Ceremonial act
Verdichtete Kommunikation – Michael Krüger und Alain Claude Sulzer
Doktor Alban-Saal
St. Alban-Vorstadt 12 (CMS), 4052 Basel
Michael Krüger and Alain Claude Sulzer discuss poetry as a condensed form of language—and how precision, reduction, and omission open up new realms of meaning.
In a conversation between German publisher Michael Krüger and Swiss writer Alain Claude Sulzer, the focus is on poetry as a condensed form of language and communication: How do precision, reduction, and omission give rise to new realms of meaning?
In preparation for the panel discussion, Michael Krüger writes:
“For 30 years, I single-handedly edited a literary journal that primarily published poetry; as a publisher, I published poetry, compiled anthologies—ranging from Czech to Italian literature—I translated poems, engaged with them, wrote laudatory speeches, and voted for them on juries. But none of it helped. Didn’t help at all? Yes, it helped me a great deal, because I’ve had the best life imaginable—always with a poetry collection close at hand. In other words, poetry may not be able to change life as such, but it has decisively changed my life, which is why I will remain faithful to it until my last breath. I haven’t yet decided definitively which poem will appear on my obituary. But I promise to inform my friends and companions in good time so they can get their hands on the relevant editions.
Let’s talk about these and other questions—both practical and theoretical—when we meet in Basel.”
Duration: between 60 and 90 minutes
Language: German
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.
In preparation for the panel discussion, Michael Krüger writes:
“For 30 years, I single-handedly edited a literary journal that primarily published poetry; as a publisher, I published poetry, compiled anthologies—ranging from Czech to Italian literature—I translated poems, engaged with them, wrote laudatory speeches, and voted for them on juries. But none of it helped. Didn’t help at all? Yes, it helped me a great deal, because I’ve had the best life imaginable—always with a poetry collection close at hand. In other words, poetry may not be able to change life as such, but it has decisively changed my life, which is why I will remain faithful to it until my last breath. I haven’t yet decided definitively which poem will appear on my obituary. But I promise to inform my friends and companions in good time so they can get their hands on the relevant editions.
Let’s talk about these and other questions—both practical and theoretical—when we meet in Basel.”
Duration: between 60 and 90 minutes
Language: German
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.