29^th Leukerbad International Literary Festival

Perspectives

The Leukerbad International Literary Festival has a long tradition of offering more than presentations of books. The exclusively curated conversations in the ‘Perspectives’ series take up and address topical issues in society, politics and literature. This year:
I: Carte Blanche for Joshua Cohen and Christian Kracht
II: “Coming to an Understanding and Being Understood”
III: Contemporary Literature: Kitsch with a Veneer of Culture?
IV: In Search of a Better “Woke”
V: What Makes America What it Is?

Perspectives I:

Carte Blanche for Joshua Cohen and Christian Kracht

Joshua Cohen and Christian Kracht in conversation

The ‘Perspectives’ discussion between Joshua Cohen and Christian Kracht unfortunately has to be canceled. Christian Kracht will be reading on Friday evening and will be in conversation with Raphael Urweider on Saturday.

Perspectives II

“Coming to an Understanding and Being Understood”

Volker Braun and Christoph Geiser in conversation with Christian Ruzicska

Even before reunification, the Dresden native Volker Braun was considered a writer for all Germans. In contrast, the Baseler Christoph Geiser found early on that Switzerland’s borders were too constraining and incongruous, as were its social and literary conventions, which he never ceased to breach. Christoph Geiser met Volker Braun in 1983 on a visit to the GDR. Since then, they have been bound by a profound mutual understanding.
Moderated by the publisher Christian Ruzicska, who has reissued Geiser’s often out of print works, the two writers will engage in a frank conversation.

Perspectives III

Contemporary Literature: Kitsch with a Veneer of Culture?

Moritz Baßler in conversation with Lukas Bärfuss and Stefan Zweifel

There has never been any consensus on what constitutes excellent literature. Traditionally, however, it was agreed that more was required than a “good story.” The narrative material had to be presented artfully and to challenge the reader.
The literary scholar Moritz Baßler calls this fundamental consensus into question: narrative literature deemed successful—by the market as well as by critics and prize juries—is currently written almost exclusively in a “popular realist” style. Instead of linguistic or compositional experiments that can make understanding a text hard work, significant topics are most important. The main goal: “beach-reading suitability.”
“Aesthetic ambiguity is no longer expected from this literature. Instead, there is a preference for ethical and didactic insights, especially those that promote convictions one already has,” writes Baßler in his controversial essay Der neue Midcult, the foundation for his recent book, Populärer Realismus. Vom International Style gegenwärtigen Erzählens.
How does a reading public that is barely versed in linguistically “difficult” texts read and receive works? With what consequences? Are there counterexamples, contrary tendencies? And what are the opportunities that Baßler sees in this evolution despite the criticism aimed at it? Moritz Baßler, Lukas Bärfuss, and Stefan Zweifel will broach these questions in Leukerbad.

Perspectives IV

In Search of a Better “Woke”

Jens Balzer in conversation with Stefan Zweifel

Jens Balzer admits that his essay After Woke arose out of sheer disbelief. After the events of 7 October 2023, it was the voices of the left, of the progressives, or even of the “woke” that were silent or, worse, that justified Hamas’ brutal violence against Israeli citizens by pointing to the situation of the Palestinians. For Balzer, this is “severe cognitive dissonance”: “How can it be that someone who sees himself as an agent of political emancipation has no empathy for the victims of a massacre?”
When seen as “vigilance in the face of societal discrimination with the goal of analyzing and correcting existing injustices,” the concept of wokeness, according to Jens Balzer, still has much to offer. Habermas and Balzer agree that increasing visibility of hitherto disadvantaged participants in the debate is one of the “prerequisites to communicative action” that make debates between people of different social backgrounds possible at all. Should we really conclude that the abrasive reactions to October 7^th have exposed wokeness as dishonest and disingenuous and therefore disqualified it—as critics on the right have always maintained?
The year since Balzer wrote his essay has been shaken by important disruptions in the political landscape and in public debates. Until recently, the term “woke” was a natural target as discussions were undeniably dominated by certain post-colonial, anti-racist, queer, and feminist currents. Following the significant election year 2024, in which populists on the right made great advances across Europe and a radicalized Donald Trump re-established himself in the White House, the question of whether those on the right and anti-democrats had provisionally won the culture wars seems self-evident.
Must we then ascertain that we are, in fact, in a “post-woke” time? And how can we renew and rehabilitate the profoundly democratic essence of what was once understood by wokeness?

Perspectives V

What Makes America What it Is?

Karl Schlögel in conversation with Lukas Bärfuss about American Matrix

Karl Schlögel is widely celebrated as a pre-eminent specialist of Eastern Europe. In his most recent book, the historian turns his focus to the West: to the USA, through which he has traveled almost as extensively as Eastern Europe since he first trip to America in 1970.
American Matrix offers Schlögel’s particular view of 20^th century history: the United States’ great years. He masterfully explains new departures, pioneering achievements, and the country’s vast expanse: railways and highways, cities and industries that grew out of nothing, skyscrapers that towered to the skies—achievements of a society that was free of the ballast of the traditional.
Schlögel casts his eye over America’s success story by tracing—as perhaps only he can—its close intertwining with the history of the USSR. He illuminates the ruptures in American society that continue to have an effect. The jury of the Gerda Henkel Prize, which he was awarded in 2024, said in their statement: “Karl Schlögel vividly shows that historical discernment and consistent critical self-reflection are essential for an adequate understanding of present conflicts.”
In American Matrix, Schlögel remains true to his maxim “in space we read time,” and he builds on a foundation of intense observations, all the while, allowing famous historical travelers in America to have their say. As in his earlier works, his style here is unmistakable: in Karl Schlögel’s works history is also literature. It’s not by chance that in the Frankfurter Rundschau Michael Hesse called the book a “narrative masterwork.”