Ingeborg Bachmann - Overview, The Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, Selected works

Writer, born in Klagenfurt, S Austria. She studied at the University of Vienna (1946–50), and in 1953 her first collection of poems Die gestundete zeit appeared in Germany. A member of Gruppe 47, she lived in Naples and Rome with the composer Hans Werner Henze, and in 1965 settled permanently in Rome. Her lyrical works are notably vivid and terse; she also wrote prose, radio plays, and libretti, her favourite themes being existential threat, love, and problems of the self. Major works include the novels Malina (1971), Der Fall Franza and Requiem für Fanny Goldmann (both fragmentary, published in 1979), short stories such as Gier (1974), and for radio Zikaden (1955). She was awarded the Georg-Büchner-Preis in 1964.

Ingeborg Bachmann (June 25, 1926 Klagenfurt, Austria - October 17, 1973 Rome, Italy) was an Austrian poet and author.

Overview

Ingeborg Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, Carinthia on June 25, 1926.

A job at the radio station Rot-Weiss-Rot enabled Bachmann to obtain an overview of contemporary literature and also supplied her with a decent income, making possible proper literary work.

In 1953, she moved to Rome, Italy, where she spent the large part of the following years working on poems, essays, opera libretti and short stories which soon brought with them international fame and numerous awards.

Bachmann's work primarily focuses on themes like personal boundaries, establishment of the truth, and philosophy of language, the latter in the tradition of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Ingeborg Bachmann died in a Roman hospital three weeks after a fire in her bedroom, on October 17, 1973.

The Ingeborg Bachmann Prize

The prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, awarded yearly in Klagenfurt, is named after her.

Selected works

"Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann," translated and introduced by Peter Filkins, published by Zephyr Press, 2006. Die gestundete Zeit (lyric poetry, 1953) Die Zikaden (radio play, 1955) Anrufung des Grossen Bären (lyric poetry, 1956) Der gute Gott von Manhattan (radio play, 1958) "Die Wahrheit ist dem Menschen zumutbar" (poetological speech at a German presentation of awards, 1959) "Frankfurter Vorlesungen" (lecture on problems of contemporary literature, 1959) Das dreißigste Jahr (story volume, 1961) Malina (novel, 1971) Translated into English by Philip Boehm.