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20100524

SCANDALOUS YOUNG WRITERS




... since there has been so much talk (far too much talk, for my taste) recently about young authors of contemporary fiction and their perception of "intertextuality" ...

... a discussion that involved a surprising number of fashion bloggers, as it were - the intellectual élite, of course, and people who more often than not sided with the "underdog" ...



... the underdog being the unjustly reprimanded 18-year-old, who published a first novel of dubitable literary quality ...

... I had to think of the talented young author that was Ronald M. Schernikau in his day, a very particular writer and individual. Born in 1960, he died at age 31 of AIDS, and succeeded in crossing over from Western Germany into the GDR in 1989, just before the wall came down - the reunification of Germany also meant the downbreak of a personal utopia, in his case.

Schernikau published his first book KLEINSTADTNOVELLE in 1980, then aged 20 - and thus created a "valid" contribution to German-language literature of the 20th century. Remains to be seen if we'll be able to say the same thing about other books in, say, 10, 15, 20 years time. Or even - six months ...

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