Book Discussion
EUROPEAN BOOK CLUB
Ilija Trojanow: The Lamentations of Zeno
The discussion in English will be moderated by Patrick Fortmann, Professor of Germanic Studies at UIC.
The European Book Club (organized by the Goethe-Institut Chicago and EUNIC Chicago) meets regularly for a book discussion of a bestselling novel in English translation. Guests who would like to attend, should read the book in advance and come prepared to participate in the discussion.
Zeno Hintermeier is a scientist working as a travel guide on an Antarctic cruise ship, encouraging the wealthy to marvel at the least explored continent and to open their eyes to its rapid degradation. It is a troubling turn in the life of an idealistic glaciologist. Now in his early sixties, Zeno bewails the loss of his beloved glaciers, the disintegration of his marriage, and the foundering of his increasingly irrelevant career. Troubled in conscience and goaded by the smug complacency of the passengers in his charge, he starts to plan a desperate gesture that will send a wake-up call to an overheating world.
Since 2002 Ilija Trojanow has been member of the PEN centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. Among many other awards he received the Bertelsmann Literature Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann competition in Klagenfurt in 1995, and the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the category of fiction for his novel "Der Weltensammler" (The Collector of Worlds) in 2006.
In 2013 Trojanow criticized the National Security Agency (NSA).In the same year he was denied entry into the USA for undisclosed reasons.
Patrick Fortmann earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and he is Associate Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He works in the long nineteenth century and is particularly interested in questions of sovereignty, emotion, and the nation.
Details
Goethe-Institut Chicago
150 N Michigan Ave
Suite 420
Chicago IL 60601
USA
Language: English
Price: Free Admission