24. June 2021 18:00
Programme
Welcome:
Nick Jefcoat, Chairman of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft Rhein-Main e.V.
Greetings:
Volker Bouffier, Prime Minister of the State of Hessen
Mark Weinmeister, State Secretary, Ministry of European and Federal Affairs of the State of Hessen
Dr. Andreas Fabritius, British Honorary Consul Frankfurt
Hans-Henning Horstmann, former Chairman of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft, Berlin
Celebratory Lecture:
Prof. Rüdiger Görner
The Marble Song. A Novel
A Commented Reading
Synopsis:
“The Marble Song”, situated in London and Lucerne, is a novel about an obsession, or rather fixation, with the writer Hedda Södervedt as developed by Lionel Flower, a second-rate journalist and writer. He tries to establish contact with her, eventually with success, and will in fact be commissioned to write a “dual life” of Södervedt and Aaron Proctor. But there is a significant interference in the shape of Claudia, a Swiss designer, who keeps writing emails to Lionel. She found a number of his texts in the internet and has grown extremely fond of them and, she thinks, their author, too. She hopes, or so it seems, to enter a relationship with him but when he finally succumbs to her desire to visit her in Lucerne, the encounter causes nothing but disillusion and disappointment, mainly on Claudia’s part. Shortly afterwards, Claudia ends up as a coma patient following a tragic fall from her balcony, which overlooks Lake Lucerne. Lionel, uncertain how to react, is offered accommodation in Claudia’s flat by close colleagues of her in a town planning office. Lionel absorbs the inspiring atmosphere of Claudia’s apartment but is increasingly frustrated by his regular visits to her in hospital.
After a week or so, Lionel receives an invitation to attend a book presentation by Hedda Södervedt and Aaron Proctor in Munich. He takes up the opportunity and finally meets his idol whom he even persuades to travel with him to Lucerne to see Claudia and study her condition. Hedda agrees; her editor and PA joins them, too, whilst Aaron returns to NYC.
When Lionel decides to go back to London he ends up by mistake near Geneva where delusion sets in blurring his perception of ‘reality’. Claudia’s apparition lures him into walking too far out on the frozen lake where he perishes.
Also to be published this summer: Rüdiger Görner, “ROMANTIK – Ein europäisches Ereignis” (RECLAM)
Biographical Notes:
RÜDIGER GÖRNER, Prof. Dr. phil., born in 1957 in Rottweil am Neckar. Has lived in London since 1981. Writer and critic. University professor since 1984, as a lecturer at the University of Surrey (1984-1991), as a reader and after 1997 as a professor at Aston University in Birmingham (1991-2004) and as director of the Institute of Germanic Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London (1999-2004). There also founding director of the Ingeborg Bachmann Center for Austrian Literature. Since 2004 at Queen Mary University of London as Professor of German Literature with Comparative Literature (since 2019 as Centenary Professor of German) and founding director of the Center for Anglo-German Cultural Relations.
Visiting professorships in Tokyo, Mainz, Heidelberg, Vienna, Cologne and Salzburg.
Member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry.
German Language Prize of the Henning Kaufmann Foundation (2012)
Reimar Lüst Award Winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Lifetime Achievement (2016)
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2017)
*Please register by June 22 at dbg-rheinmain@t-online.de. Registered participants will receive login details by June 23.
P.S.: Please note that we have a Zoom-license that enables 100 persons to attend. Thus, it is first come , first served with respect to your registration. Members will have priority. From the 101st registration onwards a waiting list will be kept. Kindly let us know in good time in case you cannot attend after all. This will allow us to pass on the free place to the next person on the waiting list.
Register
Note: By registering and participating in this event, you consent to the recording of your appearance and / or your voice, to be published by the German-British Society in photos, videos and accompanying sound recordings via any media and for any purpose.
24. June 2021 18:00
Venue
Via Zoom
Programme
Welcome:
Nick Jefcoat, Chairman of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft Rhein-Main e.V.
Greetings:
Volker Bouffier, Prime Minister of the State of Hessen
Mark Weinmeister, State Secretary, Ministry of European and Federal Affairs of the State of Hessen
Dr. Andreas Fabritius, British Honorary Consul Frankfurt
Hans-Henning Horstmann, former Chairman of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft, Berlin
Celebratory Lecture:
Prof. Rüdiger Görner
The Marble Song. A Novel
A Commented Reading
Synopsis:
“The Marble Song”, situated in London and Lucerne, is a novel about an obsession, or rather fixation, with the writer Hedda Södervedt as developed by Lionel Flower, a second-rate journalist and writer. He tries to establish contact with her, eventually with success, and will in fact be commissioned to write a “dual life” of Södervedt and Aaron Proctor. But there is a significant interference in the shape of Claudia, a Swiss designer, who keeps writing emails to Lionel. She found a number of his texts in the internet and has grown extremely fond of them and, she thinks, their author, too. She hopes, or so it seems, to enter a relationship with him but when he finally succumbs to her desire to visit her in Lucerne, the encounter causes nothing but disillusion and disappointment, mainly on Claudia’s part. Shortly afterwards, Claudia ends up as a coma patient following a tragic fall from her balcony, which overlooks Lake Lucerne. Lionel, uncertain how to react, is offered accommodation in Claudia’s flat by close colleagues of her in a town planning office. Lionel absorbs the inspiring atmosphere of Claudia’s apartment but is increasingly frustrated by his regular visits to her in hospital.
After a week or so, Lionel receives an invitation to attend a book presentation by Hedda Södervedt and Aaron Proctor in Munich. He takes up the opportunity and finally meets his idol whom he even persuades to travel with him to Lucerne to see Claudia and study her condition. Hedda agrees; her editor and PA joins them, too, whilst Aaron returns to NYC.
When Lionel decides to go back to London he ends up by mistake near Geneva where delusion sets in blurring his perception of ‘reality’. Claudia’s apparition lures him into walking too far out on the frozen lake where he perishes.
Also to be published this summer: Rüdiger Görner, “ROMANTIK – Ein europäisches Ereignis” (RECLAM)
Biographical Notes:
RÜDIGER GÖRNER, Prof. Dr. phil., born in 1957 in Rottweil am Neckar. Has lived in London since 1981. Writer and critic. University professor since 1984, as a lecturer at the University of Surrey (1984-1991), as a reader and after 1997 as a professor at Aston University in Birmingham (1991-2004) and as director of the Institute of Germanic Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London (1999-2004). There also founding director of the Ingeborg Bachmann Center for Austrian Literature. Since 2004 at Queen Mary University of London as Professor of German Literature with Comparative Literature (since 2019 as Centenary Professor of German) and founding director of the Center for Anglo-German Cultural Relations.
Visiting professorships in Tokyo, Mainz, Heidelberg, Vienna, Cologne and Salzburg.
Member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry.
German Language Prize of the Henning Kaufmann Foundation (2012)
Reimar Lüst Award Winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Lifetime Achievement (2016)
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2017)
*Please register by June 22 at dbg-rheinmain@t-online.de. Registered participants will receive login details by June 23.
P.S.: Please note that we have a Zoom-license that enables 100 persons to attend. Thus, it is first come , first served with respect to your registration. Members will have priority. From the 101st registration onwards a waiting list will be kept. Kindly let us know in good time in case you cannot attend after all. This will allow us to pass on the free place to the next person on the waiting list.
Register
Note: By registering and participating in this event, you consent to the recording of your appearance and / or your voice, to be published by the German-British Society in photos, videos and accompanying sound recordings via any media and for any purpose.