Art and War: Mathias Énard as new «Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature»
Mathias Énard is our thirteenth «Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature» in the spring term 2020. The Goncourt Prize winner's weekly seminar deals with the most important works of war literature: from Homer to the present day.
Mathias Énard studied Arabic and Persian and worked as writer and translator after spending long periods in the Middle East. His international break through as a writer was in 2008 with the novel Zone: a 500 pages monologue of a combat veteran of the Yugoslav wars in one single sentence. This ouvre was followed by Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants (2011), Street of Thieves (2013) and Compass (2015), which received the Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious French literary prize.
From February to May 2020, Mathias Énard teached as Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor at the University of Bern. In his weekly seminar entitled « And fall thy edgeless sword: Aperçus de la littérature de guerre », he discussed with this students selected texts of war literature: From Homers Ilias to Shakespeares Richard III, from testimonies from the battle of Stalingrad to texts from the 21st century, as for example Daniel Kehlmanns novel Tyll. Beside the activity at the University of Bern, Mathias Énard participated in workshops, lectures and podiums in Switzerland.
