“Surprised but happy”: 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature to Louise Glück



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However, working as a teacher did not stop Glück from pursuing her poetic path. 1975 followed with “La casa en las maismas” his second volume of poetry, in which he took historical characters as a starting point and with which he celebrated his true advance in his own language. In “The Triumph of Achilles” (1985) he dismantles the archetypes of the Greek myth, the Bible or fairy tale, in “A Village Life” (2009) he subsumes the worlds of a Mediterranean town.

Before the Nobel Prize, Glück was able to look forward to the prestigious National Book Prize in his trophy collection in 2014, which he received for “Faithful and Virtuous Night”, a highly personal reflection and further development of his own style and a supposedly slight concern for death. To date, Glück has published a total of twelve collections of poetry and several volumes of essays.

Fighting for clarity and minimalism

For a long time, Glück’s style was characterized by an unwavering quest for clarity and minimalism, a maxim that has recently been toned down a bit. In “Ararat” (1990), he says that for the first time he managed to integrate everyday language into his work. “No one can be more difficult than you to discover the illusions of your own self,” the Nobel Prize Committee paid tribute to the newly crowned laureate. Childhood and family life are dominant themes in the work of the twice-divorced mother of a son. Luck should not be confused with a purely autobiographical author: “Happiness seeks the universal and, in doing so, is inspired by myth, classical motifs.”

However, to date only a few works of her have been published in German translation, a fact that should now change after freestyle in Stockholm. Ulrike Draesner had translated into German the works “Averno” (2007) on the myth of Persephone and “Wilde Iris” (2008), both published by Luchterhand Literaturverlag in Munich. Glück had already received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for “Wilde Iris”.

According to Luchterhand Literaturverlag, the two books are currently out of print. “We are currently in the process of renegotiating the rights,” spokesman Karsten Rösel said on Thursday. dpa. The choice of Glücks “surprised” the publisher, they expected Maryse Condé, also the author of the publisher who was ahead of the bookmakers in the previous period.

In addition, Austrian lyric poet Friederike Mayröcker was almost on par with eventual winner Glück in terms of the betting odds posted in advance.

“Essence of the human being”

According to information on the website of the translator Ulrike Draesner, the 56 poems of “Wilde Iris” “sing about the insurmountable contrast between the eternal cycle of nature and individual human life, the discrepancy between the Garden of Eden and the human condition. . “Louise Glück is not interested in the fall of man. “With her clear, seemingly simple language, she puts herself sometimes in a plant, sometimes in a gardener, sometimes in God, and thus explores the essence of human existence.”

It is said from the volume “Averno” that the title is the name of a volcanic crater lake near Naples. “For the ancient Romans, this was the entrance to the underworld.” Mythology, nature, man between love, life and death: these are the themes of the poet Glück, who has received numerous awards.

Works in German

  • Hell : Poems / translated by Ulrike Draesner. – Munich: Luchterhand, 2007. – Original title: Averno
  • Wild iris : Poems / translated by Ulrike Draesner. – Munich: Luchterhand, 2008. – Original title: The Wild Iris
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