Matthias Politycki

Matthias Politycki (born 20 May 1955 in Karlsruhe) is a German writer. He has published novels, short stories, poems, essays as well as audio books. He is considered a globetrotter among German writers. His rise to fame was due to his Weiberroman (Novel of Women) and his cruise ship satire In 180 Tagen um die Welt (Around the World in 180 Days). His books have been translated into English, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. Several of his articles were also much-noticed for intervening in and inspiring debates in the literary feuilleton.

Biography

Matthias Politycki grew up in Munich where he attended the Maria Theresia Gymnasium. His school-leaving qualification (Abitur) in 1974 was followed by military service with the 541 Infantry Battalion in Neuburg an der Donau. After his first reserve duty training exercise, he decided to refuse military service and was officially recognized as a conscientious objector on 21 December 1977. From 1975 to 1987, he studied German literature, philosophy, theatre- and communication studies at the Universities of Munich and Vienna, graduating in 1981 with a Magister degree. He was awarded a PhD in philosophy with Walter Müller-Seidel in Munich in 1987; his dissertation was entitled Umwertung aller Werte? Deutsche Literatur im Urteil Nietzsches.

He taught for three semesters as assistant professor at the Munich Insitut für Deutsche Philologie. In 1990, he became a freelance writer, working until 1999 as a freelance editor for Munich Publishers C.H. Beck. From 2000 to 2005, to encourage poetic dialogue, he organized the annual "Untitled" conferences for writers, literary editors and critics at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps. In 2011, he was curator of the Munich Literature Festival. Matthias Politycki is a member of the PEN Centre Germany and the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg in Hamburg. He lives in Hamburg and Munich.

Literary work

Novels and short stories

Matthias Politycki's 1987 debut novel Aus Fälle / Zerlegung des Regenbogens. Ein Entwickelungsroman. (Drop Outs / Disassembling the Rainbow. An Entwickelungsroman) was widely celebrated for the reflective quality of his prose in the tradition of Arno Schmidt and James Joyce. By the early 1990s, the "form-fixated avant-gardist" [1] consistently spoke out against this comparison, suggesting that "literature must be like rock music"[2] and calling for a "new readability"[3] of German literature. His remarks sparked a wide-ranging debate among critics.

His 1997 Weiberroman became a bestseller and cult novel.[4] It is considered a key text of Postmodern literature in Germany.[5] Politycki's novel also confirmed his reputation as an "eminent humourist"[6] and "memory acrobat".[7] Weiberroman also led to a debate about the "Generation of 1978" (Reinhard Mohr) that he clearly distinguished from the 1968 Movement with its strong protest tradition.

Politycki's 2005 Cuba novel, Herr der Hörner (Lord of the Horns), presented the "culmination of Nietzsche's admired 'Dionysian worldview'"[8] that recounts the tale of an enlightened European's fight for survival in a culture influenced by archaic rituals. However, he could not repeat the popular success of his Weiberroman until his 2008 picaresque novel In 180 Tagen um die Welt in which he lets a "modern Simplicissimus" describe "the rituals of the rich and the super-rich"[9] on a luxury cruise ship.

Samarkand Samarkand was published in 2013; Politycki admitted having spent half a lifetime devising the plot. In the legendary Samarkand, set in the future 2026, Alexander Kaufner, a mountain ranger and frontier runner, embarks on a quest to find a mysterious cult place. "Samarkand Samarkand is an immensely eloquent, oriental and vivid travelogue and adventure story that penetrates to the heart of darkness."[10] The novel evolves a dark dystopia of the free West that threatens to collapse between the aggression of Greater-Russia and the fundamentalist alliances of the Caliph of Baghdad. To defend democratic core values, the only hope lies in a symbolic victory "for the just cause".[11] Politycki counts Laurence Sterne, Diderot, Gottfried Benn and Vladimir Nabokov among his literary role models and, recently, also Ernest Hemingway.

Poetry

Politycki has unveiled many poetry collections which he also presented on stage: in 1996–1997, he went on tour with Robert Gernhardt and the lyrical programme Wein, Weib und Gesang (Wine, Women and Song); in 2004–2005 he joined Hellmuth Opitz and Steffen Jacobs with Frauen. Naja. Schwierig (Women. Well Now. Difficult). Uwe Wittstock described him as "the greatest living linguistic gourmet among German poets".[12] Sämtliche Gedichte 2017–1987 appeared in spring 2018. This collection comprises previously published monographs and sporadically released poems together with a new poem cycle, and with an afterword by Wolfgang Frühwald. The poetry volume was awarded NDR Book of the Month in June 2018.

Essays

Both Politycki's essay editions (1998 and 2007) include a collection of published newspaper articles. Two non-fictional literature volumes followed in 2015 and 2017. These present a new hybrid genre that mixes literary and essayistic aspects: 42,195, an autobiographical book about marathon running, and Schrecklich schön und weit und wild (Fearsomely Beautiful and Far and Wild) a "mix of philosophical essay and autobiographical field report" about "the past, present and future of travel".[13] Politycki has frequently voiced his views in essays and feuilleton articles about the development of German-speaking contemporary literature. His essays Relevanter Realismus[14], published as Was soll der Roman?[15] (What Purpose for the Novel?) and Weißer Mann – was nun?[16] (What Now – White Man?) won widespread acclaim. Matthias Politycki recently illustrated his present aesthetic standpoint in a plenary lecture at the German Germanistentag 2016. His lecture entitled "Reduktion & Tempo" was published in the Göttinger Sudelblättern (2017).

Novels and short stories

Poetry

Essays

Editorship and miscellaneous

Non-fiction books

Audio books

...

Awards

Matthias Politycki won recognition for his first novel Aus Fälle / Zerlegung des Regenbogens with the Civitas-Literaturpreis in 1987 and the Bayerischer Staatsförderpreis for literature in 1988. He was awarded numerous scholarships in Germany and abroad, including in Denmark, Austria and the US. In 2006, the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company appointed Matthias Politycki as its first ship's writer on the MS Europa. He became a writer-in-non-residence during a half-year world cruise. In 2009, he received the Ernst-Hoferichter-Preis and became Writer in Residence at Queen Mary University of London. In 2010, he was awarded the Preis der LiteraTour Nord. For Herr der Hörner (2005) and Samarkand Samarkand (2012/13) he received a grant from the Deutscher Literaturfonds. To mark the 25-year anniversary of the town-twinning of Hamburg and Osaka in 2014, he became Writer in Residence in Osaka; that same year, he was Artist in Residence in St Moritz. He received the travel scholarship Literarischer Landgang of the Literaturbüro Oldenburg in 2015. As a recipient of a travel stipend of the Deutscher Literaturfonds and Sylt Foundation, in 2017 he travelled in Cambodia on the trail of the Khmer Rouge. In 2018, Schrecklich schön und weit und wild received the ITB BuchAward of the Internationale Tourismus Börse (ITB) Berlin. In September 2018, at the invitation of the Shanghai Writers' Association he travelled as Writer in Residence to Shanghai. In 2019, he accepted an invitation from the Chinese Writers' Association and the Lu Xun Academy as Writer in Residence in Beijing.

Works

Matthias Politycki has travelled on numerous book tours, including at the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference in August 2012 and the Belfast Festival at Queen's in October 2014. Politycki's works have been translated into English, Irish, French, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. Available in English: Next World Novella. (2011). (Tr from the German: Anthea Bell). Peirene Press London. Sphärenmusik, Music of the Spheres, Ceol na Sféar. Ausgewählte Gedichte – Selected Poems – Rocha Dánta. (2011). (Tr English Hans-Christian Oeser; Gaelige/Irish Gabriel Rosenstock). Coiscéim Dublin.

References

  1. ^ Killy Literaturlexikon. De Gruyter, Berlin.
  2. ^ Hurley, Wright Andrew (2015). Into the Groove. Pop Music and Contemporary German Fiction, p. 135. Camden House, Rochester, New York.
  3. ^ Skasa, Michael. "Autoren. Zur Sache, Schwätzchen", Der Spiegel, 18 September 2000.
  4. ^ Munzinger-Archiv.
  5. ^ Grevsen, Niels, "Norddeutscher Rundfunk / Bücherjournal", 25 August 1997.
  6. ^ Baumgart, Reinhard. "Aus tiefster Provinz", Die Zeit, 5 September 1997. Retrieved on 14 August 2019.
  7. ^ Auffermann, Verena. "Akrobat der Erinnerung", Süddeutsche Zeitung 19 July 1997.
  8. ^ Nickel, Gunther. "Kampfansage an die westliche Dekadenz", Die Welt, 10 September 2005. Retrieved on 15 August 2019.
  9. ^ Wittstock, Uwe. "Die Freuden der Zeitlosigkeit", Die Welt, 21 June 2008. Retrieved on 15 August 2019.
  10. ^ Halter, Martin. "Gebirgsjäger auf dem leeren Berg", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 August 2013.
  11. ^ Samarkand, Samarkand, p. 176. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg. ISBN: 978-3-455-40443-2.
  12. ^ Wittstock, Uwe. "Die Welle reiten bevor sie einen begräbt", Die Welt, 21 March 2009. Retrieved on 15 August 2019.
  13. ^ Lauterbach, Burkhart (2017). Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 2017. Ed. Kommission für bayerische Landesgeschichte bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich.
  14. ^ Vom Verschwinden der Dinge in der Zukunft, p. 102-6. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg.
  15. ^ "Was Soll der Roman?", Die Zeit, 23 June (No. 26) 2005. Retrieved on 19 August 2019.
  16. ^ "Weißer Mann – was nun?", Die Zeit, 1 September (No. 36) 2005. Retrieved on 19 August 2019.

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