The Swiss novelist Peter Stamm will be teaching as the tenth „Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature“ at the University of Bern in the fall term 2018. He will give a weekly seminar on the subject of time in literature.
Peter Stamm, born 1963 in Weinfelden, studied English Literature, Psychology and Psychopathology for some semesters. He abandoned his studies to devote himself entirely to writing.He spent some time in Paris, New York and Berlin. As a freelance writer, he first wrote reportages and satires. His first publication was the radio drama Ich und die anderenin 1991. Since then, in addition to narrative prose, he has continued to write radio and stage plays.
Peter Stamm’s debut novel, Agnes, was published in 1998. Four collections of stories and six more novels followed: Ungefähre Landschaft (Unformed Landscape) in 2002, An einem Tag wie diesem (On a Day Like This) in 2006, Sieben Jahre (Seven Years) in 2009, Nacht ist der Tag (All Days are Night) in 2013, Weit über das Land (To the Back of Beyond) in 2016 and, most recently, Die sanfte Gleichgültigkeit der Welt in 2018 (not yet translated). Stamm’s books have been translated into 37 languages and were awarded many awards, including the prestigious Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis, the ZKB Schiller Preis and the Solothurner Literaturpreis.
From September to December 2018, Peter Stamm will be teaching as Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor at the University of Bern. He will give a weekly seminar on the subject of time in literature, discussing temporal concepts from physics, philosophy and religion. In writing exercises, the participants themselves can experiment with time – in the city of Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity.
