A question for Oliver Lubrich
What does Bern gain from Dürrenmatt’s global literature?
Literary scholar Oliver Lubrich captures the essence of what the Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professorship for World Literature means for Bern.
Dürrenmatt said he could only deal with Bern by incorporating it into his work. The city shaped Friedrich Dürrenmatt and he shaped the city. Switzerland owes its literary archives in Kirchenfeld to the renowned Swiss author and dramatist. His student attic in Obstberg now accommodates guests.
And the University of Bern established the Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professorship for World Literature. Since 2013, it has brought international writers to the city who work with students for a semester and make public appearances: in the Civic Library, in the Polit-Forum Bern, in schools and elsewhere.
Guests from Congo, China, Haiti and Colombia, for example, share their culture in this way. And connections are formed that extend beyond the guest’s stay – like Dürrenmatt’s works: from Bern to the wide, wide world.
About the person
Oliver Lubrich
is Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the Institute of Germanic Languages and Literatures as well as initiator and project manager of the Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professorship for World Literature. He researches trips to dictatorships, gives lectures on Greek tragedy, published John F. Kennedy’s diary, plays soccer on the left wing and edits Alexander von Humboldt’s works.
Magazine uniFOKUS
A part of Bern
This article first appeared in uniFOKUS, the University of Bern print magazine. Four times a year, uniFOKUS focuses on one specialist area from different points of view. Current focus topic: A part of Bern.
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