Serge Ehrensperger

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Serge Ehrensperger (born March 8, 1935 in Winterthur ; † November 24, 2013 ) was a Swiss writer.

Life

After graduating from high school in Winterthur, Serge Ehrensperger studied German, psychology, philosophy and history in Zurich, Paris and Tübingen. He did his doctorate with Emil Staiger on Heinrich von Ofterdingen von Novalis . He then worked as a political correspondent for the Zurich daily Die Tat in London , later an advertising copywriter and market psychologist, and for several years a high school teacher in Frauenfeld and Hamburg.

From 1965 to 1967 he was married to the Parisian painter Maossama Farman-Farmaian. From 1973 to 1976 he was a lecturer at the Complutense University in Madrid. From 1975 he worked as a writer in Winterthur, Zurich and Madrid. From 1981 to 1986 he was a literary critic for the Swiss radio station DRS and from 1976 to 1994 a German teacher at the Technikum Winterthur .

In 1992 he received the Vera Piller Poetry Prize , in 1999 the Carl Heinrich Ernst Art Prize . He was Vice President of the Swiss PEN for many years and is a member of the PEN Center Germany .

In 1994 he founded the "Serge Ehrensperger Foundation" to promote erotic literature ; In 2004 it was converted into a foundation for the promotion of literature in the High German language, which only started its work after his death.

Literary work

Ehrensperger's first novel is titled Princess in Formalin and is in an advertising agency in London. Margarete Hannsmann described it as “a piece of world literature”. The protagonist Serge murders his Persian wife Sima Banou and preserves her in formalin . The mummy gives him advice for his marketing company, which makes him extremely rich. The matter is exposed when he uses the tote to show off the Carnaby style at an advertising party. She is then placed in an Etruscan tomb near Bologna, where she has a telephone and television. The work is varied: there are different time levels, the plot fluctuates between reality and fantasy, the narrative strands are confusing, and some forms of language are similar to that of Arno Schmidt . Since the intricately constructed work of language art also contains scenes with uninhibited sex, the critics reacted very differently to the book, according to the Critical Lexicon of Contemporary German Literature "with exuberant praise and bitter condemnation". It is precisely there that Peter Kraft judges the work: “With his virtuoso handling, the author succeeds, with an often unheard of linguistic density, in changing the hero's feelings and the scenery [...] between aestheticized culture and unrestrained marketing, between love and pornographic pleasure without embarrassment to convey. "

The author called himself "Kotzebue" in reference to August von Kotzebue in the trial days .

Trial days are easier to read . The prose writer Kotzebue takes part in the Winterthur jury trial against the German terrorist Rolf Clemens Wagner who was arrested in Zurich , while at the same time exposing the pseudo idyll of his hometown.

In the novel Passion Days , Ehrensperger describes the agonizing suffering of a man who tries to remain faithful to two women. The author connects this story of suffering with the biblical story of the passion.

The novel Franco's long death. Encrypted letters from the dictatorship are directed against the Franco regime and glorify the city of Madrid and Spanish culture.

Ehrensperger describes his fellow writers as a flock of birds in an aperçu for the century Die Ornithologen with “comic word cascades” (Michel Raus) . "As a member of the German PEN, he is familiar with the parrots and 'cardboard vultures', the birds of prey and songbirds, the vultures and proud peacocks of the all-German poetry circle."

The title of Ehrensperger's volume of poetry Sonette an den Orkus is reminiscent of Rilke's Sonnets an Orpheus ; In his poems the author alienates and parodies the classical sonnet . Ehrensperger has also translated the pornographic poems of the French poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) into German. The transfers are in the criticism because he translated very literally, regardless of similarities, and "calls things by their vulgar names".

Quote

  • “There they both hike. They take turns. One comes up, the other goes down. You have made a schedule when everyone can cry at me. Each waits demurely until it's her turn. And I'm hanging next to Jesus. I'm trying to get him off his carnivorous diet, by the way, but he says it's just in his cover text.
    ‹So, Lord Jesus, what should I do with my two wives? Which of the two angels would you keep, the one on my right or the one on my left? ›»

Works

  • The knife of the years. Stories. Wolfbach Verlag, Zurich 2007. ISBN 3-9523057-5-8
  • The city apartment. Novel. Nimrod, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-907149-32-7 .
  • Sonnets to the Orcus. 168 poems about the turn of the ages. Epilogue: Michel Raus. Poetry edition 2000, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-935284-31-4 .
  • The ornithologists. An aperçu for the century. Special print for the German PEN. Nimrod, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-907139-19-4 .
  • Kubaleks cartons. A picaresque novel. Wolfbach Verlag, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-9520831-9-4 .
  • As far as Casanova. Autobiographical novel. Neptun Verlag (Erpf), Ermatigen 1996.
  • Far East. Georg Seldam's Germany dreams. The floral dollars. Three little novels. Edition Erpf, Bern / Munich 1994, ISBN 3-905517-91-4 .
  • Franco's long death. Encrypted letters from the dictatorship. Edition Erpf, Kreuzlingen / Bern 1987, ISBN 3-256-00104-1 .
  • Passion days. Novel. Erpf, Bern 1984, ISBN 3-256-00071-1 .
  • Process days. The days of the prose writer Egon Kotzebue during the trial of Rolf Clemens Wagner in Winterthur. Novel. Edition Erpf, Bern / Munich 1982, ISBN 3-256-00032-0 .
  • Castle tours. Stories. Benziger, Zurich / Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-545-36234-5 .
  • Princess in formalin. Novel. Claassen, Hamburg / Düsseldorf 1969 (most recently: Edition Erpf, Bern / Munich 1994, ISBN 3-905517-97-3 ).
  • The epic structure in Novalis' "Heinrich von Ofterdingen". An interpretation of the novel. Schellenberg, Winterthur 1965.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Commercial register SHAB no .: 228 - November 23, 2004. Reason: Commercial register (changes). Serge Ehrensperger Foundation, in Winterthur, CH-020.7.000.310-4, Promotion of literature in the standard German language, Foundation (SHAB No. 246 of December 19, 1994, p. 6914). Document change: November 11, 2004. Diary No. 32903 from November 17, 2004 (02554596 / CH02070003104)
  2. ↑ Margarete Hannsmann in her laudation in December 1994 in the Zürcher Schauspielhaus- Keller on the occasion of the new edition of the novel.
  3. ↑ Peter Kraft in: Critical Lexicon for Contemporary German Literature
  4. ↑ Torsten Gellner in: "www.literaturkritik.de"
  5. ^ Ralf Junkerjürgen: A classic of pornographic poetry. In: At the bay window . No. 52. Münster 2006, ISBN 3-925084-55-X .
  6. ↑ From the chapter Holy Weeks and Easter Days of the novel Passion Days . Bern / Munich 1982
personal data
SURNAME Ehrensperger, Serge
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ehrensperger, Oskar Serge
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss author and translator
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterthur
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 2013