Glitches, bots and ray cats. Present at Clemens J. Setz
International symposium of the Franz Nabl Institute of the University of Graz at the Literaturhaus Graz
14.-16.4.2021
What does wrestling have to do with literature? Why is the longevity of literary texts best explained by genetically manipulated cats? What is an "Or", what are "didelines" or "douche chills"? What connects fictional encyclopedia articles with the existential emptiness of human existence? What do glitches tell us about death and the indelibility of the past? What is the comfort of round things? What does an empty chessboard taste like?
Clemens J. Setz's literature raises questions that international experts from the fields of German-language literary criticism, literary and cultural studies and theater will address in this event. In his extensive novels, the author unfolds a wide range of themes that cast doubt on conventional models of authorship and bring posthuman concepts of identity to light. He writes bizarre stories about strange outsiders, Kafkaesque short stories and Dadaist Twitter poems. In his drama texts, he creates ambivalent social dystopias under the signs of simulation and self-optimization. In his essays, he collects remote facts and off-the-wall knowledge.
It is astonishing to see which corners and ends Clemens J. Setz's writing has taken him to so far. Graz, the author's hometown, once again emerges as the secret capital of German-language literature. And things can get pretty creepy in these texts: Strange people with strange inclinations appear, strange things happen. It remains unclear whether we are still in the present in what the author so vividly presents to us, or whether we are already in a future that nobody would have wished for. With Clemens J Setz, we are always right in the middle of it. In a world that may seem monstrous, absurd, indecent and cruel to us, but which is certainly one thing: ours.
Concept: Klaus Kastberger, David Wimmer
Organization: Elisabeth Loibner