Germany’s Literature Colloquium Berlin (LCB) offers a thought-provoking agenda every evening. Choosing between readings, theatrical performances and concerts can present a difficult choice. In addition to the huge number of local cultural institutions on display you can also see international ensembles, famous musicians and other visiting artists. One such unforgettable recent event occurred when Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov addressed the LCB’s lecture hall at the Wannsee Lake.
Between Berlin and Potsdam, Wannsee is a calm lake in the winter, surrounded by thick forest and romantic villas. This year’s tourist season was still far away when I visited. Last summer’s ice cream ads still adorned the walls and nature was in no hurry to meet spring. A silent red orange sunset behind the lake provided a fitting backdrop to a poetic event. You’ll also find a late 19th century villa, a kind of Renaissance palace in miniature, part of the lakeside colony founded by bankers and factory owners.
The villa, occupied by navy commanders during World War 2, was later converted into a cultural venue. Over the years, LCB has been supporting a wide array of talent, staging international meetings and awarding the Alfred Doblin prize, a literary accolade named after the famous German expressionist novelist. Great authors such as John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Umberto Eco and Toni Morrison have read their works here over the years.
The Gospodinov reading, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), is part of the LCB programme entitled European Storytellers. This includes writers such as Paule Constant (Paris), Josef Skvorecky (Prague/Toronto) and Viktor Pelevin (Moscow). It was also an opportunity for Gospodinov to present the German editions of his books in front of a mixed audience comprising literature theorists, Bulgarian students and aficionados of East European literature.
The stage, decorated with black and white photos, was soon occupied by the moderator Jorg Plath – journalist and a literature critic – the interpreter Milen Radev and, of course, Gospodinov himself. The resulting session offered a fusion of questions and answers, poems and texts in Bulgarian and German as well as an explanation of unresolved issues and questions.
Over the past 15 years, Gospodinov has published eight fiction and poetry books, a play and a PhD dissertation. He has also compiled a literary miscellany and, since 1993, edited Literaturen vestnik. In Germany he is also known as the author/screenwriter of one of the novels featured in the film Lost and Found, a production that opened the young section of Berlinale in 2005. So there was a lot up for discussion on this particular evening. The panel debated various themes: postmodern strategies in Natural Novel and the overall question of whether a novel could be natural at all. The panel also explored its collective socialist consciousness and examined 1990s Bulgarian literature.
The audience got to hear and enjoy some chapters of Natural Novel and poems such as Love Rabbit and About the Blonde Women. The closing text was the short story A Fly in the Urinal, an uproariously funny toilet story.
The Berlin audience can meet Georgi Gospodinov and hear his stories again during the International Literature Festival in October 2008.
Some recommended titles for beginners: Natural Novel (Естествен роман, 1999); And Other Stories (И други истории, 2001); Letters to Gaustin (Писма до Гаустин, 2003); I Lived Socialism – editor (Аз живях социализма, 2006).
