Reading and Discussion: Mircea Cartarescu

In the book »Europa hat die Form meines Gehirns« (»Europe has the Shape of my Brain«) published in the Reihe Literatur series of merz&solitude, Cartarescu confronts the immediate political and social realities of Bucharest, Romania and Europe and opens European wounds as well as his own: The way people deal with the Roma (gypsies), the inferiority complex of the Romanians, who were “shut into a ghetto for decades,” the boundaries and templates of thinking that hinder one from seeing Europe as an opportunity and a hope, are issues in his writing as much as is Bucharest, his mother’s city and his first love, the city that made him a poet. The eight texts were written between 1990 and 2007.

Furthermore Cartarescu will present his novel »Die Wissenden« (»The Knowing«) that was recently published in German with Zsolnay Publishers: What starts as a self-discovery process of the 15-year old Mircea, develops into an increasingly phantastic spectacle of prose in which the city of Bucharest becomes a stage for the world and the family history turns to world theater.

The German translation will be read by Tobias Graupner.
Moderation: Jean-Baptiste Joly

Mircea Cartarescu (*1956 in Bucharest, Romania) is a novelist, essayist and literary critic. As one of Romania’s leading authors, his works have been translated into several languages and have won international prizes. He was a guest fellow at the Akademie in 2006/7.

A cooperation with the Literaturhaus Stuttgart.

Admission to the reading: 8,-/6,-/4,- Euros
Tel./Reservations: Buchhandlung Literaturhaus, 0711-284290-4
Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Breitscheidstr. 4, 70174 Stuttgart
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