"It makes a difference which literature, which language, under which conditions we grew up."
© Suhrkamp Verlag
The European Union Prize for Literature was awarded as part of the Foire du Livre de Bruxelles (3-7 April 2024). The prize aims to promote the diversity and visibility of the European literary scene internationally. Author Deniz Utlu was honoured with a Special Mention and spoke to us in Brussels about European reading and the potential beauty of difference.
Svenja Pütz (SP): Dear Deniz, nice to meet you here at the German Stories stand at the book fair in Brussels.
Deniz Utltu (DU): Nice to be here.
SP: The European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) has just been awarded and you have been honoured with a Special Mention. Congratulations!
DU: Thank you.
SP: The EUPL is concerned with the diversity and variety of European literature and aims to promote talent on the scene and make their titles visible to an international market.
I was wondering what "European reading" means to you or how important the origin of a story is to you?
DU: For me, the origin of a story is not relevant in the first place. Language has a pull. The text has a pull. It does something to me: it touches me or it doesn't touch me. And then I don't really care where the text was written or who wrote it.
However, I do believe that it makes a difference how we write, how we listen, how we speak, how we read, even how we feel in relation to it. In other words, what kind of access we have to language overall. It makes a difference what literature, what language, what conditions we grew up with.
And in this context, it's nice to read as much as possible from many different regions around the world.
A text is actually something that is not bound by borders. That's why I really like the EUPL's approach: we are now looking at books from different countries and bringing them together.
SP: Your novel "Father's Sea" (Vaters Meer) was honoured with the Special Mention of the EUPL. It is also a text about a father-son relationship. In the case of the story, the father grew up in a different socio-cultural environment, i.e. in a different country, than the son. What challenges does this initial situation pose for both generations?
DU: One thing that particularly interested me was the idea of a collective memory. Depending on which region we are in, we have ideas about what is particularly relevant in the history of a particular country. And I think that often falls short.
This novel shows this through an individual fate. The moment the protagonist Yunus begins to think about his father, to try to remember who this person was, his father's place of origin, Mardin, also plays a role. This is a place where many different languages are spoken, where many different cultures live. And at that moment, Mardin is part of a German-language attempt at remembrance. And then we realise that places are only artificially separated from each other.
The transnationalisation of memory is a possible concern in the story.
I perhaps didn't realise this directly when I was writing, it only developed in many conversations about the text after I’d finished.
Living with different languages also plays a role in the relationship between father and son. And in this case, languages not only include national languages, but also speaking only through eye contact. The father loses his ability to speak in the course of the story.
SP: You are part of our German Stories collection "The Beauty of Difference". It consists of titles by authors whose roots are not in Germany but who write in German. What positive aspects can difference have from your point of view?
DU: I think it's important to recognise that the diversity of experience that surrounds us is something very beautiful. This is also the title of Hadija Haruna-Oelker's book The Beauty of Difference (Die Schönheit der Differenz, btb).
But in my opinion, there is often a misunderstanding when people talk about difference. We are then told that we should love diversity and our differences, but there is actually a difference in terms of access to resources. That is the real problem: access to education, to the labour market, to cultural institutions - these are not entirely egalitarian in our countries.
That's not a difference where I would say it's a beautiful difference. I would rather recognise that there is such a difference in access. And I would want to eliminate this difference.
Different experiences, different perspectives are helpful in order to understand your own perspective and your own place in the world.
SP: Definitely. And this collection can certainly take us a step further. Thank you for the Interview.
DU: Thank you.
About the European Union Prize for Literature
Thirteen countries took part in EUPL 2024: Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia and Tunisia.
The 2024 winner is Theis Ørntoft from Denmark with his title Jordisk, published by Gyldendal Verlag.
The five special mentions this year are, in alphabetical order by country:
Bulgaria: Todor Todorov, Хагабула, publisher: Janet 45 | Germany: Deniz Utlu, Father's Sea, publisher: Suhrkamp | Iceland: María Elísabet Bragadóttir, Sápufuglinn, publisher: Una útgáfuhús | Netherlands: Sholeh Rezazadeh, Ik ken een berg die op me wacht, publisher: Ambo|Anthos | Slovenia: Tina Vrščaj, Na klancu, publisher: Cankarjeva založb.
All nominated authors are continuously promoted on a European level in order to reach a wider and international audience and connect with readers beyond their national and linguistic borders.
About the author:
Deniz Utlu, born in Hanover in 1983, studied economics in Berlin and Paris. From 2003 to 2014, he edited the culture and society magazine freitext. His debut novel, "Die Ungehaltenen", was published in 2014 and adapted for the stage at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in 2015. From 2017 to 2019, he wrote the column "Einträge ins Logbuch" for the Tagesspiegel. His second novel "Gegen Morgen" was published in 2019. He has also written theatre plays, poetry and essays (for FAZ, SZ, Tagesspiegel and Der Freitag, among others). He conducts research at the German Institute for Human Rights and organises the literature series "Prosa der Verhältnisse" at the Maxim Gorki Theatre.
The interview was conducted by Svenja Pütz.