Péter Esterházy
The wondrous afterlife of words
“For all these reasons, I cannot recommend the book for translation,” was the conclusion of a publisher’s review in 1984. Although the reviewer was full of praise for Péter Esterházy’s Produktionsroman, he did not consider the richly allusive work to be transferable due to its wealth of wordplay and humour.
Despite this fear, the novel was the prelude to a series of books that caused a sensation throughout Europe and were translated into many languages. Péter Esterházy’s works are characterised by an unmistakable language that internalises “the wondrous life of words”, advances its own thought process and likes to ironise.
Texts by the Hungarian author as well as previously unknown documents from his estate are at the centre of the evening. After a reading and insights into the Esterházy Archive, Andreas Isenschmid will talk with György Dragomán, Terézia Mora and Ingo Schulze.