Ilija Trojanow
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Trojanow has repeatedly intervened in the current debate on surveillance practices, which led to a short-term entry ban to the USA in 2013. Trojanow is an author for whom 'foreign' cultures have become an essential part of his own literary work. In times defined by migration and cultural exchange, his life and work show him to be an international and intercultural writer. He was born in Sofia in 1965 and his family fled to West Germany in 1971 for political reasons. He grew up in Kenya, has lived in Mumbai/India since 1999, then in Cape Town/South Africa and now in Vienna.
Image: Harald Krichel (Wikimedia Commons; CC-BY-SA-4.0)His different life contexts have not only shaped his fiction, including his great novel Der Weltensammler (2007), but also his non-fiction books, travel guides, etc. His most recent publications include EisTau (novel), Der überflüssige Mensch and Wo Orpheus begraben liegt. Together with Juli Zeh, he published the book Angriffe auf die Freiheit (Attacks on Freedom) even before the Snowden revelations. Sicherheitswahn, Überwachungsstaat und der Abbau bürgerlicher Rechte.
GPP event series with Ilija Trojanow
Ilija Trojanow accepted the Grimm Poetics Professorship in June 2014. On June 2, he gave a lecture entitled "On Power and Resistance". It was about "the third repetition of history or the intersection of the novel project and political engagement". His seminar on June 3 was entitled "Evil in Literature" and discussed the difficulties of shaping evil in literature. On June 4, Trojanow read from his latest novel EisTau(with recorded music). Each event began at 6 pm.