Hermann Kant
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Hermann Kant | |
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President of the Writers' Association of the German Democratic Republic | |
In office 1978 – 1990 | |
Preceded by | Anna Seghers |
Succeeded by | Rainer Kirsch |
Personal details | |
Born | Hamburg, Germany | 14 June 1926
Died | 14 August 2016 Neustrelitz, Germany | (aged 90)
Alma mater | Humboldt University of Berlin |
Occupation | German Author |
Awards | Heinrich Mann Prize (1967) |
Hermann Kant (German: [ˈhɛʁ.man kant]] ⓘ; 14 June 1926 – 14 August 2016)[1] was a German writer noted for his writings during the time of East Germany.[2] He won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1967. He served the Stasi as an informer under the codename IM Martin.[3]
Early life
Hermann Kant was born on 14 June 1926 in
Kant finished High School in 1952 at the "Workers' and Peasants Faculty" in
Writing career
Kant's first book was published in 1962 as a collection of short stories entitled, A Little South Seas. The book showed stylistic influences adopted from the American Short Story genre and authors such as O. Henry, giving the East German literature a new satirical and a plainly ironic style.[4]
In his first novel, The Aula (1965), Kant described his own experiences at the "Workers and Peasants Faculty." In the book, the closure of the faculty is an occasion for a graduation, for which the main character is to deliver a speech, which determines the fate of their fellow students and thus a part of their own lives in the early days of East Germany. "Kant's most famous and best novel"[5] made him famous overnight in both the East and the West, while the book also being considered controversial in both German states. In East Germany most viewed the book as a "partisan commitment" of Kantian protagonists devoted to the "socialist movement",[6] Marcel Reich-Ranicki remarked that Kant was too timid to write about the real conditions that existed in East Germany.[7]
In 1972, the novel was published in a second edition, where he perfected his writing style. The publication was always seen as a false depiction of parts of the East German cultural bureaucracy, and Kant was criticized for painting a misrepresentation of the social conflict.
In addition, Kant wrote occasionally scripts and screenplays, including for
From the 1970s, Kant took despite its rather narrow view a "weighty significance" in the contemporary literature of East Germany, and had "helped shape minds."[10] Heiner Müller described Kant's narrative Bronze Age (1986) in his autobiography as "the sharpest East German satire" which he had read in recent years. For many other colleagues, literary and social critic Kant was opposed to the "pattern and quintessential as maneuverable as windy compromise literati"[11] become the bridge between conformism and confrontation; an impression that was reinforced by his vacillation as a literary functionary. So Kant remained in East and West "one of the most controversial figures in East German literature".[12]
References
- ^ "Hermann Kant ist tot (Neues deutschland)".
- ^ "Hermann Kant 80". Die Welt (in German). Welt Online. June 14, 2006. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
- ^ "Vermisse das Wort Pinscher". Der Spiegel (in German). No. 41/1992. October 5, 1992. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
- ^ s. Manfred Durzak: Die deutsche Kurzgeschichte der Gegenwart. Autorenporträts, Werkstattgespräche, Interpretationen. 3., erw. Aufl. Würzburg 2002, S. 285
- ^ Hermann Wiegmann: Die deutsche Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Würzburg 2005, S. 336
- ^ Maria-Verena Leistner: Hermann Kants Roman ‚Die Aula‘. In: Deutsch als Fremdsprache. 2/1967, S. 108–113, hier S. 112 f
- ^ Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Ein Land des Lächelns. In: Zur Literatur der DDR. München 1974, S. 83–89 (zuerst in: Die Zeit, 1. April 1966)
- ^ s. Kant: Abspann. S. 286 ff.; Corino: Akte. S. 41 ff.
- ^ Heinrich Küntzel: Von ‚Abschied‘ bis ‚Atemlos‘. Über die Poetik des Romans, insbesondere des Bildungs- und Entwicklungsromans in der DDR. In: Jos Hoogeveen, Gerd Labroisse (Hrsg.): DDR-Roman und Literaturgesellschaft. Amsterdam 1981 (Amsterdamer Beiträge zur neueren Germanistik. 11–12), S. 1–32, hier: S. 21 f.
- ^ Durzak: Kurzgeschichte. S. 284
- ^ Helmut Fuhrmann: Vorausgeworfene Schatten. Literatur in der DDR – DDR in der Literatur. Würzburg 2003, S. 19
- ^ Wiegmann: Literatur. S. 336
External links
- Media related to Hermann Kant at Wikimedia Commons
- Hermann Kant at IMDb