Charles Linsmayer: “20/21 Synchron global”
Published: Thursday, Jan 11th 2024, 19:40
Updated At: Thursday, Jan 11th 2024, 19:41
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Charles Linsmayer is a passionate reader and literary mediator. In his anthology "19/21 Synchron global", he invites us on a journey through the world literature of the last 150 years with an impressive personal selection.
The literatures of the world are varied and diverse. An overview is hardly possible. This makes works that give an impression of what there is to read all the more commendable. Under the title "19/21 Synchron global", Charles Linsmayer presents 135 selected texts by just as many authors from all regions of the world.
Toni Morrison and Knut Hamsun, Olga Tokarczuk and Haruki Murakami, Chiamanda Ngozi Adichie and Juan Carlos Onetti meet in this volume. Their very different texts form a colorful texture of literary writing.
Two years ago, Linsmayer published a similarly opulent book of 135 texts on multilingual Swiss literature under the title "20/21 Synchron". He has always seen it as his task to convey literary richness. He was and is well aware that he can only present excerpts from a whole. The two "Synchron" volumes reflect Linsmayer's personal selection. In both, the texts are accompanied by portraits of the authors, which are as concise as they are precise and make the book a small reference work.
The world's literatures have much to offer; we only need to take note and choose what appeals to us. In this sense, the present anthology resembles one of those signposts that stand at neuralgic junctions and point in all directions to the various trails that can be read from here. In this way, the author and reader Linsmayer offers initial help in the thicket of literary possibilities. Readers are left with the beautiful task of allowing themselves to be seduced by this and to take up one or two narrative paths in greater depth themselves.*
*This text by Beat Mazenauer, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
©Keystone/SDA
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