Botho Strauß

Botho Strauß (born 2 December 1944 in Naumburg) is a German playwright, novelist and essayist.

Biography

Botho Strauß's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauß studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Cologne and Munich, but never finished his dissertation on Thomas Mann und das Theater. During his studies, he worked as an extra at the Munich Kammerspiele. From 1967 to 1970, he was a critic and editorial journalist for the journal Theater heute (Theater Today). Between 1970 and 1975, he worked as a dramaturgical assistant to Peter Stein at the West Berlin Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer. After his first attempt as a writer, a Gorky adaptation for the screen, he decided to live and work as a writer. Strauß had his first breakthrough as a dramatist with the 1977 Trilogie des Wiedersehens, five years after the publication of his first work. In 1984 he published his important work Der Junge Mann (The Young Man, translated by Roslyn Theobald in 1995).

With a 1993 Der Spiegel essay, "Anschwellender Bocksgesang" ("Swelling He-Goat Song"), a critical examination of modern civilisation, he triggered a major political controversy as his conservative politics was anathema to many.

In his theoretical work, Strauß showed the influence of the ancient classics, Nietzsche, Heidegger as well as Adorno, but his outlook was also radically anti-bourgeois.

His work as a writer has been recognized with numerous international awards and his dramas are among the most performed in German-language theatres.

Strauß presently lives in Berlin as well as in the nearby Uckermark region.

Awards and honors

• 1982 Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis

Works

• Die Ähnlichen: moral Interludes; Der Kuss des Vergessens: Vivarium rot, two plays (1998) ISBN 3-446-19292-1
• Angelas Kleider: Nachtstück in zwei Teilen (1991) ISBN 3-446-16434-0
• Beginnlosigkeit: Reflexionen über Fleck und Linie (1992) ISBN 3-446-17112-6
• Besucher, three plays (1988) ISBN 3-446-15257-1
• Diese Erinnerung an einen, der nur einen Tag zu Gast war, poem (1985) ISBN 3-446-14396-3
• Die eine und die andere, play in two acts (2005) ISBN 3-446-20620-5 (pbk.)
• Die Fehler des Kopisten (1997) ISBN 3-446-19029-5
• Fragmente der Undeutlichkeit (1989) ISBN 3-446-15736-0
• Die Fremdenführerin, play in two acts (1986) ISBN 3-446-14497-8 (pbk.)
• Der Gebärdensammler, texts on theatre, edited by Thomas Oberender (1999) ISBN 3-88661-217-1
• Gedankenfluchten (1999) ISBN 3-518-22326-7
• Das Gleichgewicht play in three acts (1993) ISBN 3-446-17498-2
• Groß und klein, scenes (1978) ISBN 3-446-12598-1
• Die Hypochonder; Bekannte Gesichter, gemischte Gefühle, two plays (1979) ISBN 3-446-12817-4
• Ithaka, play after the homecoming cantos of the Odyssey (1996) ISBN 3-446-18577-1
• Jeffers – Akt I und II (1998) ISBN 3-446-19528-9
• Der junge Mann (1984) ISBN 3-446-14134-0
• Kalldewey, farce (1981) ISBN 3-446-13477-8
• Kongress: die Kette der Demütigungen (1989)
• Botho Strauß / Neo Rauch: Der Mittler, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-930754-44-4
• Mikado (2006) ISBN 3-446-20808-9
• Marlenes Schwester, two novellas (1975) ISBN 3-446-12011-4
• Die Nacht mit Alice, als Julia ums Haus schlich (2003) ISBN 3-446-20357-5
• Der Narr und seine Frau heute abend in Pancomedia (2001) ISBN 3-446-20087-8
• Niemand anderes 2nd ed. (1987) ISBN 3-446-14890-6
• Paare, Passanten 2nd ed. (1981) ISBN 3-446-13450-6
• Der Park, play (1983) ISBN 3-446-13772-6 loosely based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Das Partikular (2000) ISBN 3-446-19886-5
• Rumor (1980) ISBN 3-446-12990-1
• Schändung after Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (2005) ISBN 3-446-20626-4 (pbk.)
• Schlusschor, three acts (1991) ISBN 3-446-16218-6
• Schützenehre, novella (1975) ISBN 3-87365-071-1
• Trilogie des Wiedersehens, play (1976) ISBN 3-446-12269-9
• Tumult translated by Michael Hulse (1984) ISBN 0-85635-472-4
• Unerwartete Rückkehr (2002) ISBN 3-446-20254-4
• Der Untenstehende auf Zehenspitzen (2004) ISBN 3-446-20491-1
• Versuch, ästhetische und politische Ereignisse zusammenzudenken, texts on theatre 1967–1986 (1987) ISBN 3-88661-080-2
• Die Widmung, novella (1977) ISBN 3-446-12415-2
• Wohnen, dämmern, lügen (1994) ISBN 3-446-17875-9

English translations

• Drama Contemporary. Germany: plays by Botho Strauss et al.; edited by Carl Weber. (1996) ISBN 0-8018-5279-X (alk. paper) ISBN 0-8018-5280-3 (pbk., alk. paper)
• Big and Little, scenes, translated by Anne Cattaneo (1979) ISBN 0-374-11254-1
• Big and Small, translated by Martin Crimp (2011)
  A Sydney Theatre Company production, co-commissioned by the Barbican Centre, London 2012 Festival, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, Vienna Festival and Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen; Cate Blanchett as Lotte.
• Couples, Passersby translated by Roslyn Theobald (1996) ISBN 0-8101-1242-6 (alk. paper)
• Devotion translated by Sophie Wilkins (1995) ISBN 0-8101-1342-2 (pbk., alk. paper)
• Living, Glimmering, Lying translated by Roslyn Theobald (1999) ISBN 0-8101-1283-3 (alk. paper)
• The Park translated by Tinch Minter and Anthony Vivis, Sheffield Academic Press (1988) ISBN 1-85075-188-9
• The Young Man translated by Roslyn Theobald (1995) ISBN 0-8101-1338-4 (alk. paper)
• Three Plays (The Park, Seven Doors, Time and the Room) translated by Jeremy Sams, Oberon, 2006 ISBN 978-1-84002-476-0

Prizes and Awards

• 1987 Jean Paul Prize
• 1989 Georg Buechner Prize
• 1993 Berlin Theatre Prize
• 2007 Schiller Memorial Prize

Notes and References

Notes

References

External links

• Botho Strauß: New German dramatic art. Goethe-Instituts Website
• "Books in Brief: Fiction" on Couples, Passersby by Erik Burns, The New York Times (29 December 1996)