Guest of the ilb 2007
Arnold Stadler was born in
Meßkirch in 1954, and grew up on a farm in the nearby village of Rast.
He studied Roman Catholic theology in Munich and Rome, and later German
Studies in Freiburg and Cologne. During his childhood he was a server
in church and experienced the beauty and magic of language for the
first time in the Latin prayers. The effects of these early influences
are to be found in his studies and writing. His thesis was on »The Book
of Psalms and German Poetry of the Twentieth Century«, and two further
publications also deal with the Psalms. Their rendering in German
»Warum toben die Heiden und andere Psalmen« (1995; t: Why do the
heathens rage and other psalms) and »Die Menschen lügen. Alle« (1999;
t: People lie. All of them) emphasize their poetic quality, at the same
time locating them in the context of contemporary language.
His rural farming background, the yearning for an
experienced and yet vanished world, are paid tribute by Stadler in his
semi-autobiographical novels. In the search for this home, in »Ich war
einmal (1989; t: Once I was) and »Mein Hund, meine Sau, mein Leben«
(1994; t: My dog, my pig, my life), a typically characteristic
melancholic tone comes to the fore. It is not a perfect world that is
at once being summoned up and abandoned. Stadler juxtaposes painful
experiences with comic elements, exposing the seeming idyll. Worldly
feelings, above all the initiation into love, with all its joy and
suffering, are the subject of the novel »Sehnsucht. Versuch über das
erste Mal« (2002; t: Desire: an attempt at the first time). Here too,
elevated feelings are pierced by an ironically biting social critique.
Stadler’s influences and mentors in literature are
to be found mostly among those great writers who embrace and use
digressions and elliptical discourses as literary devices. As early as
thirteen he read Stifter’s »Indian Summer«. Stadler remained loyal to
the poet throughout his life, and published »Mein Stifter« (t: My
Stifter), a personal account of and homage to his adopted relative
Adalbert Stifter, in 2005, that is for the 200th anniversary of his
birth, in which he also defended Stifter against Thomas Bernhard’s
criticisms in »Old Masters«.
In an essay published in »Der Spiegel« in 1994,
Martin Walser championed Stadler. In the same year the author received
the Hermann Hesse Prize to foster talent. Numerous other awards
followed, including the Nicolas Born Prize to foster talent and the
Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize. The recognition of his work culminated in
1999 with the award of the prestigious Büchner Prize and the commercial
success of his novel »Ein hinreißender Schrotthändler« (t: An adorable
junk dealer), which tells the story of a love triangle. Stadler’s
latest novel, »Komm, gehen wir« (2007; t: Come on, let’s go) also gives
an account of the meeting of two men and a woman, this time in 1970's
Italy, and makes explicit references to its precursors, Truffaut’s
»Jules et Jim« and Pasolini’s »Teorema«.
The author, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Freie Universität in Berlin in 2006, lives in Rast and Berlin.
© international literature festival berlin
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