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DorisPoklekowski_Frei.jpg)
© Doris Poklekowski
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Feridun Zaimoglu
Germany
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Feridun Zaimoglu was born in Bolu, Anatolia, in 1964 and grew up as the son of an immigrant family in Germany. He has lived in Kiel since 1985 where he studied Art and Human Medicine. He helped to bring the idiom of young immigrant children to the attention of German society with his first book, »Kanak Sprak. 24 Misstöne vom Rande der Gesellschaft« (1995; t: ›Kanak‹ Speak. 24 broken sounds from the edge of society), its successor »Abschaum. Die wahre Geschichte des Ertan Ognun« (1995; t: Scum: The true story of Ertan Ognun) and »Koppstoff« (1998) as well as with the film »Kanak Attack« (2000). Since then he has been considered a cult author and leading light in migrant literature in Germany.
»Kanak Sprak« presents the life stories and philosophies of Turkish immigrants. The texts are based on street talk, from which Zaimoglu develops his own literary forms of expression. He mixes staccato German-English street talk with vulgar, obscene and offensive expressions and with direct translations of archaic Turkish turns of phrase. »The spoken manifesto of our movement is called ›Kanak Sprak‹, the Babylonian lingo of a decidedly demonstrative, decidedly provoked generation, which this country has indeed been waiting for.« Zaimoglu's offensive gestures earned him labels such as »the Malcolm X of the Turks«. Although he was made an advocate of an entire section of the population, he does not follow any particular programme. His central theme is, rather, the man's lack of shelter which he represents through all the vigour and fury of his linguistic mastery, using the example of the fate of emigrants. In the more recent novels and short stories his sharply observed depictions are expanded and enriched by a wealth of metaphors and epic descriptions. The collection of stories »Zwölf Gramm Glück« (2004; t: Twelve grams of happiness) encompasses twelve tales told by different first-person voices, which are set in the modern, new Western homeland of the protagonists and in their Oriental, old-fashioned land of origin. They are all soldiers of fortune in search of love, who vacillate between the promise of meaning and the disappointments which both cultures have in store. For the story »Häute«, found in this volume, Zaimoglu was awarded the Prize of the Jury of the Bachmann Competition in Klagenfurt. In his latest novel, »Leyla« (2006), Zaimoglu distances himself even further from his erstwhile image. A grand-scale family saga, beginning with childhood in the Anatolian provinces to the move to the metropolis of Istanbul and the vague hope of finding a better life as an immigrant in Germany, is told from the perspective of a female protagonist condemned to the role of passive observer within the patriarchal social order.
Among Zaimoglu's many achievements are the Hebbel Prize, the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize and the Hugo Ball Prize. In 2003 he was the writer in residence on the island of Sylt, and the following year he was the Samuel Fischer Professor at the Free University, Berlin and later a guest at the Villa Massimo in Rome. He writes regularly for »Die Zeit«, the »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«, »Die Welt« and the »Frankfurter Rundschau«.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Koppstoff
Rotbuch
Hamburg, 1998
Liebesmale, scharlachrot
Rotbuch
Hamburg, 2001
Kopf und Kragen
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 2001
Leinwand
Rotbuch
Hamburg, 2003
Abschaum
Rotbuch
Hamburg, 2003
Kanak Sprak
Rotbuch
Hamburg, 2004
German Amok
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 2004
Zwölf Gramm Glück
Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Köln, 2004
Leyla
Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Köln, 2006
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