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© Hartwig Klappert
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Peter Stephan Jungk
Austria/France
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Peter Stephan Jungk was
born in Santa Monica, California, in 1952. The son of a Jewish emigrant
family, he spent his childhood and adolescence in Vienna, West Berlin
and Salzburg, where he was educated to university level. Upon
finishing, he worked as assistant director at the Basle Theatre and
also worked as a film crew assistant. He studied at the American Film
Institute in Los Angeles from 1974-76. In Paris, which was to become
his main place of residence, he worked as assistant director on Peter
Handke's film »Die linkshändige Frau« (1978; Eng. »The Left-Handed
Woman«). That same year his volume of short stories, »Stechpalmenwald«
(t: Forest of holly) and his prized radio play »Oktave« appeared. He
studied at a Bible college in Jerusalem from 1979 to 1980, where he
wrote his first novel, »Rundgang« (1981; Eng. »Shabbat : a Rite of
Passage in Jerusalem«, 1985), in which walks through the city give rise
to reflections on home and identity. Following the publication of an
account of the life of Franz Werfel – praised by the »Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung« as »the first really comprehensive biography and
also worth reading for its other qualities« – he filmed »Weltfreund
zwischen den Welten« (t: Friend of the world between worlds), a
documentary about the Austrian writer, for ZDF and ORF. Jungk works
both as a freelance writer and as an author and director for radio,
television and the press. In addition, he has carried out numerous
translations, among them texts by Thornton Wilder and Woody Allen.
The
six novels Jungk has published up until now all focus on the theme of
identity and individuality. His protagonists are restless characters:
some are in search of their vocation and their roots (»Tigor«, 1991;
Eng. »The Snowflake Constant«, 2002), others are driven by ancestry and
personality (»Die Unruhe der Stella Federspiel«, 1996; t: The
uneasiness of Stella Federspiel; »Die Erbschaft«, 1999; t: The legacy).
»Der König von Amerika« (2001; Eng. »The Perfect American«, 2004),
meanwhile, is a biographical novel about the American animation film
mogul Walt Disney, and depicts the fascinating personality of a
charismatic company dictator whose inspiring visions helped to create
amazing products time and again. This fictionalised biography was
followed by a novel containing several autobiographical elements. »Die
Reise über den Hudson« (2005; t: Journey over the Hudson) describes the
process of self discovery of a man unable to leave his role as a son
behind, in the face of his mother's oppressive concern and having had
an overly powerful and renowned father. One day, on his way to the
family holiday home, he runs into traffic and gets stuck on a bridge,
only to discover the mammoth corpse of his dead father lying in the
riverbed. In a realistic and cinematic language derived from theatre
and film – at times magical in its effect –, Jungk produces nuanced,
thought-provoking portraits, factually rich tableaux and gripping
narrative threads.
In 2001 Jungk was awarded the Stefan Andres
Prize, and two years later he became writer in residence at Oberlin
College in Ohio. Since 2002 he has been writing monthly columns for
»Die Welt«, in which he reports on visits to the movies accompanied by
celebrities, under the rubric »Going to the cinema with...«. With his
wife, the photographer Lillian Birnbaum, he published the photobook
»Vier Frauen: Porträts« (1994; t: Four women: portraits). The couple
live in Paris with their daughter.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Stechpalmenwald
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 1978
Rundgang
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 1981
Tigor
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 1993
Die Unruhe der Stella Federspiel
List München, Leipzig, 1996
Franz Werfel: eine Lebensgeschichte
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 2001
Die Erbschaft
Ullstein
München, 2001
Der König von Amerika
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 2003
Die Reise über den Hudson
Klett-Cotta
Stuttgart, 2005 |
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