Malina. Das ist kein Liebesroman

»Ich werde Ihnen ein furchtbares Geheimnis verraten: die Sprache ist die Strafe. In sie müssen alle Dinge eingehen und in ihr müssen sie wieder vergehen nach ihrer Schuld und dem Ausmaß ihrer Schuld.«

— »Malina«, Ingeborg Bachmann

Malina was published in 1971 and is the first and only novel by Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachman. The book is often read as a story about love. However, it is rather an important testimony to post-war literature: the female first-person narrator delicately takes apart the myth of coming to terms with the past. In doing so, she finds a language that makes the experience of violence describable.

In 9 meetings we will read Malina together. Piece by piece. Each session is dedicated to about 40 pages of the novel (Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, 1980). Each meeting will be accompanied by a moderator. The moderator will set their own focus on the respective section of the novel. We will therefore always have a close reading of 2 to 3 pages per meeting and discuss what we have read.

This meeting will be moderated by author Heike Geißler.

Reading group with contributions from Dorothee Elmiger, Heike Geißler, Mascha Jacobs, Monika Rinck, Tanasgol Sabbagh, Simone Scharbert, Gerhild Steinbuch, Karosh Taha, Evan Tepest