Sprechen und Schweigen

Description

Course dates Monday, 19.10., 2.11., 23.11., 7.12.2026, each from 19:00 to 21:00. Conversation is the most common and direct form of verbal interaction between people. However, it does not always run smoothly; for various reasons, it can be hindered or disrupted. The narrative literature of our culture is rich in variations of talking past each other, of silence, and exclusion based on linguistic differences. Some interesting aspects of impaired communication are discussed in the new publications that are the focus of the reading circle. Each of the four evenings will feature one of these works, discussed in detail under the guidance of the writer Rudolf Bussmann. The discussion of the books will be based on the interests and reading experiences of the participants. It will revolve around plot and characters but also include literary form, structure, and language. If the works discussed are read by everyone before the respective evening, nothing stands in the way of an engaging exchange. Registration The course is fully booked, and no further registrations can be accepted. Course leader Rudolf Bussmann (author) Cost CHF 160/120 (Members of LiteraturBasel, students) Registration deadline Monday, September 21, 2026 Works and dates of discussion: Jehona Kicaj:ë. Novel (Monday, October 19, 2026) "I learned early that I had to remain silent once we reached the Serbian border," says the first-person narrator. She brings a language from Kosovo, which is considered inferior beyond the border. In Germany, where she grows up, she has to give up her mother tongue entirely. The suppression of it leads to somatic problems, manifesting among other things as tension in the jaw. "When I speak German, I feel like my jaw has to dislocate to pronounce the words." The narrator senses how the pressure to adapt settles in her body, making it stiff. Jehona Kicaj describes with precision and great sensitivity how profound and painful a process can be, which is often beautified with the vague term "linguistic integration." (Wallstein Verlag 2025, 170 pages) Gianna Olinda Cadonau: Am Kantenhain. Stories. (Monday, November 2, 2026) The protagonists in Gianna Olinda Cadonau's stories struggle with a traumatic past. Many have moved to a Bündner village, where newcomers stand out, especially if they speak neither German nor Romansh. They are strangers or feel foreign, marginalized, lost—often teenagers shunned by peers, left alone with their problems, abused by their parents. When someone seeks access to one of these individuals and approaches them gently, a fleeting closeness, a tentative understanding, a tender gesture emerges—signs that bridges exist that lead out of loneliness, that loss is not total. (Lenos Verlag 2026, 127 pages) Jon Fosse: Vaim. Novel (Monday, November 23, 2026) The new novel by the Nobel laureate is set on a Norwegian island group. It is minimally cast—a woman and three men—and resembles a chamber play, in which the characters are fatefully connected. The men, who speak one after the other, give insight into their lives, which they ultimately do not understand. In their monologues, they try to trace what happens to them but get stuck, turn inward, repeat incomprehensible things they cannot fathom. They talk past each other, more for themselves than for the other, in a kind of autistic insistence on their clichés and speech patterns. The longer they speak, the more clearly loneliness emerges, in which they live. (Rowohlt Verlag 2025, 156 pages) Robert Menasse: Die Lebensentscheidung. Novella (Monday, December 7, 2026) The novella begins with the protagonist's decision to resign from his position at the European Commission after realizing that nothing can be achieved within the bureaucratic monster. To avoid disappointing his proud mother about his career, he does not tell her about his decision. When he is unexpectedly confronted with a cancer diagnosis, he also chooses not to tell her to spare her. His efforts increasingly revolve around maintaining this double silence. He prolongs his own end with all medical tricks to survive and to give his mother a peaceful death with his life lie. (Suhrkamp Verlag 2026, 158 pages) Participants and additional information: RUDOLF BUSSMANN (*1947 in Olten) is a writer and editor. He offers writing support, leads reading circles, writes novels, short prose, aphorisms, poetry. His latest publications include the travel essay "Herbst in Nordkorea" (2021) and the poetry collection "Verheissenes Land" (2024). He lives in Basel.