Guest of the ilb 2004, 2005
Durs Grünbein
was born in Dresden, GDR, in 1962. In 1985 he moved to East Berlin,
where he studied Drama. He soon decided to devote himself to writing.
He taught himself Quantum Physics and Neurology, and also became
familiar with philosophical ideas such as those of Ludwig Wittgenstein,
the Frankfurt School and the French Structualists. Through exchanges
with painters, photographers and performance artists, he took part in
different magazines, exhibitions, and book projects. In 1986 he met
Heiner Müller, who introduced him to the West German publisher
Siegfried Unseld. In 1988 Durs Grünbein’s first volume of poetry,
“Grauzone morgens” (t: Grey area, in the morning), was published by
Suhrkamp. Texts from the period between 1985 ans 1988 provide, through
clinical snapshots, an authentic impression of the attitude towards
life in the urban centres of GDR.
In 1991 followed
a much noted volume of poetry, “Schädelbasislektion” (t: Lection on the
base of the skull), in which Grünbein depicts the times before, during
and after the end of the Cold War through a cycle of poems with titles
such as “Niemands Land Stimmen” (t: No man’s land voices”, “Tag X” (t:
Day X), and “Portrait des Künstlers als junger Grenzhund” (t: Portrait
of the artist as a young watch dog). With a view bereft of illusions,
he dissects the place of thought in smooth language, with the use of
cerebral motifs (“Schädelnaht”, “Hirnmaschine”, “Nervenbahnen”; t:
Skull fissure, Brain machine, Nerve tracks). One critic noted: “After
the end of all religion and ideology, consciousness is, as it appears,
reducible to its physiological existence, as a labyrinth and bundle of
biochemical synapses within the brain.” In “Falten und Fallen” (1994;
t: Wrinkles and falls), Durs Grünbein lays out his poetic concept of
analytical poetry between speech and physis: „Ideally, the poem leads
thought to a sequence of physiological short circuits. Each discharge
immediately follows a buildup of tension, and vice versa. Energy
therefore is provided by a complex, which is actually only
insufficiently termed by the word ‘body’, for it goes much deeper
beneath the skin.”
In 1995 Grünbein
received the Peter Huchel Prize for Poetry. That same year, he won the
Georg Büchner Prize, at the time the youngest recipient ever. During
the following years he wrote several volumes of poetry in which he
seeks to strengthen the dialogue with great poets and thinkers from
world literature, both in form and content. The portrait on the
philosopher René Descartes for example (“Vom Schnee”, 2003; t: On
snow), is constructed like an epic poem, comprised of forty-two tight
chapters. Grünbein also published several collections of essays as well
as new translations of plays from antiquity, among them Aeschylus’ “The
Persian” (2000), and Seneca’s “Thyestes” (2002). In 2003, he was the
first non-philosopher to receive the Friedrich Nietzsche Prize. Among
his many rewards are the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize (2005) and the
Berlin Literature Prize (2006). His work, which also includes
contributions to catalogues and a libretto for opera, has been
translated into many languages. Durs Grünbein lives in Berlin.
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