Robert Walser (writer)

Robert Walser (*April 15 1878 near Biel/Bienne, Switzerland; ? December 25 1956 near Herisau, Switzerland, was a German-speaking Swiss writer.

Oeuvre and Reception

A characteristic of Walser's texts is a playful serenity behind which hide existential fears. Today, Walser's texts, completely reedited since the 70s, belong to the most important writings of the literary modernism. In his language, reminiscents of Swiss German are expressed charmingly and quasi freshly, while very personal observations are intervowen with "texts about texts", that is with contemplations and variations of other literary works, at which Walser often mixes pulp fiction with high literature.

Related Topics:
Modernism - Swiss German

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Walser, who never belonged to a literary school or group, perhaps with the exception of the ambit of the magazine Die Insel in his young years, was a notable and often published writer before World War I and still in the twenties. After the second half of the twenties, he was rapidly forgotten, in spite of Carl Seelig's editions, which appeared almost exclusively in Switzerland but received little attention.

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Only in the seventies, Walser was rediscovered, even though very famous German writers such as Christian Morgenstern, Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin or Hermann Hesse were among his great admirers. Since then, almost all his writings have become accessible through an extensive republication of his entire oeuvre. He has exerted a considerable influence on divers contemporary German writers such as Ror Wolf, Peter Handke, W. G. Sebald or Max Goldt.

Related Topics:
Christian Morgenstern - Franz Kafka - Walter Benjamin - Hermann Hesse - Ror Wolf - Peter Handke - W. G. Sebald - Max Goldt

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