Photo de l'auteur

Elisabeth Langgässer (1899–1950)

Auteur de Das unauslöschliche Siegel

12+ oeuvres 43 utilisateurs 2 critiques 1 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

Œuvres de Elisabeth Langgässer

Das unauslöschliche Siegel (1949) 8 exemplaires
The Quest (1953) 6 exemplaires
Maerkische Argonautenfahrt: Roman (1950) 6 exemplaires
Saisonbeginn (1998) — Auteur — 5 exemplaires
Das Labyrinth (1949) 3 exemplaires
Gang durch das Ried. Roman. (1997) 3 exemplaires
Proserpina, eine Kindheitsmythe (1932) 3 exemplaires
Der Torso (2021) 2 exemplaires
Wierna Antygona 1 exemplaire
Gedichte (1981) 1 exemplaire

Oeuvres associées

Deutsche Gedichte (1956) — Contributeur, quelques éditions135 exemplaires
Deutschland erzählt. Von Arthur Schnitzler bis Uwe Johnson (1962) — Contributeur — 106 exemplaires
After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets (2004) — Contributeur — 32 exemplaires
Meesters der Duitse vertelkunst (1967) — Auteur — 9 exemplaires
Moderne Erzähler 2 (1958) — Contributeur — 8 exemplaires
Deutsche Kurzgeschichten : eine Auswahl für mittlere Klassen (1972) — Auteur, quelques éditions5 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Date de naissance
1899-02-23
Date de décès
1950-07-25
Lieu de sépulture
Darmstadt, Hessen, Deutschland
Sexe
female
Nationalité
Deutschland
Lieu de naissance
Alzey, Rheinland-Pfalz, Deutschland
Lieu du décès
Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland
Lieux de résidence
Darmstadt, Germany
Professions
Schriftstellerin
novelist
poet
Relations
Edvardson, Cordelia (daughter)
Heller, Hermann (lover)
Organisations
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Prix et distinctions
Georg Büchner Preis (1950)
Courte biographie
Elisabeth Langgässer was born in Alzey, Germany, to a middle-class Roman Catholic family. In 1909, the family moved to Darmstadt, where she attended the Victoria School and trained as a teacher. She worked as a primary school teacher from 1919 to 1928, and published her first book of poetry, Der Wendekreis des Lammes in 1924. Following an affair with Hermann Heller, a married constitutional scholar, she gave birth to her daughter Cordelia in 1929 and lost her teaching job as a consequence. Langgässer then devoted herself to her writing career, and published more poetry, contributed reviews in journals such as Die Kolonne, and wrote radio plays. With the rise of the Nazi regime to power in 1933, she was classified as a "half-Jew" because of relatives on her father's side. She was banned by the Nazis from publishing but continued to do so in secret. In 1935, she married Wilhelm Hoffman, an editor, with whom she would have three daughters. He was fired from his job as a result. During World War II, Langgässer was forced to work in an ammunition factory, and 14-year-old Cordelia was deported to the Auschwitz death camp. Cordelia survived and later wrote her autobiography, entitled in English Burned Child Seeks the Fire. In the immediate post-war years, Langgässer wrote and published prolifically, and complete her novel Das unauslöschliche Siegel (The Unquenchable Seal, 1945) that she had begun years earlier. She began showing signs of multiple sclerosis and died in 1950 at age 51. Her last novel Märkische Argonautenfahrt appeared posthumously. Her letters, which provide insight into her life during the Nazi era, were first published by her husband in 1954; they were republished in 1990 by her granddaughter Elisabeth Hoffmann.

Membres

Critiques

This odd and remarkable and nearly inaccessible novel affected me deeply for reasons that have nothing to do with the story or the writing. "Inaccessible" I mean quite literally--Langgässer, born in 1899, wrote from a philosophical/religious perspective that feels distant and alien. The intellectual striving that undergirds every sentence in the novel gave me the feeling as I read that I was studying an artifact rather than reading literature. But what an interesting artifact.

The novel is in part a German/Catholic reckoning with the German defeat and social collapse following WWII. Langgässer was raised in a Catholic family; her father was a convert from Judaism and Langgässer was classified as non-Aryan after the rise of the 3rd Reich until she married an SS officer, after which she was re-classified as Aryan; her daughter, however, was classified a "Jew" and sent to Auschwitz (and survived). Not surprisingly there are threads of guilt and suffering and retribution throughout the novel and there is also an obscurity in the prose--nothing is simple at all in this novel.

There are easier ways back to this past, in fiction. What comes to my mind immediately are [b:Feldafing|6466343|Feldafing|Simon Schochet|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|6656828] by Simon Schochet (I can't believe this book is out of print, a crime) and the novels and stories of Heinrich Böll (which are sometimes labeled Trümmerliteratur). This novel took me to a place where the author was so affected by events that the writing itself feels like Trümmer, but that is somehow appropriate given the author's life and times.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
poingu | Feb 22, 2020 |
Langgässers erster Roman,1936 geschrieben. Langgässers Sätze sind wie die schiefen Häuser des Masereel, des Grosz: mit Leben erfüllt ecken sie an den Nachbarsatz, rempeln sich. Was ich manchmal als zu viel empfinde sind Adjektive, sie hätte etwas sparsamer mit ihnen sein sollen, aber dies nur eine nebensächliche Kritik. 1930 in den Niederungen, dem Ried des Rheins, nach der französischen Besetzung, jetzt sind sie abgezogen. Die Worte des Herausgebers treffen es gut: nur die Natur wird einzig heil magisch-verlockend dargestellt, die Menschen sind von Gewalt, Verbrechen, Armut, Krankheit gezeichnet, alle, auch Aladin der Heimkehrer bleiben schattenhaft, gespenstisch, einsam, ausgesetzt und verloren, nur dem Aladin wird es – vielleicht – gelingen, sich selbst zu finden. Es erinnert mich an Dantes Gang durch die Hölle, nur ist Aladin führerlos, auch kein außenstehender Beobachter und Zeuge; er ist selbst beladen von Schuld und verwoben in dem Leben der anderen, denen er begegnet, denen, die längst die Kraft und den Willen verlohren haben, sich aus den Verstrickungen zu befreien. (V-16)… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
MeisterPfriem | May 8, 2016 |

Prix et récompenses

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Statistiques

Œuvres
12
Aussi par
6
Membres
43
Popularité
#352,016
Évaluation
3.9
Critiques
2
ISBN
18
Langues
1
Favoris
1