14 October
2013
18:00 hrs

Dr. Zakir Hussain Library
Embassy of India
Tiergartenstr. 17
10785 Berlin
Bus 200 Tiergartenstraße

Entrance possible with valid identity card or passport only.
Free admission
for a maximum of 200 guests.
Bags and eatables should not be brought inside the premises of the Embassy.

Information:
030-25 79 54 -03/ -05

Lecture
SWEDEN AND
THE MASTER

Lecture
SWEDEN AND THE MASTER
Dr. Heinz Werner Wessler

How was it possible that the Swedish Academy, who decided about the Nobel laureates for literature, chose a young Bengali author almost unknown in Scandinavia? What prepared the committee members in 1913 for this rather unconventional decision? The Swedish East India Company\'s (1731-1813) unsuccessful effort to establish a colony 1733 (“Porto Novo”) at the Coromandel coast in today\'s Parangipettai (district Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu) had remained a marginal episode in history. However, Sweden developed a growing interest in Oriental languages and literatures, art and archaeology throughout the 19th and in the early 20th century, leading to the first teaching of Sanskrit at Uppsala University by Otto Tullberg in 1838 and the Chair of Indology being established in 1893 also in Uppsala.
Tagore‘s “Nobel Prize acceptance speech” is perhaps the first conclusive self-representing text document of the great author written in English, explaining his philosophy and his literary ambitions in a very simple and direct way. On his being awarded the prestigious prize on  November 15, 1913, he said: “The acknowledgement I got from Sweden has brought me and my work before the Western public, though I can assure you it has given me some trouble. It has broken through the seclusion I have been accustomed to.”
Dr Wessler will explore the subtlities  of Tagore’s reception in the Swedish world.  

Wie war es möglich, dass die Schwedische Akademie, die über die Nobelpreisträger für Literatur entschied, einen in Skandinavien fast unbekannten jungen bengalischen Autor wählte? Was sorgte bei den Mitgliedern des Ausschusses im Jahr 1913 für diese unkonventionelle Entscheidung? Schweden hat ein wachsendes Interesse an orientalischen Sprachen und Literaturen, Kunst und Archäologie im 19. und im frühen 20. Jahrhundert entwickelt, was auch zum ersten Sanskrit-Lehrstuhl an der Universität Uppsala von Otto Tullberg 1838 sowie dem Lehrstuhl für Indologie im Jahr 1893 führte.
Die "Nobelpreis-Dankesrede" ist vielleicht das erste schlüssige Textdokuments des großen Autors, welches er selbst in englischer Sprache verfasst hat und worin er seine Philosophie und seine literarischen Ambitionen auf eine sehr einfache und direkte Weise erklärt.
Dr. Wessler wird die Feinheiten in der Wahrnehmung Tagore’s in Schweden erörtern.