Der wilde Kärntner – Josef Winkler

In the organizer's words:

The Austrian author reads from his books "The Ukrainian" and "Farewell to Father and Mother".

Josef Winkler is one of the many Austrian authors who produce great literature out of a dispute with their country. An early Bachmann, later Büchner Prize winner and longtime Suhrkamp author, Winkler began his career in the late 1970s with a trilogy titled DAS WILDE KÄRNTEN. With its provocative mix of themes of sexuality, homeland, church in a peasant context, he allowed himself to be assigned to anti-homeland literature, which in retrospect turned out to be a renewal of the genre.

In Dortmund he will read from his just reissued book DIE UKRAINERIN, which was written almost forty years ago and published under the title DIE VERSCHLEPPUNG. It is the story of a Ukrainian woman who had to do forced labor in Carinthia during the Second World War, but remained in Austria afterwards. In the age of renewed deportations from Ukraine and the renewed suffering of its people, this book is unfortunately highly topical.

Winkler will also read from Requiem for his parents, who played a large part in the suffering of his homeland, but to which he has remained paradoxically connected precisely through his literary reappraisal. Through actions such as the demand that the urn of right-wing populist Jörg Haider be moved to prison - "it could be that he rises like a phoenix from the ashes" - he wants to protect his country from further damage.

Moderation: Walter Grünzweig

Price information:

Admission free - seat reservation via the ticket link!