Werner Morlang

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Werner Morlang 2013 in Zurich, photo by Werner Gadliger

Werner Morlang (born May 19, 1949 in Olten ; † November 18, 2015 in Zurich ) was a Swiss literary scholar , literary critic , translator and publicist .

life and work

Werner Morlang studied German and English in Zurich and Swansea and graduated in 1982 with a dissertation on Arno Schmidt supervised by Werner Weber . He then worked as a German specialist, translator and literary mediator. He has translated works by Frank Budgen , Arthur Power, Eric Ambler , Robert Billigmeier and John Cowper Powys into German. As a freelance journalist he worked for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Zürcher Tages-Anzeiger, the Luzerner Neusten Nachrichten and for Radio DRS 2 (Sendung Reflexe , with Hardy Ruoss). His partner was the Germanist and former Zug canton school teacher Ruth Känel (* 1952)

One focus of Morlang's work was the study of Robert Walser's work . Together with Bernhard Echte , he deciphered and edited the so-called “micrograms” from 1981 to 1995, i.e. drafts and sketches that Robert Walser had noted down in pencil in extremely small, difficult to read font towards the end of his productive period. These texts were published in 6 volumes between 1985 and 2000 ( from the pencil area ). From 1987 to 1995 Morlang was director of the Robert Walser Archive. As the fruit of literary city tours in Bern in the footsteps of Robert Walser, Morlang wrote a documentary on his life in Bern, which was published in 1994 as a private print by Robert Walser in Bern by Paul Haupt, Bern; In 1995 he published it in an expanded form under the title "I am content to nomadize within the boundaries of our city ...": Robert Walser in Bern . Morlang also wrote numerous other publications about Robert Walser in magazines and compilations.

Between February 1996 and August 2000, Morlang was in charge of a column in the cultural magazine Du , in which he dealt with “eccentricities and special cases of world literature”. The collected contributions were published as a book in 2001 under the title So beautiful aside . The columns gave Morlang the opportunity to introduce readers to talented but, in his opinion, under-noticed authors. These include, for example, Hermann Grab , Ernst Polak , Sei Shonagon , Alfonsina Storni , Federigo Tozzi .

Werner Morlang promoted various contemporary authors by writing reviews and afterwords and introducing them to readings. These authors include Lukas Bärfuss , Margrit Baur , Iren Baumann, Jürg Beeler , Christian Haller , Gerhard Meier , Klaus Merz , Paul Nizon , Monique Schwitter and Dieter Zwicky . Together with Gerhard Meier, he published an extensive volume of conversations that arose over the course of two years ( Das dunkle Fest des Lebens ) . At the same time, he also campaigned for visual artists, such as the painters Heinz Egger , Eugen Früh and Kaspar Toggenburger .

In the Schauspielhaus Zurich designed Morlang since the 2009/2010 season, numerous literary evenings when he gave the audience introductions to writers and actors scenic views aufführten from their works. The 6 to 7 evenings per theater season had a common theme, for example crime novels, coffee house literature or erotic literature. 17 of the 39 introductory texts were published in 2019 under the title Ladies in Shorts. And other personalities in world literature .

Awards

  • 1985: Book award from the City of Zurich
  • 1991: Honorary gift from the Canton of Zurich
  • 1991: Gold medal from the Pro Olten Association for outstanding services to Olten
  • 1995: Working year for the city of Zurich
  • 1999: Award from the STEO Foundation Zurich
  • 2000: Honorary gift from the City of Zurich 2000
  • 2002: Recognition award from the German-speaking literature commission of the canton of Bern (together with Bernhard Echte for the services to deciphering the micrograms by Robert Walser)
  • 2003: Approval from the City of Zurich
  • 2006: Prize for Literature from the Canton of Solothurn
  • 2009: Zug Contenance Prize for services to literature

Publications (selection)

  • The problem of the representation of reality in the literary essays by Arno Schmidt . European university publications. Series 1: German Language and Literature, Volume 514, (Dissertation), Lang, Bern 1982, ISBN 3-261-05014-4
  • Robert Walser: From the pencil field. Deciphered and edited on behalf of the Robert Walser Archive of the Carl Seelig Foundation, Zurich. by Bernhard Echte and Werner Morlang. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1985–2000, 6 volumes.
  • (with Gerhard Meier): The dark festival of life. Amrainer talks . Bruckner & Thünker, Cologne 1995; extended new edition: Zytglogge, Oberhofen 2007, ISBN 978-3-7296-0734-7
  • So beautiful aside. Oddities and special cases of world literature . Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2001. ISBN 3-312-00287-7
  • "The most reliable of my joys". Hanny Fries and Ludwig Hohl: Conversations, letters, drawings and documents . Nagel & Kimche, Zurich 2003.
  • Canetti in Zurich. Memories and conversations . Nagel & Kimche, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-312-00353-9
  • Robert Walser in Bern. In the footsteps of a city nomad . Zytglogge, Oberhofen 2009 (second edition), ISBN 978-3-7296-0787-3
  • Ladies in shorts. And other personalities of world literature , with an afterword by Manfred Papst , Nagel & Kimche, Munich 2019, 293 pages, ISBN 978-3-312-01116-2

literature

  • A tracker in secret. In memory of Werner Morlang , edited by Ruth Känel, Zurich 2016

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Morlang (1949–2015): Between world literature and Swiss provinces. November 25, 2015 (by Stefan Howald), accessed August 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ Werner Morlang in: www.hanser-literaturverlage.de. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  3. ↑ https://www.zg.ch/behoerden/direktion-fur-bildung-und-kultur/ksz/organisation/ehemalige/downloads/VEK_Leporello_Herbst_2017.pdf/@@download/file/VEK_Leporello_Herbst_2017.pdf , accessed on August 7th 2020.
  4. ↑ Reference to Werner Morlang on the website of the Robert Walser Center , accessed on May 8, 2017
  5. ↑ Now under the title Robert Walser in Bern. In the footsteps of a city nomad, reissued by Zytglogge-Verlag.
  6. ↑ Article about Gerhard Meier in Literatur Schweiz , accessed on May 10, 2017
  7. ↑ a b c Article about Werner Morlang at SOKULTUR , accessed on May 15, 2017
  8. ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 30, 1991, page 53
  9. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 9, 1995, page 54
  10. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 9, 2000, page 45
  11. ↑ http://www.be.ch/web/kanton-mediencenter-mm-detail?id=4339 accessed on May 7, 2017
  12. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 19, 2003, page 52, and December 6, 2003, page 55
  13. ↑ https://www.so.ch/verwaltung/departement-fuer-bildung-und-kultur/amt-fuer-kultur-und-sport/kulturfoerderung/ausnahmpreis/2006/ accessed on May 7, 2017
  14. ↑ http://www.zugkultur.ch/f2nceU/veranstaltung.html accessed on May 18, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Morlang, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss literary scholar and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Olten
DATE OF DEATH 18th November 2015
Place of death Zurich