"Madmen and Idiots": Lukas Bärfuss becomes Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor at the University of Bern
The Swiss author Lukas Bärfuss will teach as the 15th "Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor of World Literature" at the University of Bern in the spring semester of 2021. On the occasion of Dürrenmatt's 100th birthday, he will explore his work in a weekly lecture.
Lukas Bärfuss, born in Thun in 1971, is a playwright, novelist and essayist. His theatre texts include Die sexuellen Neurosen unserer Eltern (2003), Öl (2009) and Malaga (2010). In 2008 Bärfuss published the debut novel Hundert Tage, an examination of his home country's role in the genocide in Rwanda. Koala (2014) links the individual tragedy of a suicide in Switzerland with the history of the colonisation of Australia. The new collection of essays, Die Krone der Schöpfung, was published in November 2020. His drama on Martin Luther will be premiered at the Nibelungen Festival in Worms.
In his works, Lukas Bärfuss repeatedly deals with human abysses and social problems. As a public intellectual, he is not afraid to speak out controversially on current political issues - certainly in the tradition of Dürrenmatt. In 2019, Lukas Bärfuss became the fourth Swiss author after Max Frisch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Adolf Muschg to receive the Georg Büchner Prize, which is considered the most prestigious literary prize in the German-speaking world.
Lukas Bärfuss will spend the spring semester of 2021 as Friedrich Dürrenmatt Visiting Professor of World Literature at the University of Bern. His weekly lecture entitled "Madmen and Idiots" locates Dürrenmatt's work in world literature. It begins on Thursday, 25 February 2021, at 10 a.m. at the University of Bern.
The public launch event for the Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professorship for World Literature will take place on Wednesday, 3 March 2021 at 6.30 pm in the Hallersaal of the Bern Burgerbibliothek: Lukas Bärfuss will give a speech entitled "A little history of madness" and lead a discussion with the literary scholar Oliver Lubrich.
Here, pandemic-related restrictions will be communicated in good time and, if necessary, live broadcasts will be offered or recordings made available.
Video broadcasts
