Rafik Schami
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The Syrian-German writer Rafik Schami held the Brothers Grimm Professorship in the summer semester of 2010. With Schami, the University of Kassel invited a writer who has been working for years to bring the worlds of the Orient and Occident closer together.
In a series of events from May 19 to 21, Schami focused on the art of storytelling itself - another central theme of his prose alongside politics.
Image: Heike Huslage-Koch (Wikimedia Commons; CC-BY-SA-4.0)Born in Damascus in 1946 and living in Germany since 1971, Schami holds a doctorate in chemistry. He was already involved in literature in Syria as the founder and author of the wall newspaper Al-Muntalek (English: Starting Point), which was banned in 1969. Shami's diverse work covers almost all literary genres: from novels for young and old, political essays and satires to plays and radio plays. In his texts, he repeatedly combines a seemingly naive infatuation with the traditional oriental art of storytelling with a keen eye for delicate political circumstances and dangers. His most important works include A Hand Full of Stars (1987), Narrator of the Night (1989), The Honest Liar (1992) and the great novel The Dark Side of Love (2004), which was highly acclaimed by literary critics.
GPP events with Rafik Schami
In the lecture "Orality as Salvation" on May 19 at 7 p.m., the author dealt in particular with the original form of existence of storytelling. On May 20 at 4 pm, a public seminar entitled "Village Square Stories" took place and on May 21, Schami offered a public storytelling session. All events took place in the lecture hall of the Kassel Art Academy (Menzelstraße 13-15, Nordbau A).