Was ist Literatur — heute?

Vor 67 Jahren identifizierte Jean-Paul Sartre die Literatur mit zwei zentralen Begriffen: mit dem "Engagement" und dem "Pakt der Großzügigkeit." Ist diese Beschreibung im elektronischen Zeitalter noch plausibel? Von Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht
1947, vor siebenundsechzig Jahren und in einer für die Jüngeren unter uns unvorstellbar anderen intellektuellen Welt, hat Jean-Paul Sartre genau die über diesem Blog stehende Frage im Titel seines Buchs “Qu’est-ce que la littérature?” gestellt und ebenso ausführlich wie bündig beantwortet. “Genau” um dieselbe Frage ging es tatsächlich, da auch Sartres Thesen spezifisch auf sein “Heute,” also die Zeit des Nachkriegs, Bezug nahmen. Und so intensiv haben sie nachgewirkt, dass ihre zentralen Begriffe immer noch – wie ein Reflex – in der Erinnerung von Lesern aufscheinen, denen aus Passion oder auch aus beruflichem Anlass an neuen Antworten gelegen ist. 

http://blogs.faz.net/digital/2014/01/24/ist-literatur-heute-469/ 

In Michael Gove's world Jane Austen, Orwell and Dickens will die out

Michael Gove is Mr M'Choakumchild and Thomas Gradgrind personified: "What I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else." In Gove's schools, whatever might seize the imagination, give pleasure and stay in the heart and mind for a lifetime longer than rote-learned facts is being rooted out.
When he has done with cleansing the curriculum, it may be the case that fewer people know who Gradgrind and M'Choakumchild are. Dickens and much of literature will be a closed book to those not lucky enough to encounter them outside their exam-crammed education. English literature is to be stripped out of the core English GCSE exam, leaving nothing but grammatical correctness and straitjacket language reduced to right and wrong answers. Literature is to become an optional extra, and probably not a highly regarded one, for fear it might let the imagination roam dangerously free. English language, maths, three sciences, a foreign language and history or geography are the core English baccalaureate subjects. The rest is silence, more or less. (But soon few may recognise that reference.) In a world of harsh exams, with the screw tightened down to factual rigour, league table tyranny will increasingly sideline optional extras.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/gove-austen-orwell-dickens-die-out 

Can men write good heroines?

Can men write good heroines? Most of the heroines I write about in my book How to Be a Heroine are written by women. And most of the heroines I find most problematic are written by men. It's very troubling to go back to Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid and find that it's a story about a mermaid who gives up her voice for legs to get a man. And even as a girl, I was furious with Charles Dickens for letting Nancy get bludgeoned in Oliver Twist and, later, outraged that Samuel Richardson heaped pain and indignity on Clarissa and called her "an Exemplar to her sex" as though learning to suffer well made us exemplary.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/18/can-men-write-good-heroines?CMP=fb_gu 

Why don't French books sell abroad?

French authors routinely appear in the English-speaking world's lists of the best novels ever - Voltaire, Flaubert, and Proust… sometimes Dumas and Hugo too. But when it comes to post-war literature, it's a different story. Even voracious readers often struggle to name a single French author they have enjoyed.

France once had a great literary culture, and most French people would say it still does. But if so, how come their books don't sell in the English-speaking world?
Is that our fault or theirs?
And how come the French themselves read so many books that are translated from English and other languages?
These are provocative questions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25198154 

Young adult readers 'prefer printed to ebooks'

Sixteen to 24-year-olds are known as the super-connected generation, obsessed with snapping selfies or downloading the latest mobile apps, so it comes as a surprise to learn that 62% prefer print books to ebooks.
Asked about preferences for physical products versus digital content, printed books jump out as the media most desired in material form, ahead of movies (48%), newspapers and magazines (47%), CDs (32%), and video games (31%).

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/25/young-adult-readers-prefer-printed-ebooks?CMP=fb_gu 

Game creators use literary tricks - and lure audiences

Once known for being crude and violent, some video games now feature sophisticated storylines and characters. Some players see a new literary tradition arising.

Clementine is a girl who is trying to survive a zombie apocalypse in a video game series based on the comic book and television franchise The Walking Dead. But for Michael Abbott, who teaches theatre at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, she is more than that. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25305351

"London NW" von Zadie Smith: Muskeln zeigen

Rassismus, Klassensystem und Coolness: In "London NW" fügt Literaturstar Zadie Smith ein faszinierendes Mosaik urbaner Biografien zusammen. Ihr bestes Buch.

Zadie Smith heißt nicht Zadie Smith, jedenfalls nicht exakt so. Ihre Eltern hatten sie Sadie genannt, als Teenager tauschte sie selbst das S gegen ein Z ein. Eine winzige kleine Änderung, die trotzdem als Schlüssel zu Smiths neuem Buch "London NW" taugt. Auch in dem ändert eine der Hauptfiguren ihren Namen. Als Keisha geboren, nimmt eine schwarze angehende Anwältin während des Studiums den Namen Natalie an. Weil das womöglich "weißer", in jedem Fall aber mehr nach Mittelschicht klingt als nach der Sozialbausiedlung im Londoner Nordwesten, in der sie aufgewachsen ist. 

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/london-nw-neuer-roman-von-zadie-smith-zaehne-zeigen-a-942488.html 

Poet und Black-Power-Aktivist: Amiri Baraka ist tot

Er war einer der großen Intellektuellen der schwarzen Bürgerrechtsbewegung in den USA der Sechziger und Siebziger - und bis zu seinem Tod eine umstrittene Figur. Der radikale Poet Amiri Baraka starb am Donnerstag mit 79 Jahren.

Amiri Baraka, geboren als Everett LeRoi Jones am 7. Oktober 1934 in Newark, New Jersey war Dichter, bekennender Kommunist, Black Power-Aktivist und radikaler Regierungskritiker. Sein leidenschaftlicher Spoken-Word-Vortragsstil nahm den Rap vorweg - und er war eine höchst umstrittene Figur. Am Donnerstag starb der Schriftsteller im Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, wie sein Agente Celeste Bateman mitteilte. 

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/amiri-baraka-leroi-jones-schriftsteller-und-black-power-aktivist-gestorben-a-942770.html