Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall: Borderliner Between the Orient and the Occident. Lecture Performances

The DIWAN Academy consists of eight events supporting the exhibition on Joseph Hammer-Purgstall at Hainfeld Castle. Already in 2006, Urania presented Hammer-Purgstall's biography and work in a series of lectures. The book ‘Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, Grenzgänger zwischen Orient und Okzident' (Borderliner Between the Orient and the Occident) will be presented at the regionale08 opening on 4 July.

On two evenings, Barbara Frischmuth will discuss the complexity of translating to and from oriental languages and the Austrian playwright Peter Turini will spend a day with the translators of his play ‘Joseph and Mary'. A narrative recital evening is dedicated to the translation of words into music, and as if it were a world-literature summit, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and the poet Hafez will enter into poetic competition, when Hafez's original texts in Persian, Hammer-Purgstall's translations, and Goethe's adaptations confront each other.

Udo Steinbach, Gudrun Harrer or Heinz Halm: Everybody with a reputation in oriental studies will be a guest at the Oriental Academy, where the topic ‘Worlds of Islam' is broached.

On 13 September, the DIWAN Academy ends with a scenic reading-concert from the ‘Tales from a Thousand and One Nights' with the translator Claudia Ott of Erlangen/Germany.