He revolutionized the novel, but also wrote for Hollywood, he exposed the abysses of the American southern states – but he himself resided in the villa of a slave owner. William Faulkner was as contradictory as his characters.

Stockholm, December 8, 1950: William Faulkner stands on the podium in the auditorium of the Swedish Academy. A small man with a mustache and icy hair. He has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Faulkner wears tails, as was proper at the time, not his characteristic coarse tweed suit. He reads from the sheet. One seems to see his discomfort: William Faulkner never looked up during his speech. A man of the word, but not of the spoken. And certainly none for the podium, the world stage.

From the losers of modernization

No wonder, because the world Faulkner calls home is the world of the American South. More precisely: the small town of Oxford, Mississippi, where he has spent most of his life. The former wealth of the US state was earned at the expense of the black slaves who had to toil on the cotton plantations.
After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, Mississippi experienced an unprecedented economic decline – the competitive advantage of cheap labor was gone. William Faulkner was born into this world in 1897. It shapes his novels: the guilt of white people for building their wealth on slavery. And the inability to get over defeat in the civil war.

Revolutionary storytelling

By the time the Nobel Prize was awarded, Faulkner had long since passed his prime as a writer. His two great novels were published 20 and 13 years earlier respectively. “Noise and madness”, the grandiose early work, a family history composed like a mosaic from different narrative perspectives. And “Absalom! Absalom!”, Faulkner’s Opus Magnum: also a family story, spanning several generations, also told from different perspectives. And at the same time the story of a fictional county in Mississippi, from settlement in the 1830s to the beginning of the 20th century.

“Noise and madness” consists of four chapters. Each has a different narrator with a different perspective and style of speaking. In 1929, when “Noise and madness” was published, this narrative structure was revolutionary. James Joyce and Virginia Woolf have already worked with the narrative technique of the stream of consciousness, in which the events are only described indirectly: through the thoughts, feelings and memories of the characters in the novel.

But Faulkner goes a few steps further: he creates the narrators extremely differently, fragments the chronological sequence and leaves the reader with key events and information important for understanding. This creates a mosaic that can only be deciphered in retrospect.

This polyphony is a hallmark of Faulkner’s style, Watson explains: “In doing so, he paid tribute to the fact that no one tells stories or even thinks them in a continuous and linear manner. That knowledge unfolds in spurts, just like stories. Faulkner had a basic understanding of the crisis of the ego. The ego is a dynamic phenomenon, constantly pressed, tense, contradictory, irrepressible, divided within itself. Faulkner portrayed this conflict in all of his novels.”

Contradiction between artist and citizen

As Bill Griffith knows, that didn’t exactly make him popular in his hometown of Oxford: “He wrote about things that other people here weren’t even willing to talk about, about racism, violence, adultery, about sin, debauchery and drunkenness. All of these things were not edifying and, according to popular belief at the time, should not be in novels.”

Griffith is curator at Rowan Oak, the antebellum home that William Faulkner bought in 1930 and where he lived until his death in 1961. Rowan Oak was built in 1844 by a cotton baron who owned numerous plantations down in the Mississippi Delta. He had made his fortune by exploiting black slaves.

“It’s the most fascinating contradiction in his life,” says Faulkner connoisseur Jay Watson. “In his novels and short stories, houses like this suffer terrible fates. They burn down, they fall into disrepair, the owners are evicted. As an artist he understood the compromised mansions of the early slaveholders, but as a citizen of Oxford he wanted to benefit from the status they promised in the society of the time. Basically, two completely different people lived there.”

Literally an anti-racist, politically a redneck

As much as Faulkner saw and described the abysses of Southern society, he was shaped by it himself. Not only in his way of life, as Griffith explains: “His financial situation was always tense. Faulkner had an idea of ​​what a southern gentleman should have and do. And that’s what he cultivated: the posh lifestyle of the old South.”

Politically, too, in the 1950s he made strong those positions that he questioned in his books: “I was against enforced racial segregation. Now I am just as strongly opposed to forced racial integration,” Faulkner wrote in an open letter dated March 5, 1956. Three months earlier, later Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott in response to the arrest of an African-American activist who refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man.

Emmett Till, an African American teenager, was murdered in the summer of 1955. The killers, two white men, were acquitted by an all-white jury despite overwhelming evidence. Faulkner explicitly mentions the murder of Emmett Till in his letter. And describes it as the logical consequence of a Supreme Court ruling that found racial segregation in schools unconstitutional.

For William Faulkner, the civil rights movement would have been an opportunity to take sides in a just cause. Instead, he indulges in letters and interviews in crude historical theses, in paternalistic language and racist thoughts. He even announces that if in doubt he will “fight” for Mississippi and that he is willing to shoot black people to do so.

Writing against the lynching

In contrast to such statements is a novel like “Dust Grip”, published in 1948, which tells the story of a false suspicion: Lucas Beauchamp, an African-American plantation owner, is said to have murdered a white forest worker. A white mob then formed who wanted to lynch Beauchamp, i.e. hang him or burn him. Lynchings were common practice in rural areas of the United States well into the 1950s. Victims are mostly African American. According to estimates, a total of 4800 since the end of the American Civil War, 800 of them in Mississippi alone.

Finally, in the novel, a young white man whom Beauchamp once rescued from a creek proves his innocence. With an African American friend, he digs up the coffin of the forest worker. But the coffin is empty. The brother of the forest worker is finally arrested as the murderer.

Hollywood has made his writing more pictorial

At this time, Faulkner was already familiar with the film business: In 1931, William Falkner worked in Hollywood for the first time. As a screenwriter, like many writers of his time. The film industry promised good and, above all, fast and secure money – in contrast to months, sometimes years of lonely work on the next book, without the certainty of whether it will succeed or be a success. He worked on 20 films, seven of his own works were filmed during his lifetime.

In addition, he is also involved in the classics of film history – such as the cloak-and-dagger-schmonzette “The Love Adventures of Don Juan” or the monumental film “Land of the Pharaohs” – whose stories are far removed from the small world of his books, even if Faulkner negotiated major and, above all, universal issues there.

Nevertheless, his Hollywood experience has also shaped Faulkner’s literary and artistic work, says Jay Watson: “Literary scholars have worked out in studies that the visual dimension of his novels changed after Faulkner was in Hollywood for the first time. After that, he developed his stories more from images and less from sounds, as he did in the beginning when he was even more involved in the oral tradition of the South.”

Time for a Faulkner renaissance

Faulkner’s last novel came out in 1961: “The Reivers” takes place in Memphis, in the milieu of prostitutes and gamblers. The following year he suffered a serious riding accident, he had trained for weeks for a hunt. “He drank day and night to endure the pain in the weeks that followed,” says Bill Griffith. “Three weeks later, on July 6, 1962, he was not feeling well. He was admitted to a hospital. The next day he had a heart attack and died.”

William Faulkner was only 64 years old. His oeuvre spans 19 novels and has put the small town of Oxford, Mississippi on the literary map of the world. His early death can also be attributed to his lifestyle, says Griffith: “Faulkner smoked, drank and ate fried foods every day. You didn’t get older than 64 at the time. William Faulkner wasn’t alive for a long time, but it was a good one.”

While William Faulkner had a major influence on German post-war literature, on Heinrich Böll, Siegfried Lenz and Uwe Johnson, his novels are rarely read today, and not just in this country. Jay Watson thinks it’s time for a renaissance – right now, especially today: “Faulkner brings us closer to the dilemma of people who are confronted with dynamic transformation processes and abrupt changes. And that’s something that shapes our world today even more than the world he wrote about.”

What is William Faulkner best known for?

William Faulkner wrote numerous novels, screenplays, poems, and short stories. Today he is best remembered for his novels The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Sanctuary (1931), and Absalom, Absalom!

What did William Faulkner win the Nobel Prize for?

The 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the American author William Faulkner (1897–1962) “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.” “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.” The prize was awarded in 1950.

What does William Faulkner write about?

Faulkner became known for his faithful and accurate dictation of Southern speech. He also boldly illuminated social issues that many American writers left in the dark, including slavery, the “good old boys” club and Southern aristocracy.

What was William Faulkner’s writing style?

Stylistically, Faulkner is best known for his complex sentence structure. Generally, the more complex the sentence structure, the more psychologically complex a character’s thoughts.

What is William Faulkner most famous book?

• The Sound and the Fury 1929
• As I Lay Dying 1930
• A Rose for Emily 1930
• Light in August 1932
• Absalom, Absalom! 1936
• Barn Burning 1939

What is the best William Faulkner book to read first?

As I Lay Dying affords the reader, especially a first-time reader of Faulkner, more breathing space than a lot of Faulkner’s works do, and that is why I feel it is a perfect place to start with him.

What do I need to know before reading Faulkner?

• Be patient. Think of a Faulkner text as a suspense or mystery story — but with you the reader, instead of a character, as the detective.
• Be willing to re-read.
• Focus on the characters.
• Identify the historical context of the work.
• Look for the timeless tales.

Why should I read The Sound and the Fury?

With multiple narrators, narration styles, and dates, this story is bound to make your head spin at times (which might sound awful, but it’s actually really thought-provoking and fascinating and fun).

What should I read if I like Faulkner?

• Sherman Alexie.
• Sylvia Plath.
• Kate Chopin.
• James Joyce.
• Alice Walker.
• Emily Dickinson.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• James Baldwin.

What are the first two books written by William Faulkner?

He then held various jobs in New York and Mississippi until 1924. Faulkner’s first published novel, Soldier’s Pay (1926), drew on his experiences in World War I (1914–1918), while Mosquitoes (1927) examined literary life in New Orleans (in 1925, Faulkner lived there with the writer Sherwood Anderson).

Above all, the English writer, linguist and literary scholar wrote epic works about a fantasy world that he equipped with Norse and Celtic mythologies. From 1920 to 1925 he was a lecturer in English at Leeds; from 1925 to 1959 professor of Germanic philology at Oxford. His most famous work is the novel trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” (German: The Lord of the Rings, 1954/1955). John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, who was highly controversial in literary criticism, thus advanced to become a cult author in hippie culture. The fantastic-monmental story about “hobbits”, “orcs”, “elves” and dwarves in a fairytale world called “middle-earth” gave plenty of impetus to fantasy literature. The central theme of his works is the struggle of good against evil…

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to Arthur Tolkien and his wife Mable.

Tolkien moved to England with his mother and younger brother Hilary in 1896 because the brother did not like the climate there. His father died in South Africa of rheumatic fever. The family moved to Searhole, the father’s hometown. The environment there later inspired Tolkien to describe landscapes in his books. In 1904 the mother died. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his brother were raised by a priest in Birmingham. Tolkien went to King Edwards School there. Already at this time the boy was particularly interested in ancient languages. After school, a scholarship enabled him to study Old Welsh, Finnish, English and Literature at Exeter College.

In 1915 he finished his studies. The following year he married Edith Bratt, whom he had known since childhood. In 1916 he experienced the First World War in France as a soldier. He fell ill with trench fever and was released from military service. In 1920 he accepted a professorship at the University of Leeds. There he taught as a lecturer in Old English languages. In 1925 he became a professor at Oxford University, where he taught and researched until his retirement in 1959. J.R.R. Tolkien earned a reputation as an internationally recognized luminary in his field. He invented the first fantasy stories as bedtime stories for his son Christopher. He soon wrote them down. In this way Tolkien created his two most important works entitled “The Hobbit” (1937) and “The Lord of the Rings” (1954/1955).

Tolkien’s fantastic fairy tales, novels and short stories revolve around the imaginary world of Middle-earth. The novel trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” is the continuation of the title “The Hobbit”. The trilogy consists of the following parts: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King : “The return of the King”. “The Lord of the Rings” is about the battle between good and evil powers. In a fantastic mythological plot, the exciting fairy tale is told about a ring that gives the wearer absolute power. In order to fully understand the story, the previous work “The Hobbit” must be known. Tolkien moved to Bournemourth with his wife. After her death in 1971, Tolkien returned to Oxford.

Tolkien’s last work, the story The Silmarillion, was published by his son in 1977. This tale is about the mythological beginnings of Middle-earth and the development of its peoples. The reader learns a lot of background information about the novel “The Lord of the Rings”. The volume entitled “Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middleearth” was only edited by Tolkien’s son after his death and published in 1980. The work contains some stories, but they are not related to each other. To J.R.R. Tolkien’s complete works also include technical papers and various essays. Tolkien was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 1972, making him Commander of the British Empire.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien died in Bournemouth on September 2, 1973.

What did J.R.R. Tolkien?

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE, was a British writer and philologist. His novel The Lord of the Rings is one of the most successful books of the 20th century and is considered a seminal work of modern fantasy literature.

What does J.R.R. Tolkien?

J.R.R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892. He is considered one of the most respected philologists in the world, but he is best known for being the creator of Middle-earth and the author of the legendary The Lord of the Rings. His books have been translated into more than 80 languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide.

Why did J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings?

Thus, in the late 1930s, Tolkien began writing the story of the Great War of the Ring, in which Frodo, Bilbo’s nephew, along with his friends Merry, Pippin and Sam, made the perilous journey to Mount Doom to destroy the Ring of Power forever and so that ward off evil from Middle-earth.

What were the interests of J.R.R. Tolkien?

He delves into the study of Middle English literature and devotes himself in particular to “Beowulf”, which is considered the oldest non-ecclesiastical work in the English language. Meanwhile, Tolkien has also made a name for himself as a linguist and philologist.

Who owns the rights to Lord of the Rings?

Middle-earth Enterprises, originally formed as Tolkien Enterprises, owns and markets the worldwide rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s works The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Based in Berkeley, California.

How many books are there by Tolkien?

Over 50 more or less completed books, stories, essays and poems have now been published – and new ones are still being added.

The Italian writer and media scientist Umberto Eco was born 90 years ago. He led a successful life that didn’t just consist of books.

There is a nice story about the Italian writer Umberto Eco. When a journalist once visited him in his private library, he asked him: “And these books have you read all?”. Eco is reported to have replied, “No, those are the books I’m reading right now.” Then Eco led his guest into another library room and said, “And these are the books I’ve already read.” Reading was an elixir of life for Umberto Eco. It not only provided him with education, but also with humor. His probably most famous novel “The Name of the Rose” shows both.

Umberto Eco: An Italian all-rounder

“Luckily, I have a split personality,” is how Umberto Eco once described himself, explaining how he was able to be so extraordinarily productive in just one lifetime. When he presented his debut novel “The Name of the Rose” in 1980 at the age of 52, he had long been recognized worldwide as a philosopher and media scientist. Books like “The Open Work of Art” and the “Introduction to Semiotics” made him the “Lord of Signs” in the 1960s. In between, he works for television for a few years and tries to set up a cultural program. Then he is a non-fiction editor until he is appointed to the University of Bologna, which he is still a professor emeritus until his death in 2016.

The publisher and long-time companion Inge Feltrinelli once visited him there: “It’s wonderful to see him with his students in Bologna. He invited me to a conference on book publishing,” reports Feltrinelli. “And he sat down in the front row. And he’s really happy there. You can tell he’s just a great teacher. And he’s actually the way he’s always been. A little fatter, drinks a little less, but basically it is he’s the same Umberto Eco I’ve known for 40 years.”

“The Name of the Rose” remains Eco’s biggest hit

“It was a clear late autumn morning towards the end of November. During the night it had snowed a little, and so a fresh white veil, scarcely more than two fingers high, covered the ground”: Thus begins the first chapter of “The Name of the Rose ” in the German translation. The book has sold millions of copies worldwide in numerous translations and was ultimately made into a successful film. The scientist Eco becomes a best-selling author.

He has six more novels to follow – such as “The Foucault Pendulum” and “The Cemetery in Prague”, but none can build on the success of the debut. Umberto Eco said: “If I had to save a single novel that I have written, I would save Foucault’s Pendulum and not The Name of the Rose”. One should not succeed with the first novel, but with the last one If you succeed with the first novel, then you’re doomed.”

A mixture of pop star, professor and Goethe

Eco also mastered the art of exaggeration, because he was certainly not lost. His political commitment against Silvio Berlusconi’s policies was evident in numerous newspaper articles and interviews. For all his joie de vivre and humor, he was also a skeptical realist: “We live in a society in which everything flows, in which the idea of ​​the state, the idea of ​​parties, is dissolving. There is no longer any orientation. People don’t know what with they should identify themselves. We are Selfie. We only identify with ourselves anymore,” said Eco.

At a reading in Hamburg, the cultural scientist Lucia Braun once introduced him like this, without being able to guess what Umberto Eco would add at the end: “On the one hand, he is Italy’s moral conscience, the intellectual who gets involved. He is the polymath, the professor, the scientist, the researcher. He is the best-selling author who, so to speak, brought together the masses and the elite, the people and the writers. And he is the entertainer and as popular as a pop star. If you wanted to transfer it to German conditions, you could say: He’s a mixture of Günter Grass, Friedrich Kittler, Johannes Mario Simmel and Harald Schmidt. He’s all in one person.” Eco added: “And Goethe.”

What was Umberto Eco known for?

Umberto Eco, (born January 5, 1932, Alessandria, Italy—died February 19, 2016, Milan), Italian literary critic, novelist, and semiotician (student of signs and symbols) best known for his novel Il nome della rosa (1980; The Name of the Rose).

Is Umberto Eco religious?

Born in Alssandria in 1932, Eco was educated by the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic order that stretches back to the 19th century. Eco later abandoned his religion; a header on his website reads, “When men stop believing in God, it isn’t that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.”

How old is Umberto Eco?

84 years

When did Umberto Eco start writing?

Eco began his career as a scholar of medieval studies and semiotics. Then, in 1980, at the age of forty-eight, he published a novel, The Name of the Rose. It became an international publishing sensation, selling more than ten million copies. The professor metamorphosed into a literary star.

Gabriel García Márquez (1927 – 2014) gave the acceptance speech for his 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature in reference to his bestseller “The Loneliness of Latin America”. With the title “100 years of loneliness” he had become world famous overnight 15 years earlier.

It described the trauma of the subcontinent in being either patronized or ignored by the so-called first world. Above all, however, it brought the literary work of the writer, who was born in 1927 in Aracataca, in the hinterland of the Colombian Caribbean coast and died in Mexico City in 2014, to a common denominator: the loneliness of Latin America and its inhabitants.

In 15 novels, six collections of stories, three reports, a short story, an autobiography and one screenplay and one play each, Gabriel García Márquez has given the subcontinent a voice and at the same time shaped our image of South America.

Like no other writer before him, he was also a pop star and world conscience. He was friends with the powerful of his time, with Bill Clinton, François Mitterand, Felipe González and above all with Fidel Castro, whose revolution he remained loyal to the end. And at the same time remained deeply rooted in his Caribbean homeland.

El Caribe: a search for clues

Gabriel García Márquez: “Antonio Pigafetto, a Florentine navigator who accompanied Magellan on his first voyage around the world, wrote an accurate chronicle of his journey through our southern America, which nevertheless resembles an adventure of the imagination. He said he had seen a pig with its navel on its back and some birds without feet, the females nesting on the males’ shoulders, and other birds like tongueless pelicans with beaks like spoons. He said he saw a freak animal with the head and ears of a mule, the body of a camel, deer hooves and the whinnying of a horse.”

Clothing contrary to etiquette

Stockholm 1982: A small man stands on the podium. He has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now he is giving a speech in which he takes the invited guests to another world, to the history of Latin America. It’s the world he comes from. Gabriel García Márquez, 55 years old at the time, is a Colombian, born and raised on the Caribbean coast of the Andes country. His origins are also reflected in his clothes: instead of tails and bow ties, as etiquette demands for the occasion, he wears white trousers and a guayabera, a white linen shirt that replaces a suit in business life in the Caribbean and a suit at celebrations festive attire. From time to time the camera pans to the Swedish royal couple. King Carl Gustav sits upright, hands pressed to the armrests of the chair. One seems to detect a hint of disapproval in his expression.

In December 1982, Gabriel García Márquez is at the peak of his life. He is considered the voice of South America, not the only one of course, but the one that people listen to. His personal and political friends include those in power: Cuba’s head of state Fidel Castro, French President François Mitterand, the socialist Felipe González, who had been sworn in as Spanish prime minister a few days earlier.
Gabriel García Márquez: “He said they held up a mirror to the first native they met in Patagonia. And this excited giant, frightened by his own likeness, lost his mind. This short and engaging book, which already contains the germs of our present-day novels, is by no means the most astonishing testimony of our reality at that time. The chroniclers of Spanish America have left us innumerable other testimonies.”
Gabriel García Márquez tells of Eldorado, the mythical land of gold that the Spanish conquerors hoped to find in the highlands of Colombia. By Álvaro Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, whose real name was Cow’s Head. And combed the north of Mexico in search of eternal youth with an army of 600 men who, mad with hunger, tore each other apart and only five of whom lived to see the end of the campaign. Of those 11,000 mules, each loaded with 100 kilograms, half with gold, the other half with silver, with which the Incas wanted to buy their king Atahualpa out of Spanish captivity and which are still considered lost today.

The loneliness of Latin America as a theme

He tells of tyrants and inequality, of death and ruin, suffering and indifference. The speech is entitled “La soldedad de América Latina”, the loneliness of Latin America. This refers to 100 Years of Solitude, the novel that brought world fame to Gabriel García Márquez in 1967. And at the same time brings the literary work of the writer to a common denominator: The loneliness of Latin America and its inhabitants – that was his theme, in 15 novels, six collections of stories, three reports, a short story, an autobiography and one screenplay and one play – viewed from a Caribbean perspective -Colombian point of view.

As chairman of the Fundación Nuevo Periodismo, Gabriel García Márquez was Jaime Abello’s employer until his death on April 17, 2014. He established the foundation in 1994 to promote independent and critical journalism in Latin America. That was and is necessary on the subcontinent because publishing houses are often in the hands of rich families and are intertwined with TV stations and political interests. The foundation awards a prize. Its award ceremony, every autumn, is one of three major cultural events in Cartagena, alongside a literary and film festival – they also go back to Gabriel García Márquez.

What was Gabriel García Márquez known for?

What was Gabriel García Márquez best known for? Gabriel García Márquez was one of the best-known Latin American writers in history. He won a Nobel Prize for Literature, mostly for his masterpiece of magic realism, Cien años de soledad (1967; One Hundred Years of Solitude).

What did Gabriel García Márquez win a Nobel Prize for?

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1982. With this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature to the Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez, the Swedish Academy cannot be said to bring forward an unknown writer. García Márquez achieved unusual international success as a writer with his novel in 1967 (One Hundred Years of Solitude).

What makes Gabriel García Márquez unique?

Affectionately known as Gabo, Marquez is also known as “the greatest Colombian who ever lived”. He was a novelist, poet, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. In 1982 Gabo became the first Colombian and only the fourth Latin American author to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

Who is the father of magical realism?

The term magical realism was introduced by Franz Roh, a German art critic in 1925.

What is meant by magical realism?

Magic realism, chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction.

What is Gabriel García Márquez magical realism?

It’s often said that the works of Colombian novelist and short-story writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez are quintessential examples of “magic realism”: fiction that integrates elements of fantasy into otherwise realistic settings.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Taganrog (Russia) in 1860. His grandfather had been a serf, his father a small merchant who went bankrupt. The family had to sell their house in southern Russia and moved to Moscow. Anton stayed as a servant in the house that had belonged to his family. Thanks to a scholarship, he began studying medicine in Moscow three years later. He wrote short stories for gazettes under a pseudonym. Even as a practicing doctor, he continued to write, with increasing success. Chekhov fell ill with tuberculosis and from 1898 spent his life in spa towns in southern Russia and western Europe. He died in Badenweiler in 1904. His stories and dramas (including ‘Three Sisters’, ‘The Cherry Orchard’, ‘Uncle Vanya’) – performed on all stages today – represented a significant new beginning for Russian theatre.

He died of tuberculosis at the age of 44 while taking a cure in Badenweiler, southern Germany. Chekhov’s body was transported back to Russia in an ordinary freight car. It was inscribed “For oysters”.

How did Chekhov die?

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease spread worldwide by bacteria. The disease, also known as consumption in the past, is caused by various mycobacteria. In humans, pulmonary tuberculosis is the most common form.

How old was Anton Chekhov?

44 years

Where was Chekhov born?

Taganrog is a port city in southern Russia on the coast of the Sea of Azov at the mouth of the Don with 257,681 inhabitants. It is located in the Rostov Oblast and is the second largest city in this region after Rostov-on-Don.

Where did Chekhov die?

Badenweiler is a municipality and a state-approved spa in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district in Baden-Württemberg. The community is around 30 kilometers south of Freiburg in Markgräflerland.

Who wrote the cherry orchard?

Anton Chekhov

When did Chekhov live?

Badenweiler is a municipality and a state-approved spa in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district in Baden-Württemberg. The community is around 30 kilometers south of Freiburg in Markgräflerland.

What is Anton Chekhov known for?

Although Chekhov is chiefly known for his plays, his stories—and particularly those that were written after 1888—represent, according to some critics, an even more significant and creative literary achievement.

Why did Anton Chekhov write short stories?

Anton Chekhov began his career writing humorous pieces for popular magazines to support himself while he studied to become a doctor. He began to take his art more seriously after the respect he gained encouraged him to begin writing fiction.

What did Anton Chekhov influence?

James Joyce, William Faulkner, Raymond Carver and Katherine Mansfield are only a few of the writers influenced by his work. Furthermore, in letters and elsewhere, Chekhov also wrote a great deal about the craft and technique of writing itself.

What did Chekhov believe?

Born into the first generation of a family of freed serfs, Chekhov felt that inner freedom was more important than political or social freedom. Malaev-Babel said that Chekhov’s struggle to attain this freedom was painful work: “Chekhov wrote that he was always ‘trying to squeeze out the slave in me. ‘”

Did Chekhov believe in God?

Most resources classify Anton Chekhov’s religion as an atheist, meaning that he did not believe in God or a divine force from any world religion. However, his atheism began during his adult life in rejection of his early years and religious upbringing.

Was Chekov an alcoholic?

He was unable to finish his studies due to chronic alcoholism and the periods of time, often weeks, which he would spend living in the Moscow streets. Nikolai was a talented artist, and he often illustrated Anton’s stories.

What is Anton Chekhov writing style?

Indeed, his economical use of language and ambivalent style—Chekhov weaves humor with pathos to magnify the inconsequential details of people’s lives—helped redefine the short story genre. He also developed a technique of ending stories with what have been termed “zero endings”—or anti-climactic conclusions.

Why is Franz Kafka so famous?

KAFKA was an Austrian writer who mainly wrote stories and a few novels and is considered one of the most important German-speaking representatives of these literary genres. He is also regarded as one of the most important exponents of early fantastic literature and classical modernism.

What is typical of Franz Kafka?

Her style is described as “Kafkaesk”, a bit surrealistic, expressionistic, ironic. But you can also find a mixture of pure fantasy, philosophy, psychology, religion, education and your own biography. A regularly recurring motif in Kafka is that of alienation.

What kind of person was Kafka?

Franz Kafka was a very serious, sometimes depressed person, which was also reflected in his stories. The stories are often about relationships that are difficult to understand and develop in absurd ways.

What motif shaped Kafka’s texts?

The conflictual relationship with his father is one of the central and formative motifs in Kafka’s work.

What does Kafka want to express to us with the metamorphosis?

Kafka’s story The Metamorphosis reflects the moral state of society in the fate of an individual: through Gregor Samsa’s transformation into an ugly beetle, Kafka conveys to the reader the self-image of a young man who, through the will of his family, is reduced to the function of serving and helping.

What’s so great about Kafka?

Nightmarish scenarios characterize Kafka’s work. He describes them with the same cool detachment of a bureaucrat that often animates his characters. It is precisely this style, the reserved versus the outrageous, that makes Kafka’s stories unfathomable in a unique way.

Is Franz Kafka an Expressionist?

Kafka was not a typical representative of this style. Although his starting point was Expressionism and his early works are often associated with this term, he also created something of his own.

Why Kafka in school?

“With Kafka, the students should learn to read very precisely, because that’s the only way to understand the texts,” explains Beste. At first glance, the stories often seemed simple.

What influenced Kafka?

• Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Edgar Alan Poe
• Thomas Mann
• Charles Dickens
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Why is Kafka called Kafka?

Apache Kafka, originally developed by LinkedIn, became the Apache Incubator in 2011 and has been developed and maintained by the Apache Software Foundation since 2012. The framework was named after the author Franz Kafka.

In which epoch did Kafka write?

Kafka lived at the time of Expressionism. The society of the time was mainly shaped by the First World War.

What is typical of Expressionism?

Big city: anonymity, isolation, chaos, noise. Individual: fear of loss of identity (loss of ego), subjectivity. Renewal: breaking with old rules and values, rebelling against the old generation. Psyche: Expression of the inner, psychological processes, emotions.

Why did Franz Kafka speak German?

Since it was a great advantage in Prague business life to be able to communicate in both languages, it was important to the family for Franz to improve his knowledge of Czech while he was still at school. According to earwitnesses, Kafka spoke Czech with a slight German accent.

How was Kafka’s life?

Throughout his life, Kafka dealt with his relationship with his father in letters, diaries and prose texts. Hermann Kafka had worked his way up from a humble background. He was physically strong, hands-on and strong-willed, while choleric and self-righteous.

Did Kafka also write poetry?

It is all the more incomprehensible that one thing in Kafka’s works was not recognized and paid attention to for a long time: his poems or – to put it more accurately – lyrical attempts and fragments and his importance as a poet.

How does Kafka work?

An Apache Kafka streaming platform consists of a cluster of computers. Within the computer network, so-called brokers are responsible for storing messages with time stamps. Information is stored in topics divided into partitions.

What was Kafka’s father like?

Hermann Chaim Kafka was a German-speaking Austrian-Czech merchant and the father of Franz Kafka.

What is Franz Kafka known for?

He is famous for his novels The Trial, in which a man is charged with a crime that is never named, and The Metamorphosis, in which the protagonist wakes to find himself transformed into an insect.

What was Franz Kafka’s philosophy?

Kafka’s philosophical basis, then, is an open system: it is one of human experiences about the world and not so much the particular Weltanschauung of a thinker. Kafka’s protagonists confront a secularized deity whose only visible aspects are mysterious and anonymous.

What are 4 Interesting facts about Franz Kafka?

• Kafka’s Language Force The Reader To Contemplate Big Questions.
• He Surrounded Himself With Like-Minded People.
• He Refused To Let His Job Get In The Way Of His Writing.
• His Famous Study for The Metamorphosis.
• Franz Kafka Always Had A Passion For Literature.

What is Franz Kafka most famous work?

His best known works include “Die Verwandlung” (“The Metamorphosis”), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle). The term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those in his writing.

Is Kafka a must read?

Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the major authors of 20th-century literature. Here are some of his best books and short stories that are a must-read. German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka is widely regarded as one of the major authors of 20th-century literature.

The Islamic mystic Rumi (1207-1273) is one of the most important Persian poets of the Middle Ages. He was a famous scholar of his time and embraced Sufism in Islam. He is considered the founder of the order of the Whirling Dervishes.

“If they on the day of death
sink me deep into the earth,
that my heart is still on earth
wait, you mustn’t think…
Do you see my stretcher pulling?
don’t let the word separation be heard
because that’s what I’ve always longed for
Meeting and finding belong!
Don’t lament ‘Farewell, oh farewell!’
if I am led into the grave:
It is a happy arrival for me
prepared behind the curtain.”

At the beginning of December 1273 there were several earthquakes in Konya in eastern Turkey. The residents of the Anatolian city found no rest during the day or at night. One of them, however, who was on his deathbed was the poet and mystic Maulana Jelaleddin Rumi. Nevertheless, he comforted the residents of Konya and said about his own fate:
“The earth is hungry.
Soon she’ll get a fat chunk and she’ll rest.”
A few days later, on December 17, 1273, Rumi left the world. The mystic, who all his life had seen traces of divine activity in everything and everywhere, was freed from the cage of the earthly body – to become the breath of God.

“Behold, I died as a stone and came up as a plant,
died as a plant and then took the course as an animal.
Died an animal and became a human. Then what am I afraid of
because by dying I can never become less!
And when I die again as a human being,
an angel’s wing will be acquired for me.
And as an angel I must be sacrificed too,
become what I do not understand: a breath of God!”

“I was twenty-five when I first encountered Rumi while studying at Oxford University. First of all, it was the exquisitely beautiful language that won me over to him. Then, when I turned to mysticism, his verses resonated in my heart. Eventually they became the center of my life.”
So Andrew Harvey, the historian of religions at Oxford University and translator Rumis.
“Of course, every translation is associated with certain disappointments. But at least the English is expressive enough to duly capture Rumi’s imagery. And I hope I was able to preserve some of that beauty and a shade of the great light from the original.”
The verses, didactic poems and prose writings of the philosopher Maulana Jelaleddin Rumi, who was born in 1207, are still of great importance today. Rumi’s main work, the mystical long poem Mathnawi, is considered the “Koran in Persian tongue”. Poets and thinkers of Islam have repeatedly drawn on Rumi’s literature to emphasize their points of view, to illuminate religious differences, or simply to use his inspiring verses to adequately portray modern themes. And: Rumi’s verses and anecdotes have found their way into the folk literature and music of Turkey, India and Iran.
In the West, Rumi’s message has become synonymous with mystical enthusiasm and Sufi union with the beloved, with God.

“Do you think I know what I’m doing?
That I belong to myself for a breath or half?
No more than a pen knows what it writes
or the ball can guess where it is going.
“In my eyes, Rumi is particularly important because he presents Islam in his very own way. He refers to this belief as a jewel. If interpreted correctly, Rumi says, Islam is paving the way through the madness that the fundamentalists have brought to the world. Rumi has looked into the heart of Islam!”
In 1230, Konya, located in Central Anatolia, was considered the center of Islamic religiosity and culture. In this era, the then twenty-seven-year-old Maulana Gelaleddin Rumi, after studying theology, took over the chair from his father, Baha’uddin Walad, at the University of Konya. The father was a respected theologian in the tradition of the great scholar Ahmad Ghazali.
Another disciple of his father then introduced Rumi to Sufism. As for other Muslims, the revelations of the Koran and the duties and laws associated with them are of great importance to Sufis. However, the Sufis strive for an emotionally lived spirituality that is cleansed of all superstition, but also of dogmatism, fanaticism and egoism. They seek the direct experience of God, which is often referred to as union with the beloved.

“And think so earnestly of God
until you completely forget yourself
that you rise in what is called
where caller and call is no more.”
This self-forgetfulness described by Rumi, oneness with God, can be achieved in different ways. Rhythmic dancing and singing, devotional exercises in which the names of God are intoned, a life of complete asceticism and painful penances are just part of the repertoire that some Sufis adopt. It can also include practices that other Muslims regard as strictly forbidden, such as indulgence in sensual pleasures or the use of drugs. A few years after his initiation into Sufism, Rumi added another variant: the mystical union with his teacher Shams-i Tabrisi.
“When Rumi first met his great teacher Schams, he was in his late thirties. Schams was about twenty-five years older. The two soon found themselves in an intense mystical love affair. But it all lasted just three years. Because shame disappeared. He may have been murdered.”
The intimate relationship between Rumi and the dervish Shams-i Tabrisi was an open secret in Konya. The last doubts about the nature of this relationship were dispelled in the eyes of many observers by Rumi’s verses. In some poems, the mystic described being together with his friend in such a way that the imagination had little scope.
But whether Rumi and Schams were only united in their love for God or whether their togetherness also contained erotic elements never came to light. And since Rumi was a respectable, if not revered, citizen of the city, the relationship between the two seekers of God, while always a source of talk, was discussed behind closed doors.
After two years of being with his beloved disciple, Shams-i Tabrisi left the city. It was said that the envy and jealousy of his friendship with Rumi had become too great. After a while the dervish returned to Konya again for a short time. But then he suddenly disappeared forever. Now there were rumors that Shams-i Tabrisi had been murdered. But the true circumstances surrounding his disappearance have never been clarified. Rumi withdrew from the public eye. One of his sons described to his father’s friends how things were with the mystic at the time.
“After the breakup, he acted like a madman. He has become a poet lost in love. He was a pious, now he’s a drunk pub owner. But he is not drunk with the wine of the grapes. He who belongs to the Light of God drinks nothing but the wine of the Divine Light.”
“For three years, Rumi was beside himself with pain. But then one day he realized that through the extremely intimate connection he had become one with Schams. The separation was now over. In this state of wondrous, incomprehensible realization he wrote some of his greatest works – the mystical masterpieces through which we know him today.”
And did not forget Rumi what had comforted him in the darkest period of his life – the music. On his way back to life, the sound of the lute, harp and flute had given him renewed confidence. Because it was the singing and the passionate tones of the instruments that had brought his beloved back to his inner eye.

“I saw the friend; he walked in circles around the house,
on his lute he struck a melody.
With a fiery beat, a sweet song
he played, intoxicated by the wine of the night, burning through.”
But Rumi had not only found a way to be very close to his distant friend again, he had also returned to the paradise of his longing: to a direct encounter with God. While recovering at that time, Rumi had devised the divine round dance that one of his sons would later promote to the central activity of the world-famous Mevlevi order. During the whirling dance of the Mevlevis, the dervishes with their black cloaks also shed their dark earthly life in order to be absorbed in divine love and to awaken to higher life.
“After one of Rumi’s sons founded the Mevlevi order at the time, this Sufi brotherhood, based on Rumi’s teachings, spread rapidly throughout the Islamic world to the West. This also made his poetry very popular in the western world. And today Rumi is a major poet in East and West.”
In 1925, Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish state, decreed the end of the activities of the Mevlevi Order with the closure of the dervish convents. But the Sufi brotherhood has long been active again. The ideals of the religious community consist, among other things, of striving for absolute trust in God and of the maxim of seeing one’s neighbor as a reflection of God and treating them accordingly, even across the borders of the individual religions. The ultimate goal of the Mevlevis is to become empty of everything that does not correspond to God, so that the breath of God can flow through man and make his soul vibrate.
“Fortunately, the Mevlevi Order has been very active again for a long time. Here the teachings and practices of Rumi are preserved, as well as the ecstatic dance he created. The whole thing is an unbelievable achievement!”
Via the Mevlevi Brotherhood, the cultural centers of the same name, Rumi congresses, music projects that set his verses to music and the numerous translations of his works into many languages ​​- the Sufi master, who died more than eight hundred years ago, is as present today as ever.
“Like the wind in this world
he blows and lifts the edge of the carpet
and the mats become restless and move.
He twirls trash and straws in the air
makes the water of the pond look like chainmail
and twigs and trees and leaves dance and put out the lamps.
He flares up the half-burnt wood and stokes the fire.
All of these states appear different and different;
but from the point of view of the object and the root and the reality they are only one, for the movement comes from a wind.”
“One thing that shows how unusual Rumi really was is that he wrote eighty-two poems about Jesus. Although he was a Muslim, he felt very close to him and the pain inherent in his birth. He felt that he lived through and suffered through essentially the same experiences as Jesus.”

“It is pain that guides man in every endeavor.
As long as there is no pain for anything in him and no passion
and no longing for the thing arises in him,
he will never strive to attain this thing.
Without pain this matter remains unattainable for him,
be it success in this world or salvation in the next.
As long as the labor doesn’t start
Mary did not go to the trunk of the palm tree.
This pain brought her to the tree and the withered tree bore fruit.
The body is like Mary. Each of us has a Jesus within us.
When we feel pain, our Jesus is born.
If no contractions come
then Jesus goes back to his origin by the same secret path,
on which he had come
and leaves us empty and without part in him.”
Despite his affinity for Jesus and a remarkably tolerant attitude towards other religions, Rumi drew his image of God solely from the Koran. Accordingly, for Rumi, Allah was the Creator, Sustainer and Judge of the world. For Rumi he is the god of all people and all religions.
The Koran was key to Rumi’s worldview, even if, as he said, this holy book of Islam is like a bride who hides if you want to unveil her too quickly.
“What shall I do, O Muslims? Because I don’t know myself:
I am neither Christian nor Jew, neither Pars’ nor Muslim:
Not from the east, not from the west, not from the land, not from the sea,
I am not from the bosom of the earth and not from the light of heaven.
Not of dust, not of water, not of fire, not of wind,
not from the throne, not from the gutter, and also not from being and becoming.
Not from this world, not from the hereafter, not from Eden, not from hell
not of Adam, not of Eve, nor of angels do I come.
My space is spaceless, my sign is signlessness,
is neither body nor soul, I am only a part of His light.
I have rejected duality, I saw one in both worlds
I’m looking for one, I’ll call one, I know one, I’ll name one.
If in my life just a breath goes by without you,
From this day and this hour, I am ashamed of this life.”
“Rumi points the way to the next stage in human evolution. Whatever our beliefs, it encourages us to walk the path of love and eventually enter the next dimension.”
At times, however, the mystic fell silent. For his friends and followers, this was not necessarily a bad sign, but rather an indication that Rumi was following the aphorism said to have come from the Prophet Mohammed. “Whoever knows God becomes dumb”. But under ever new inspirations the wall of silence broke again and another statement, which is also attributed to the prophet, gained the upper hand: “He who knows God talks a lot”.
Like many other mystics, Rumi oscillated between these two poles throughout his life. Statements on the relationship between the words and their reality, their inner meaning, can be found in many of his works. Here is how he illustrated the flimsy and hypocritical use of words in an anecdote:
“A greengrocer was in love with a woman and he sent a message to this lady through her maid. She should tell her: ‘I’m so and so, I love, I’m on fire, I can’t find peace, I felt like this yesterday; This and that happened to me last night…’ and he told long detailed stories each time.
When the servant then brought the message to her mistress, she said: ‘The greengrocer sends his regards and says: ‘Come’, so that I can do this and that with you!’
‘Did he say that so coldly?’ the mistress asked back.
‘No, he talked for a very long time,’ answered the servant, ‘but the point was just that.'”

The odes of Rumi represent a great didactic poem, which in the eyes of the mystic pursued only one goal – to bring the light of knowledge and the all-encompassing love of God closer to people.
“I love everything that Rumi has produced. The odes too, of course! They remind me of Beethoven’s Ninth. The odes come like a deluge. They’re just great.”
“Where there is love, there is no I. For the beloved, everything is just you.
The way to God is the loss of self.
Rejoice, my God, in your lover!
Hallowed be her death! A feast be your beauty for them!
In your embers may their souls burn like incense.”
When Maulana Gelaleddin Rumi died on December 17, 1273, Jews, Christians, Sufists and other Muslims wept together for him. The residents of Konya accompanied Rumi to his tomb, which has remained an important place of pilgrimage to this day.
The inscription on Rumi’s final resting place contains his universal appeal – an invitation to all who want to focus their whole being on God.
“Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderers, idolaters.
You who love goodbyes.
It does not matter.
This is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your oath a thousand times.
Come, come, come again.”

What is love Rumi?

– “Love is the medicine of our pride and our complacency. Doctor of our many imperfections.” – “I want to sing like the birds sing without worrying who is listening or what they are thinking.” – “You have more love inside than you could ever understand.”

Where there is love there is no I Rumi?

“Where there is love, there is no I. For the beloved, everything is just you. The way to God is the loss of self. Rejoice, my God, in your lover!

Where did Rumi come from?

Balch is a city in Balch Province in northern Afghanistan. Balkh is an important pilgrimage site located about 20 kilometers from Mazar-e Sharif, the largest city in northern Afghanistan. The population was calculated in 2012 with 87,000. Since then the city has grown enormously.

Was Rumi Afghan?

After all, Rumi’s birthplace is in Balkh, a province of present-day Afghanistan, and he is therefore primarily an Afghan poet! However, Rumi spent most of his life in present-day Turkey, he died in Konya.

What is Rumi known for?

Rūmī was a great Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Mas̄navī-yi Maʿnavī (“Spiritual Couplets”), which widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world.

Who is Rumi and what did he do?

The ecstatic poems of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master born 807 years ago in 1207, have sold millions of copies in recent years, making him the most popular poet in the US. Globally, his fans are legion.

What is Rumi philosophy?

Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path to reach God. It was from these ideas that the practice of whirling dervishes developed into a ritual form. In the Mevlevi tradition, worship “represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One.

What is Rumi’s most famous poem?

Still, many literary experts agree that Masnavi, a six-volume series referred to by many as “The Koran in Persian,” is Rumi’s most famous poem. The series is about 50,000 lines long and teaches Sufis how to find love in God.

What is Rumi’s famous quote?

“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.”

What Rumi says about love?

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

What does Rumi say about healing?

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” “God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.”

What Rumi says about beauty?

“Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.” “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” “Everything in the universe is a pitcher brimming with wisdom and beauty.” “The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.”

What does Rumi say about the heart?

Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths. Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart. I have come to drag you out of yourself and take you into my heart.

What Rumi says about happiness?

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” “Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.” “Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”

The Russian writer is one of the most important poets in Russia, who also achieved great importance in world literature. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin became the national poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. He achieved special merits in the lyrical and epic genres, which he brought to a climax in Russian literature. His style of expression and content significantly influenced subsequent generations of poets. The maxims of his writing style followed a concise expression with maximum content. Of great importance are Pushkin’s dramatic works, his literary-historical, critical and historical essays…

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born in Moscow on June 6, 1799 as a member of an old noble family.

On his mother’s side he was the great-grandson of Hannibal, the Moor of Emperor Peter the Great. Alexander Pushkin attended the Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo from 1811 to 1817. The first poem with which he went public dates back to 1814. The theme of his first works was dedicated to the love experience, which was also associated with the fear of rejection. In 1817 he joined the literary society “Arzamas” and then moved to the circle “Seljonaja lampa”. In the same year he entered the “College for Foreign Affairs” in the civil service. In addition to his love poetry, Pushkin also wrote his first political epigrams, which advocated a constitutional constitution in Russia.

The ode “Volnost” was written in this way as early as 1817. The poet was banned from Petersburg for his political views, which led to the officers’ uprising of 1825. In 1820 his work “Russia and Ludmilla” was published. Following his departure from St. Petersburg, he undertook numerous journeys that took him through the Caucasus and the Crimea, among other places. Important works such as “The Prisoner in the Caucasus” (1821) or “The Fountain of Bachèisaraj” (1822) were also created there. In their style as verse epics and their subject matter, these early works are still based on European Romanticism. After he was transferred to Odessa as a disciplinary measure, work began on his main work “Evgeny Onegin”. In its verse structure, the novel allows the distinction between prose and bound language to disappear.

In this way he draws an ironically colored contemporary and social document. In 1824 Pushkin had to leave the civil service. He stayed until 1826 on his mother’s estate in Michajlovskoe near Pskov. There he became familiar with the language of the common people, which then also became the characteristic of his literary style in the mixture with chancellery and church language. In doing so, Pushkin helped this stylistic aesthetic to world fame in the literary language. In the style of folk poetry, he wrote the tragedy “Boris Godunov” (1825) at the suggestion of Shakespeare. At the behest of Tsar Nicholas I, Pushkin returned to Petersburg after the failed Decembrist uprising of 1825. There he lived as a freelance writer. The connection to the Tsar’s court actually meant an intended censorship observation.

The subject of censorship also crops up again and again in his works. In 1831 he married Natalia Goncharova. In order to be able to feed his large family, he switched back to secure civil service. The couple moved to Petersburg in 1831, where, with the support of Goncharova’s wealthy relatives, they were able to participate in the glamorous life of the Tsarist court, which frustrated Pushkin, who yearned for independence. His works during this time were created under great psychological pressure. As a poet, he turned to narrative technique at this time. His prose works, such as the title “Belkin’s Tales” (1831), were primarily characterized by their vernacular character. In 1833 his work “The Copper Rider” was published, which was rejected by the Tsar’s court because of its originality and complexity.

In the same year, the historical short novel “The Captain’s Daughter” was written. Three years later, Pushkin founded the magazine “Sovremennik”. Pushkin’s literary motif, the duel, caught up with him in reality in a bitter way.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin died on February 10, 1837 at the age of thirty-eight as a result of a duel in St. Petersburg.

The circumstances leading to the occurrence of this deadly encounter have not been fully elucidated to this day and contribute to the myth of the Russian poet.

How did Pushkin die?

Lying on the ground – the gun had fallen out of his hand and had to be handed another one – the badly wounded Pushkin also fired a shot, but only slightly injured his opponent. He himself succumbed to his injuries two days later at the age of thirty-seven.

Where is Alexander Pushkin from?

Moscow, Russia

When did Pushkin die?

February 10, 1837

Was Alexander Pushkin black?

The unusual path of life impressed Alexander Puschkin, who believed he had inherited his dark skin and full, black hair, but also his unbridled temperament from this same Hannibal – years later he dedicated the story Peter the Great to him.

Which writer died in a duel?

Mikhail Lermontov was not only a gifted poet, but also a painter. Numerous watercolors and pencil drawings, often with motifs from the Caucasus landscapes, have survived alongside his poetic work. The representative of Russian romanticism died 175 years ago today – in a duel in the Caucasus.

Together with the poets DANTE and PETRARCA, GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO forms the triumvirate of early Italian Renaissance literature.

In his famous collection of novellas “Decamerone”, BOCCACCIO prepared the ground for the Renaissance image of man by giving his literary characters a new self-confidence as an independent personality that went far beyond the self-image of medieval people as part of the church. In particular, he drew his female figures as self-confident counterparts of men. The term “novella” as a literary genre name made its way into European literature from the “Decameron”.

BOCCACCIO was post-medieval in education, but in spirit, as reflected in his works, he was entirely a Renaissance man, turning to this world and the sensual pleasures of earthly life. As a scholar in particular, he exerted his influence against medieval scholasticism, for freer science and the study of antiquity.

Biography

BOCCACCIO’s life story was closely linked to Naples and his hometown of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant and a French aristocrat who died young. He was born in 1313, whether in Paris or Certaldo near Florence is not clear. He grew up in Florence, the city that is considered the cradle of the European Renaissance, and made his first attempts at poetry as a boy.

Following his father’s wishes, he began an apprenticeship with a respected merchant who sent him to Naples in 1327. However, BOCCACCIO did not feel called to be a businessman. After his master dismissed him, his father allowed him to study law in Naples in 1332. This study also left BOCCACCIO unsatisfied and he broke it off after six years. Rather, life at the Neapolitan court attracted him. In the friendly dealings with artists and scientists he found what suited him, in exchange with them he perfected his education. It is said that MARIA, a daughter of the King of Naples and wife of CONTE D’AQUINO, was his mistress and introduced him to courtly circles. He not only immortalized her as “Fiammetta” in the novel of the same name from 1342/43, all works from this period are a homage to her. However, this love ended in great disappointment for BOCCACCIO. Apparently he had put more seriousness and sincerity into the relationship than the woman he adored.

In 1340, at his father’s request, he returned to Florence and worked as a notary and judge. After 1344 he took part in campaigns that took him to various places in Italy, including Naples, where he still longed to go. However, he returned to Florence in 1350, where his father had fallen victim to the plague of 1348. From then on, BOCCACCIO devoted himself to the sciences, worked in the diplomatic services and in 1350 received, among other things, the commission to win the poet PETRARCA for a professorship in Florence. From this encounter and BOCCACCIO’s admiration for the older poet grew a lifelong friendship, with trips and visits together. In 1363 BOCCACCIO stayed with PETRARCA in Venice and in 1368 he was his guest in Padua.

BOCCACCIO was converted to a pious life in 1362 by a Carthusian monk from Siena. From then on he lived in seclusion on his country estate in Certaldo near Florence. Some embassies took him to LUDWIG VON BRANDENBURG in 1351, to the papal court in Avignon in 1365 and to Rome in 1367. In 1370/1371 he even entertained the plan to enter a monastery in Naples, but abandoned this idea and returned to his estate. BOCCACCIO had made a name for himself as DANTE’s biographer and commentator on the “Divine Comedy” when, towards the end of his life, he was appointed to the chair that the city of Florence had established in honor of their once expelled son DANTE ALIGHIERI. Marked by illness, BOCCACCIO soon had to give up lectures. He died in 1375 and was buried in the church of Certaldo.

Poetic creation

BOCCACCIO’s first poems were written around 1340 at the court of Naples under the influence of his love for MARIA D’AQUINO. In his prose novel “Filocolo” he told the love story of the couple Florio and Biancofiore. His verse poem “Filostrato” (1338, dt. “Troilus and Cressida”, 1884) deals with an episode from the Trojan War. Troilus, a son of the Trojan king Priam, loses his fickle mistress Cressida to a Greek general. By the way, SHAKESPEARE turned this ancient material into a drama around 1602.
The first Italian shepherd poems also come from BOCCACCIO’s pen. “Ameto” (1341–1342) is a poem in prose and verse showing how man is purified through virtuous conduct. The bucolic poem “Ninfale Fiesolano” (Eng. “The Nymph of Fiesole”, 1957) was written around 1345 and tells of the shepherd Affrico’s love for the nymph Mensola. The poem in 50 cantos “Amorosa visione” (1341-1342, “Love Visions”) was based on DANTE’s “Divine Comedy”.
BOCCACCIO’s strengths are clearly evident in his prose. In the novel “Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta” (1342-1343, dt. “Fiametta”, 1806, see PDF “Giovanni di Boccaccio – Fiammetta”) he expresses the pain after the separation from his beloved MARIA. He uses the trick of depicting the woman as abandoned by her lover and describing her lamentations in love. 1348-1353 BOCCACCIO wrote his most famous and influential work, the “Decameron” (German around 1473, see PDF “Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (translation by Klabund)” and PDF “Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (translation by K. Witte)” “). 1354-1355 he wrote the satire “Corbaccio” (Eng. “Labyrinth of Love”, 1907). In later years, BOCCACCIO gave up poetry and only wrote works of scientific content, e.g.

• a biography of the poet DANTE and
• Books about the lives of famous men and women as well
• a genealogy of the Greek gods.

“Decameron”

The “Decameron” (1348-1353, German around 1473) is a collection of 100 novellas (see PDF “Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (translation by Klabund)” and PDF “Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (translation by K. Witte)” “). The frame narrative tells of seven young women and three young men from Florence who fled from the plague. They stay for ten days (hence the title) in Fiesole in the country and tell each other the stories, some of them serious, contemplative and didactic, some of them frivolous, erotic, according to a mutually agreed upon order. In these novellas, BOCCACCIO creates very different subjects from ancient and oriental cultures, but also events from his immediate world of experience. The influence of his realistic, true-to-life portrayal and precise portrayal of characters of all walks of life and of all ages on Italian and European prose cannot be overestimated. For example, the parable of the three rings (in the parable of the rings in GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING’s “Nathan the Wise”) and the story of the falcon (in PAUL HEYSE’s “Falcon Theory”) have lived on in literature. And last but not least, the term “novella” as a genre name made its way into European literature from this collection.

Works

“Filostrato” (1338; Eng. “Troilus and Cressida”, 1884; verse poetry)
“Filocolo” (c. 1340, prose novel)
“Ameto” (1341–1342, poetry in prose and verse)
“Amorosa visione” (1341–1342, “Love Visions”, poem in 50 cantos)
“Elegia di Madonna Fiametta” (1342–1343; dt. “Fiametta”, 1806, see PDF “Giovanni di Boccaccio – Fiammetta”; novel)
“Ninfale Fiesolano” (c. 1345; Eng. “The Nymphe of Fiesole”, 1957; bucolic poem)
“Decameron” (1348–1353, German around 1473, see PDF “Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (translation by Klabund)” and PDF “Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (translation by K. Witte)”, collection of novellas)
“Corbaccio” (1354–1355; Eng. “Labyrinth of Love”, 1907; satire)

What is Giovanni Boccaccio best known for?

Giovanni Boccaccio, (born 1313, Paris, Fr. —died Dec. 21, 1375, Certaldo, Tuscany [Italy]), Italian poet and scholar, best remembered as the author of the earthy tales in the Decameron.

Where is Boccaccio from?

Boccaccio is born (July or August) in Certaldo or in Florence to an unknown woman and Boccaccino di Chellino, a wealthy merchant who officially and without hesitation recognizes him: an official document, dated November 2, 1360 with which Pope Innocent VI confers to Giovanni, then a Florentine ambassador at his court.

Why was Giovanni Boccaccio important to the Renaissance?

Boccaccio was acutely aware of his position as mediator between different cultures—classical and medieval; Italian, French, and Latin; and Christian and pagan—and thus he stands as an important figure in the development of a European humanist literary culture that defines the Renaissance and beyond.

What was Boccaccio most famous writing called?

Along with Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca (known as Petrarch), he is considered a father of Italian literature. His works are still valid in literature, and for his ideas, he was considered a humanist. His most famous work is Decameron, which has inspired many other works.

Who is the father of humanism?

Today, people call Petrarch the “father of humanism” and even the “first modern scholar.” Petrarch’s humanism appears in his many poems, letters, essays, and biographies that looked back to ancient pagan Roman times.

Why is The Decameron important?

While primarily a work of fiction, the Introduction to The Decameron has emerged as an important historical record of the physical, psychological, and social effects of the aggressive spread of the previously unknown Yersina pestis bacteria.

What is the moral lesson of the story Decameron?

The moral is that people can be happy, prosperous and creative even in the worst of times: nothing quenches the life force.

What is the summary of The Decameron?

The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city.

What is the story The Decameron all about?

The Decameron is a tale of renewal and recreation in defiance of a decimating pandemic. Boccaccio attributes the cause of this terrible plague to either malignant celestial influences or divine punishment for the iniquity of Florentine society.