Oskar Pastior
Oskar Pastior (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈoskar pasˈtjor]; 20 October 1927 – 4 October 2006) was a Romanian-born German poet and translator. He was the only German member of Oulipo.
Biography
Born into a Transylvanian Saxon family in Sibiu (Hermannstadt), he was deported in January 1945, [citation needed] along with many other ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe, to the USSR for forced labor. He returned to Romania in 1949, and went on to study German studies at the University of Bucharest in 1955. After graduation, he worked for the German language service of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company. In 1964, he published his first collection of poems, "Offne Worte".
After having been under surveillance by the Securitate for 4 years, Pastior became an informer for the Securitate in 1961 with the alias "Otto Stein".[1] This became known in 2010, years after his death.
He was an informer until 1968, when he obtained a scholarship to Vienna and defected from Communist Romania.
Pastior left for Germany, living at first in Munich, then in West Berlin, where he lived the rest of his life. He was known for his translations of Romanian literature into German (among others, the works of Tudor Arghezi, George Coşbuc, Tristan Tzara, Gellu Naum, Marin Sorescu, and Urmuz).
He received the highly prestigious Georg-Büchner-Preis in 2006.
The Hunger Angel, the 2009 novel of Nobel Prize-winning author Herta Müller, is based partly upon Pastior's experiences as a forced laborer in the USSR.[2] Initially, Pastior and Müller had planned to write a book about his experiences together, but he died in 2006.[3]
Herta Müller was "horrified" and "bitter" after the revelations about her colleague and friend Pastior. She was initially shocked, even angry, then felt sympathy and sadness. She said in an interview that it was terrible when you learn something dark and barely comprehensible about someone you thought you knew that was kept from you. But she also thought that Pastior, as a homosexual, was vulnerable and susceptible to blackmail. In Romania, homosexuality was punishable by several years in prison.[4]
Selected works
- Pastior, Oskar; Mathews, Harry; Middleton, Christopher; Waldrop, Rosmarie; Yau, John (2001). Many glove compartments : selected poems. Providence, R.I.: Burning Deck. ISBN 1-886224-44-7. OCLC 48569855.
- Pastior, Oskar; Green, Malcolm (1990). Poempoems. London: Atlas Press. ISBN 0-947757-37-6. OCLC 37726173.
References
- ^ "Der Dichter Oskar Pastior war IM der Securitate". Frankfurter Allgemeine. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
- ^ "Nobel laureate discusses writing about dictatorships". 29 May 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2020 – via in.reuters.com.
- ^ Online, FOCUS. "Der Vorwurf ist absurd". FOCUS Online. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
- ^ ""Die Sprache sollte schön sein"". 26 January 2019.
External links
- The spell of a tender eel, on 2006 prizewinner Oskar Pastior
- "Oskar Pastior", at the 2007 International Literature Festival, Berlin
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- 1923 Adam Karrillon and Arnold Mendelssohn
- 1924 Alfred Bock and Paul Thesing
- 1925 Wilhelm Michel and Rudolf Koch
- 1926 Christian Heinrich Kleukens and Wilhelm Petersen
- 1927 Kasimir Edschmid and Johannes Bischoff
- 1928 Richard Hoelscher and Well Habicht
- 1929 Carl Zuckmayer and Adam Antes
- 1930 Nikolaus Schwarzkopf and Johannes Lippmann
- 1931 Alexander Posch and Hans Simon
- 1932 Albert H. Rausch and Adolf Bode
- 1933–1944 not given
- 1945 Hans Schiebelhuth
- 1946 Fritz Usinger
- 1947 Anna Seghers
- 1948 Hermann Heiss
- 1949 Carl Gunschmann
- 1950 Elisabeth Langgässer
- 1951 Gottfried Benn
- 1952 not given
- 1953 Ernst Kreuder
- 1954 Martin Kessel
- 1955 Marie Luise Kaschnitz
- 1956 Karl Krolow
- 1957 Erich Kästner
- 1958 Max Frisch
- 1959 Günter Eich
- 1960 Paul Celan
- 1961 Hans Erich Nossack
- 1962 Wolfgang Koeppen
- 1963 Hans Magnus Enzensberger
- 1964 Ingeborg Bachmann
- 1965 Günter Grass
- 1966 Wolfgang Hildesheimer
- 1967 Heinrich Böll
- 1968 Golo Mann
- 1969 Helmut Heißenbüttel
- 1970 Thomas Bernhard
- 1971 Uwe Johnson
- 1972 Elias Canetti
- 1973 Peter Handke
- 1974 Hermann Kesten
- 1975 Manès Sperber
- 1976 Heinz Piontek
- 1977 Reiner Kunze
- 1978 Hermann Lenz
- 1979 Ernst Meister
- 1980 Christa Wolf
- 1981 Martin Walser
- 1982 Peter Weiss
- 1983 Wolfdietrich Schnurre
- 1984 Ernst Jandl
- 1985 Heiner Müller
- 1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt
- 1987 Erich Fried
- 1988 Albert Drach
- 1989 Botho Strauß
- 1990 Tankred Dorst
- 1991 Wolf Biermann
- 1992 George Tabori
- 1993 Peter Rühmkorf
- 1994 Adolf Muschg
- 1995 Durs Grünbein
- 1996 Sarah Kirsch
- 1997 H. C. Artmann
- 1998 Elfriede Jelinek
- 1999 Arnold Stadler
- 2000 Volker Braun
- 2001 Friederike Mayröcker
- 2002 Wolfgang Hilbig
- 2003 Alexander Kluge
- 2004 Wilhelm Genazino
- 2005 Brigitte Kronauer
- 2006 Oskar Pastior
- 2007 Martin Mosebach
- 2008 Josef Winkler
- 2009 Walter Kappacher
- 2010 Reinhard Jirgl
- 2011 Friedrich Christian Delius
- 2012 Felicitas Hoppe
- 2013 Sibylle Lewitscharoff
- 2014 Jürgen Becker
- 2015 Rainald Goetz
- 2016 Marcel Beyer
- 2017 Jan Wagner
- 2018 Terézia Mora
- 2019 Lukas Bärfuss
- 2020 Elke Erb
- 2021 Clemens J. Setz
- 2022 Emine Sevgi Özdamar
- 2023: Lutz Seiler
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