Feridun Zaimoğlu
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Feridun Zaimoğlu (born 4 December 1964) is a poet and visual artist of German Turkish origin.
Zaimoğlu has developed since 1995 to have become one of the important poets of contemporary German language. His central theme are the problems of the second and third generation of Turkish immigrants to Germany.
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[edit] Life
Feridun Zaimoğlu, born in Bolu/Turkey, came in 1965 with his parents to Germany. He lived until 1985 in Berlin and Munich, and then began studying Medicine and Arts in Kiel where he continues to live. Today, he works as poet and journalist. His essays and critiques of literary have appeared in leading German newspapers like i.e. DIE ZEIT, Die Welt, SPEX and the Tagesspiegel. From 1999 to 2000 he was working in Mannheim at the National theatre. In 2003 he became Island poet on the island of Sylt, and in 2004 he was a visiting fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin.
In his first book "Kanak Sprak" 1995, he attempts to express the authentic, tough and subversive power of slang language spoken by young Turkish male youth in Germany, and calls for a new self-confidence.
The grotesque figure of the maganda - as it can be traced also in popular satirical Turkish magazines - emerges as an "important medium for the formulation of new gender identities, urban subjectivities, and class relations" (Ayse Oncu in References 1, p. 187) His book became inspirational for the group "kanak attak".
In 2005, his installation of flags with the title "KanakAttak - The 3rd Turkish siege of Vienna" was exhibited at the Kunsthalle (Arts hall) in Vienna. It refers to the Siege of Vienna (July 17–September 12, 1683) that was an expedition by the Turks against the Habsburg Holy Roman emperor Leopold I that resulted in their defeat.
In his latest book, Leyla, he describes the life in a small Turkish village. It is a kind of 'reinvention' after years of writing in an explicitly male style, as he takes first time in his writing career the female viewpoint. In an interview he describes that it took him one and a half years to prepare for this fiction novel that he finished in 2004 and which is published in 2006.
[edit] Books
- Kanak Sprak, 1995, ISBN 3434545182
- Abschaum. Novel, 1997, ISBN 3434545093 (2000 as film with the title Kanak Attak)
- Koppstoff, 1999, ISBN 3880226741
- Liebesmale, scharlachrot. Novel, 2000, ISBN 3462030973
- Kopf und Kragen. 2001, ISBN 3596152909
- German Amok. Novel, 2002, ISBN 3596158516
- Leinwand. Novel, 2003, ISBN 3434530800
- Twelve Grams of Happiness. Stories, 2004,
- Leyla. Novel, 2006, ISBN 3462036963
[edit] Awards and Prizes
- 1997 Civis-Medienpreis
- 1998 Screen play Prize of Schleswig-Holstein/Germany
- 2002 Friedrich-Hebbel-Preis
- 2003 Prize of the Jury at the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Competition for his narrative Häute (skins)(Published in his volume Zwölf Gramm Glück)
- 2005 Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis
- 2005 Villa Massimo, Rome - Scholarship
- 2005 Hugo-Ball-Preis of the City of Pirmasens
[edit] References
- [1] Kültür fragmanlari: Türkiye'de gündelik hayat/Deniz Kandiyoti, Ayse Saktenber: Fragments of Everyday Life Culture in Turkey, translated by Zeynep Yelçe, Istanbul, Metis Publishing House, 2003.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Commented collection of links
- Two reading samples from Twelve Grams of Happiness (in German, English and Arabic)
- From Turkish boy to German writer Author Feridun Zaimoglu describes how growing up on a German diet eventually bore literary fruit at signandsight.com
