Peter Weiss - Poll Results
[The Preliminary Results of our Poll]
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Poll Results
We appreciate your participating in our poll which continues to ask: Who do you think is the best post-WWII German-language author ? (If you haven't yet voted, please do - simply go to our poll).
Participation has improved over the past year -- a sufficient number have made their opinions known for these preliminary results to have some validity.
To help the undecided pick an author we include a Suggested Reading list, highlighting a title by each author.
Poll Results, as of March 1, 2000:
- 1. Peter Weiss - 21 percent of the votes
- 2. Heiner Müller - 19 percent
- 3. Günter Grass - 16 percent
- 4. Thomas Bernhard - 16 percent
- 5. Heinrich Böll - 8 percent
- 6. Christa Wolf - 8 percent
- 7. Other - 6 percent
- 8. Arno Schmidt - 5 percent
While Heiner Müller led early tallies, Peter Weiss has come to the fore on his home turf.
Günter Grass got a nice nudge from his Nobel Prize, while Böll's is forgotten.
It is noteworthy that the top four are all significant dramatists and the others aren't.
Arno Schmidt suffered the further ignominy of being relegated to below "Other."
Check out works by those authors you didn't vote for -- see suggestions below !
Suggested Reading:
- Thomas BERNHARD's Extinction, his final novel, hefty, but a brilliant summation of his work.
- Heinrich BÖLL's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, a more political novel than most of his, dealing with issues affecting West Germany in the 1970's.
- Günter GRASS' Meeting at Telgte, a less well-known book by him, translated by the great Ralph Manheim
- Heiner MÜLLER's Hamletmaschine and Other Texts, an interesting collection of this very important dramatist and poet.
- Arno SCHMIDT's Nobodaddy's Children, Volume 2 of the Collected Early Fiction. Fascinating stuff, translated by one of the few men with the ability to wrestle with Schmidt's brilliant but complex prose, John E. Woods.
- With regard to Peter WEISS we can't single any one piece out, but there should be enough information on site for you to figure what you might want to read.
- Christa WOLF's early The Quest for Christa T., translated by Christopher Middleton.
- OTHER - well, you'll have to seek those out yourself.
You are encouraged to send an e-mail if you have any suggestions or comments.
Buy books ! Read books ! Enjoy !
Last updated: March 1, 2000