Mesut Bayraktar: Die Lage

In the organizer's words:

In Germany, there is a universe of poverty and violence. In the media and in politics, on the other hand, there is always talk of opportunities, advancement and fair discourse.

Mesut Bayraktar tells the stories of people who rarely appear in literature with poetic power and an unvarnished sense of reality. In one of the richest countries in the world, their passions and needs are denied. In eighteen stories, he describes silent anger and loud rage. He confronts literature and language with noise, work, confinement, longing - with lonely bodies and their resistance. The stories are intense, shocking and empathetic. Mesut Bayraktar has created a cycle of stories about the encounters, disputes and desires of people whose efforts are rejected by the cliffs of the present.

"Class struggle and literature, do they go together? Mesut Bayraktar proves it with his stories. In crystal-clear language, with analytical acuity and atmospheric density, he shows his characters and thus the wage-earning class with what capitalism does not actually provide for them: Diversity, consciousness, dignity." Christian Baron

Mesut Bayraktar, born in Wuppertal in 1990 and the child of Turkish migrant workers, doubted whether he really belonged in the justice system after studying law in Düsseldorf, Lausanne and Cologne as a trainee lawyer. In the end, he opted for literature and completed his second degree in philosophy in Stuttgart. Numerous of his short stories and poems have been published in anthologies. Some have won awards. His first novel "Letters from Istanbul" and his play "Die Belagerten" (published by Dialog-Edition) were published in 2018. In addition to short stories and plays, he writes essays, literary and theater criticism for various newspapers and magazines. He co-founded the magazine "nous - konfrontative Literatur" in 2013 and is its editor.

Moderation: Arnold Maxwill

Cooperation with the Fritz Hüser Institute.