Originally published at: http://www.goethe.de/uk/chi/enpkonf.htm#A7 (8 Nov 2004)
 
 

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Lecture:

Local Color: Old West / Old Europe -
Karl May's America & Mark Twain's Germany

When: Monday, November 8, 2004 - 6:00 pm
Where: Goethe-Institut, 150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 200, Chicago, IL

Karl May (1842- 1912), while certainly not to be numbered among German literary giants such as Goethe or Thomas Mann, is nonetheless one of the most popular German writers of all time. His novels - with titles like "Winnetou", "Old Surehand" and "Through the Desert" -- featured exotic locales with colorful characters doing exciting things, and tapped into the 19th Century's enduring fascination with "the other". And, to his credit, the novels also displayed a remarkably human stance toward the "strange" peoples that were depicted in them. And, although he never visited America, one of his favorite settings was the American Old West, thereby laying the ground for the cowboy-and-Indian cult that survives in Germany to this day.

Mark Twain (1835 -1910) is, of course, probably the quintessential American writer, wildly popular in his own time and legendary today, primarily for his "Mississippi books" "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer". But Twain also had an abiding fascination with Germany, and in fact spent over a year there (1878/79) with his entire family. The result of the trip was his travelogue, "A Tramp Abroad", which featured his famous (and hilarious) essay, "The Awful German Language".

Please join literary critic and Karl May expert Dr. Rolf-Bernhard Essig and Dr. Holger Kersten, professor of American Studies at the University of Magdeburg - and possibly a very special surprise guest! - for a (fairly) serious examination of the funny ways in which cultures can look at one another. RSVP at 312/263.0472 or at ProgramAssistant@goethe-chicago.org