Maja Haderlap (born 8 March 1961 in
Eisenkappel-Vellach
Eisenkappel-Vellach ( sl, Železna Kapla-Bela) is a market town in the Völkermarkt District in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The spa town is the southernmost municipality of Austria, close to the border with Slovenia.
Geography
The municipal ...
( sl, Železna Kapla-Bela,
Carinthia) is a bilingual
Slovenian
Slovene or Slovenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe
* Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia
* Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...
-
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
Austrian writer, best known for her multiple-award-winning novel,
Angel of Oblivion, about the
Slovene ethnic minority's
transgenerational trauma
Transgenerational trauma is the psychological and physiological effects that the trauma experienced by people has on subsequent generations in that group. The primary modes of transmission are the uterine environment during pregnancy causing epigen ...
of being treated as 'homeland traitors' by the German-speaking Austrian neighbors, because they were the only ever-existing military resistance against
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
[Angel pozabe je postal moja pripoved](_blank)
(in Slovene; Angel of Forgetting has become my narrative), Delo
''Delo'' (russian: Дело) is a business oriented online media in Ukraine, belonging to ekonomika+ media holding.
''Delo'' was the first daily in Ukraine, publishing its real print circulation (13.000 - 15.000) and trying to introduce Western e ...
's Pogledi Magazin, 2011, Ljubljana
Life
Her grandmother who was sent to
Ravensbrück concentration camp. At ten years old, Haderlap's father was tortured by the Nazis to disclose where his father, who joined
Slovene Partisans
The Slovene Partisans, formally the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia, (NOV in POS) were part of Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2013): ''In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western ...
, was hiding.
Her father often wanted to kill himself because of the way Austrian majority treated him. The family waited until he passed out, then pried his fingers from the gun. After reading her grandmother’s diary, she was “afraid of being overrun by the past, of being crushed by its weight.” She made a conscious decision to write about her family’s history in a novel.
Work
She holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...
and has worked at the
Alpen-Adria-Universität in
Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...
. She was editor for many years of the Carinthian Slovene minority literary magazine 'Mladje' and wrote poetry, prose, and essays in both Slovenian and German. Her work has been published in numerous German and international literary journals and anthologies. From 1992 to 2007, she worked as drama supervisor at the Klagenfurt City Theatre. She is the most awarded member of the
Graz's Guild of writers and lives in Klagenfurt.
''Angel of Oblivion''
Winning one of the most important awards for literature in the German language, the
Ingeborg Bachmann Prize
The Festival of German-Language Literature (german: Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur, links=no) is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of ...
in 2011, and the
Max Frisch Prize
The Max Frisch Prize of the City of Zürich, created in 1996, is usually awarded every four years to writers in German-speaking countries. The prize is named after the Swiss writer Max Frisch (1911–1991). The literary award is endowed with a priz ...
of the City of
Zurich in 2018, her most notable novel was made into a drama and put on theater stages. The story is told from a point of view of a young girl, growing up in the late-1960s or early-1970s in the Austrian province of Carinthia, learning to navigate the terrain between Slovenian, a language of the past anti-Nazi resistance and present humiliation, and German, an escape from being treated as traitor by her German-speaking Austrian neighbors.
Books
* Žalik pesmi, Poems (1983)
* Bajalice, Poems (1987)
* Poems - Pesmi - Poems (1989)
* Deček in sonce (The boy and the sun), zadruga Novi Matajur, Cividale and Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Založba Drava 2000
* Between Politics and Culture
* The city of Klagenfurt Theatre from 1992 to 2007. The era Pflegerl Dietmar (2007)
* Engel des Vergessens (Angel of Oblivion), Wallstein, Göttingen, 2011
Awards
* 2018:
Max Frisch Prize
The Max Frisch Prize of the City of Zürich, created in 1996, is usually awarded every four years to writers in German-speaking countries. The prize is named after the Swiss writer Max Frisch (1911–1991). The literary award is endowed with a priz ...
of the City of
Zurich
* 2017:
PEN Translation Prize
The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been p ...
for ''
Angel of Oblivion'', translated by
Tess Lewis in 2016
* 2012:
Honorary Doctor
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
,
University of Klagenfurt
The University of Klagenfurt (german: Universität Klagenfurt or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the state of Carinthia. It has it ...
* 2012: Writer in residence in
one world foundation
one world foundation is a non-profit aid organisation in Sri Lanka, which operates a school for more than 1,100 children, adolescents and adults. The project is financed with the proceeds from a guest house and from donations. The foundation is ...
in Sri Lanka
[Cf]
owf.at: writer in residence
* 2011:
Ingeborg Bachmann Prize
The Festival of German-Language Literature (german: Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur, links=no) is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of ...
for the novel "Angel of Oblivion"
* 2006/2007: Austrian State Scholarship for Literature
* 2005: Women's Culture Prize for Literature in the province of Carinthia
* 2004: Hubert Burda Prize as part of the Hermann-Lenz Prize
* 1989: Award of Prešeren Foundation
* 1983: Promotion Award of Carinthia
References
External links
Private Homepage von Maja HaderlapKurzporträt und Text ''Im Kessel''bei bachmannpreis.eu
*
Translation (Poem) translated by Tess Lewis published in
Words Without Borders
''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...
, February 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haderlap, Maja
1961 births
Living people
People from Völkermarkt District
21st-century Austrian novelists
Austrian women novelists
Austrian women poets
University of Vienna alumni
21st-century Austrian women writers