Florjan Lipuš and the Literary Region of Carinthia

Carinthia, the small bilingual and in many ways frequently divided region situated in the shadows of the Alps, has given world literature several important names, such as Ingeborg Bachmann, Robert Musil, Christine Lavant, Peter Handke, Josef Winkler, and Maja Haderlap. Florjan Lipuš always remained true to the Slovenian language, invented his own distinct melodic tonality, where he also used local, almost forgotten and extremely pictorial words to describe the tragic fate of his mother (betrayed by her neighbours and murdered in a concentration camp) and his entire family as representatives of the Slovenian ethnic minority. He was a great influence on the melody of Peter Handke's writing, who also translated his novel Zmote dijaka Tjaža into German with Helga Mračnikar, and on Josef Winkler, who personally advocated for Florjan Lipuš to be awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature in 2018, despite the fact that he writes in Slovene language. His works Boštjanov let and Gramoz are definitely worth reading. The conversation will be held in German and led by Florian Höllerer, literary scholar and director of the Literary Colloquium Berlin, who has always been an active supporter of Slovenian authors and translators.