Critical Theory (InkriT).
In 2009 Cohen published the epoch-making novel Exil der saucy Frauen about the exile during the time of National Socialism. The focus is on three women: the writer and journalist Maria Osten , the young adult author Ruth Rewald and the Munich Jew and Comintern agent Olga Benario .
Cohen's second novel, The Carefree (2010), tells of life in a holiday village in the Caribbean in the late 1970s.
In 2013, Cohen published the correspondence from prison and concentration camp between Olga Benario and her Brazilian partner Luís Carlos Prestes under the title The Unyielding , and in 2016 the book The Benario Process was published. The Gestapo files 1936–1942 .
Filmography (selection)
- 1968 The Other Side of Summer (16mm / 45 min.)
- 1969 DD ANACH (35mm / 12 min.)
- 1969 The big tents (16mm / 60 min.)
- 1971 harp and sirte (16mm / 20 min.)
- 1974 The time of the grape (16mm / 30 min.)
- 1975 Finally, old people are also people (16mm / 30 min.)
Cinematic awards
- 1970 1st prize for the experimental short film DD ANACH at the experimental film festival in Córdoba (Argentina)
- 1970 "Particularly valuable" rating from the Wiesbaden film evaluation agency for DD ANACH
- 1970 Film Prize of the City of Zurich (Scotoni Prize) for DD ANACH
- 1972 1st prize "Golden Ear" at the 7th International Agricultural Film Festival Berlin for the commissioned film Harfe und Sirte
- 1973 Film Prize of the City of Zurich for Harp and Sirte
Scientific works
- Attempts on Weiss' › Aesthetics of Resistance ‹. Peter Lang, Bern 1989.
- Bio-bibliographical handbook on Peter Weiss' ›Aesthetics of Resistance‹. Argument Verlag, Berlin 1989.
- Peter Weiss in his time. Life and work. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 1992.
- Understanding Peter Weiss. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina 1993. ("Outstanding Academic Book Award" from the US journal Choice 1994)
Literary works
-
Exile of the naughty women. Novel. Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86789-057-1 .
- El exilio de las mujeres atrevidas . Traducción Jesús de la Hera. La Oveja Roja, Madrid 2018, ISBN 978-84-16227-20-4 .
- The carefree. Novel. Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86789-093-9 .
- The Benario. The Gestapo files 1936–1942 . edition berolina, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95841-041-1 .
- Avoidable decline of the United States under Donald Trump. The New York Diary . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-8353-3471-7 .
Editing
- Peter Weiss: Marat / Sade, The Investigation, and The Shadow of the Body of the Coachman. Continuum, New York 1998.
- Anna Seghers: Stories 1948–1949. Work edition Volume II / 3. Construction Publishing House, Berlin 2012.
- Olga Benario / Luiz Carlos Prestes: The Indomitable. Correspondence from prison and concentration camp . Wallstein, Göttingen 2013.
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Werner Wüthrich: Bertolt Brecht and Switzerland. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2003.
- ^ Werner Wüthrich: 1948 Brecht's year of fate in Zurich . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2006.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cohen, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss film director, literary scholar and novelist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zurich |