Daniel Glattauer

Last updated
Daniel Glattauer at the 'Leipzig Book Fair' in 2009. Daniel Glattauer.JPG
Daniel Glattauer at the 'Leipzig Book Fair' in 2009.

Daniel Glattauer (born 19 May 1960) is an Austrian writer and former journalist. He was born in Vienna, where he still lives and works. A former regular columnist for Der Standard, a national daily newspaper, he is best known for his dialogic epistolary novel Love Virtually (Gut gegen Nordwind) and its sequel Every Seventh Wave (Alle sieben Wellen). [1]

Contents

His literary works were translated into 40 languages, sold over 3 million times [2] [3] [4] and adapted for radio, theater, television and cinema alike, even beyond the German speaking countries. In 2006 he was nominated for the German Book Prize (Deutscher Buchpreis) for his novel Love Virtually. [5]

Glattauer's novels and plays are inspired by his personal experiences, dealing with situations and themes constructed from memories of his time as a journalist and his psychosocial counsellor training. [6]

With him often being described as a "feel-good-author", Glattauer's work is characterized by humor and romantic relationships, catering to the masses and leading some critics to find fault with a lack of depth to his novels. [7] [8]

Biography

Early life, education and family

Glattauer was born in Vienna on 19 May 1960 and was raised in Favoriten, the city's 10th district, where he also went to school at Neulandschule Laaerberg. In high school, at the age of 16, he started writing his first love poems and short stories that remain unpublished. For private use only he also wrote songs for the guitar. [2]

After graduating in 1978, he went on to study pedagogy and art history at the University of Vienna in 1979, where he also did his doctorate in 1985, writing his dissertation about "the evil in the upbringing". The same year, at the age of 25, he met Lisi, whom he married 20 years later. She brought her 5-year-old son, Thomas, into the relationship and they raised him together. [9]

Glattauer is not the only journalist and author in his family. Herbert O. Glattauer, his father, is a retired journalist and freelance writer, having published multiple books. He also wrote around 40 short stories under the pseudonym 'Oscar Hannibal Pippering', starring a private detective of the same name. Herbert Glattauer is currently working on his next novel. [10] Daniel Glattauer's brother, Nikolaus, is a journalist, author and teacher in Vienna, having published books with a humorous take on education. [11] Since the birth of Theo, Glattauer's nephew, Daniel documented his upbringing and maturing in short texts and interviews and further made him the topic of two books, "Theo und der Rest der Welt" (1997) and "Theo. Antworten aus dem Kinderzimmer" (2010). [1]

From 2010 to 2012 he did a five-semester-long diploma course at " ARGE Bildungsmanagement " to be a psychosocial counsellor. [5]

Career

Following the completion of his studies, Glattauer worked as an editor for Die Presse , a national, daily newspaper, for about three years, before becoming a journalist for Der Standard, a few months after it was founded. There, he operated as court reporter and journalist as well as columnist, writing his columns about daily life under the acronym 'dag.'

In 1998 he published "Bekennen Sie sich schuldig?", a collection of satirical texts from his time as a court reporter. This was followed by the anthologies of selected columns, "Ameisenerzählung" in 2001, "Schauma mal" in 2009 and "Mama, jetzt nicht!" in 2011. [5]

After his first novels "Der Weihnachtshund" and "Darum" were successful in the German-speaking area, Glattauer's real breakthrough as a novelist happened in 2006, with Love Virtually. Since 2009 he is a freelance author, residing in Vienna and the 'Waldviertel', the northwestern region of Lower Austria [12] with his wife Lisi Glattauer and five Indian runner ducks. [9] In 2010 he was part of the jury of the short-story competition "Wortlaut" by the Austrian radio station FM4. [7]

Recently Daniel Glattauer and his wife, with the help of the winemaker Barbara Öhlzeit, started tending to and producing their own wine. The 2015 vintage is named after his most successful novel, "Gut gegen Nordwind - Glattauers Gemischte Sätze", and the 2016 batch is currently maturing. [13]

Style

Glattauer's "elegant" and "light" style that characterizes most of his humorous prose are ascribed to the years of journalistic experience he gathered during his time as columnist at Der Standard. [5] In an interview with the journalist Birgit Braunrath, Glattauer himself claims that his goal is first and foremost to "get across in the most authentic way possible" ("möglichstauthentisch rüberkommen.") [14]

Inspiration and themes

Glattauer's first play "Die Wunderübung" was inspired directly by the psychosocial counselling course he attended in 2010. It is a minimalistic play with three characters, a constantly fighting married couple and their couples therapist who resorts to unconventional methods to fix their relationship. [5] [6]

Glattauer claims that "one always draws inspiration from experience" ("Man schöpft immer aus dem Erlebten") and that he writes about what he knows. In an interview with the Austrian journalist Thomas Trenkler, he reveals that some of his works, such as the psychothriller Forever Yours ("Ewig dein") published in 2012, were inspired by his time as a court reporter, relying on trial proceedings of stalking cases he witnessed at the time. [6]

Even as a retired journalist he finds inspiration in newspapers. He stumbled across the idea for his novel "Geschenkt", two years prior to its publication in 2014, in a newspaper article reporting on an anonymous donation made for people in need in Braunschweig, Germany. [15] This story itself was highly publicized at the time and referred to as "the miracle of Braunschweig" ("das Wunder von Braunschweig .") [16]

Public reception

Public image

Since many of Glattauer's novels are centered around romantic relationships, he has acquired the image of a romance-novelist and someone who understands the opposite sex very well. The narrative of his works resonate with the masses, especially with women. [17] In a review published in Die Presse, Anna-Maria Wallner admits that Glattauer writes "amusing dialogues" ("amüsante Dialoge") but simultaneously critiques him for having a too intense focus on romantic relationships in most of his novels. [8] Consistent with Wallner's review, the phrase "feel-good-author" is used in various reviews and interviews, implying a lack of depth to his work. [7] When confronted with this label, the author takes it lightly, responding that "rubbing people the wrong way is not his specialty" ("Anecken ist nicht meine Disziplin.") [18]

Reception

At first Glattauer's reputation as a journalist hindered his success as an author in his home country. Austrian literary critics would think of him as a journalist whose hobby was writing books in his free time. As a result, there is a lack of domestic, analytical, literary reviews of his work, which offers and explanation for his relatively moderate success in Austria compared to Germany, where his works are strongly promoted. [2] The German, self-employed bookseller Martin Gaiser states in a review of Love Virtually that Glattauer uses "trenchant and challenging" ("pointiert und anspruchsvoll") language, naming it as one of the reasons for the novel's success. [17] Taking the roundabout way through Austria's neighboring country, the national reception of Glattauer's work, although delayed, was overall very good. [2] The author himself believes that the reception in various countries most likely depends on the quality of the translation, stating that the Spanish version must be quite good with regard to the sales numbers in Spain. [6]

Readership demographic

In an Interview with the journalist Herbert Lackner, Glattauer reveals that he always writes with an intended audience at the back of his mind. For instance, he imagined the readers of his novel "Darum" to be female, between the ages 30 and 40. [19]

Adaptations of his work

Theater

On 7 May 2009 the theater adaptation of Love Virtually premiered at the "Theater in der Josefstadt". While Glattauer co-wrote the adaptation, the stage production was directed by Michael Kreihsl, starring Ruth Brauer-Kvam and Alexander Pschill in the lead roles. [20] In the theater season of 2010/11 the adaptation had, tremendous success in the German-speaking countries, its 374 performances only being topped by Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit .

Glattauer's play "Die Wunderübung" premiered on 22 January 2015, shortly after he wrote it in 2014. [6]

Film

Glattauer's novel "Der Weihnachtshund" was adapted for television in 2004. The movie, by the same name, was directed by the German producer Michael Keusch, starring Nadeshda Brennicke and Florian Fitz in the lead roles of Katrin and Max. [5] [21] Three years later, the Austrian screenwriter and director Harald Sicheritz produced Glattauer's "Darum" for the cinema. Neither the movie "Der Weihnachtshund" nor "Darum" were as successful as the theater versions of Glattauer's other novels. [5]

In 2010, the theater adaptation of Love Virtually premiered on national television. [20]

Radio

Love Virtually was adapted for BBC Radio 4 by Eileen Horne. [22] Produced by Clive Brill for Pacificus Productions, the abridged play starred Emilia Fox and David Tennant in the lead roles of Emmi Rothner and Leo Leike. [23] The program was first broadcast at 2:15 p.m. on 8 March 2012 and ran for a week. [24] Describing the play as "sharply written, funny and brilliantly played", Elisabeth Mahoney's review in the Guardian is representative of the show's overall positive public reception. [24]

Following the success of Love Virtually, on 14 February 2013, the adaptation of Every Seventh Wave was aired on BBC Radio 4 with Fox and Tennant voicing the protagonists once more. [25]

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Moser (actor)</span> Austrian actor

Hans Moser was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film. Moser appeared in over 150 films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Menasse</span> Austrian writer (born 1954)

Robert Menasse is an Austrian writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Mario Simmel</span> Austrian writer (1924–2009)

Johannes Mario Simmel, also known as J. M. Simmel, was an Austrian writer.

<i>Elisabeth</i> (musical) Musical about Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Elisabeth is a Viennese musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien and originally produced in German, with a book and lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as "Sisi", the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, from her engagement and marriage in 1854 to her murder in 1898 at the hands of the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni; it focuses on her growing obsession with death, as her marriage and the empire crumble around her just before the turn of the 20th century.

Alexander Pschill is an Austrian actor who is best known for starring in Inspector Rex from 2002 to 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wenzel Jaksch</span>

Wenzel Jaksch was a Sudeten German Social Democrat politician and the president of the Federation of Expellees in 1964 to 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimitré Dinev</span> Austrian writer

Dimitré Dinev is a Bulgarian-born Austrian writer. He is best known for his play Kozha i nebe, which controversially won the Askeer prize in 2007.

Gustav A. "Geza" Silberer was an Austrian journalist and author of Jewish extraction born in Werschetz who wrote in German under the pseudonym Sil-Vara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Theodor Csokor</span> Austrian author and dramatist

Franz Theodor Csokor was an Austrian author and dramatist, particularly well known for his expressionist dramas. His most successful and best-known piece is 3. November 1918, about the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In many of his works, Csokor deals with themes of antiquity and Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Weiss (author)</span>

Hans Weiss is an Austrian writer, journalist and photographer

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helmut Müller-Enbergs</span> German political scientist (born 1960)

Helmut Müller-Enbergs is a German political scientist who has written extensively on the Stasi and related aspects of the German Democratic Republic's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julya Rabinowich</span>

Julya Rabinowich (Russian: Юля Борисовна Рабинович; born 1970 in Leningrad, is an Austrian author, playwright, painter and translator. In 1977 her family emigrated to Vienna, a move in which she describes herself as having been “uprooted and re-potted.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Vertlib</span>

Vladimir Vertlib, born 2 July 1966 in Leningrad, Russia, immigrated to Austria where he became a writer. His works, revolving around the themes of migration, Judaism, and identity, have been translated to Russian, Czech, Slovenian, and Italian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Haidegger</span> Austrian poet and writer (1942–2021)

Christine Haidegger was an Austrian poet and writer whose memoir Zum Fenster hinaus was translated into English as Mama Dear. She was influential in the Salzburg literary scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bettina Balàka</span> Austrian novelist (born 1966)

Bettina Balàka is an Austrian novelist, poet, essayist, playwright and short story writer. Recent novels include Eisflüstern, Kassiopeia (2010) and Unter Menschen.

Josef Kilian Schickh was an Austrian playwright who wrote mainly fairy tales, lokalposse and parodies for the Alt-Wiener Volkstheater, one of the three Wiener Vorstadttheater. He was the nephew of the journalist Johann Schickh and a contemporary of Johann Nestroy, Karl Meisl, Josef Alois Gleich and Franz Xaver Told.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sedlaczek</span> Austrian author

Robert Sedlaczek is an Austrian journalist, Germanist and non-fiction author. He is best known for his works on aspects of the German language. In addition, he writes books and articles on cultural history topics. In his book Die Tante Jolesch und ihre Zeit. Eine Recherche he traced the history of the industrial family of the same name as well as the lawyer, Hugo Sperber. These people are characters in Friedrich Torberg's book Die Tante Jolesch.

Carla Amina Baghajati is the media officer of the Islamic Faith Association in Austria and co-founder of the "Initiative muslimischer ÖsterreicherInnen". She has been described as one of the best-known faces of Islam in Austria. She was actually born in what was West Germany, but moved to Vienna as a student in 1987 and stayed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietrich Kralik</span> Austrian philologist

Dietrich Ritter Kralik von Meyrswalden was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elfriede Hammerl</span> Austrian journalist

Elfriede Hammerl is an Austrian journalist and writer from Gumpoldskirchen, near Vienna.

References

  1. 1 2 "Daniel Glattauer - Autoren - Hanser Literaturverlage". www.hanser-literaturverlage.de. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Schmickl, Gerald. "Daniel Glattauer: "Schriftlinger" vom Laaer Berg - Wiener Zeitung Online". Autoren - Wiener Zeitung Online. Archived from the original on 2015-12-31. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  3. ↑ "Daniel Glattauer: Der 51-Jährige ist Österreichs erfolgreichster Autor | trend.at". trend.at. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  4. ↑ Daniel Glattauer (2012-01-26). "Schreiben ist Knochenarbeit". news.at. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Daniel Glattauer – Wien Geschichte Wiki". www.wien.gv.at. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Daniel Glattauer: "Das bin ich mir schuldig"". Thomas Trenkler (in German). 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  7. 1 2 3 "Wortlaut-Jury: Daniel Glattauer - fm4.ORF.at". fm4.orf.at. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  8. 1 2 "Glattauers Gespür für das Gute". DiePresse.com. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  9. 1 2 "Über den Autor - Daniel Glattauer". www.daniel-glattauer.de. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  10. ↑ Jahn, Reinhard. "Lexikon der deutschen Krimi-Autoren: Oscar Pippering". www.krimilexikon.de. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  11. ↑ "Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur: Gäste ab 1999". www.ogl.at. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  12. ↑ "Glattauer, Daniel". Austria-Forum. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  13. ↑ "Gut gegen Nordwind | Weinberggeiss". www.weinberggeiss.at. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  14. ↑ "Der Mann, der Gottschalk eine Absage erteilt" . Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  15. ↑ "Daniel Glattauer über 'Geschenkt' - Daniel Glattauer". www.daniel-glattauer.de. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  16. ↑ Germany, SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg (17 February 2012). "Anonyme Geldspenden: Das Wunder von Braunschweig". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2016-11-21.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. 1 2 Gaiser, Von Martin. "Ein Briefroman im modernen Gewand - Daniel Glattauers "Gut gegen Nordwind" als Hörbuch : literaturkritik.de". literaturkritik.de. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  18. ↑ m.b.H., Standard Verlagsgesellschaft. ""Anecken ist nicht meine Disziplin"". derStandard.at. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  19. ↑ "Daniel Glattauer: Ich mochte manche Mörder". profil.at. 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  20. 1 2 "» Theater - Daniel Glattauer". www.daniel-glattauer.de. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  21. ↑ 3sat.online. "Der Weihnachtshund -". www.3sat.de. Retrieved 2016-11-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ Reynolds, Gillian (March 3, 2012). "Pick of the Day". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  23. ↑ "BBC - Afternoon Drama - Love Virtually - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  24. 1 2 "Love Virtually Archives - MacLehose Press". MacLehose Press. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  25. ↑ "Every Seventh Wave, Afternoon Drama - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.