Karl-Heinz Ott - Melville, "Bartleby, the Scribe"

Meville's "Bartleby" is a fine little piece of literature with a huge history of impact. Published in 1853, the book was a complete flop. It was only discovered in the 1990s and, like Melville's counterpart Mobby Dick, is now part of world literature. The writer Bartleby, who reacts to everything with the famous phrase "I would prefer not to" and hides away in his writing room, has since provided material for countless political, philosophical and psychological treatises, including the Occupy movement, whose form of protest was inspired by Bartleby's attitude.

"There are always good reasons to retranslate good books," says Karl Heinz Ott, who will talk about his new translation and give an extremely exciting insight into the history of the impact of this enigmatic, deeply moving and at the same time comical story.

Karl-Heinz Ott studied philosophy, German literature and musicology. He worked as a dramaturge in Freiburg, Basel and Zurich. For his debut novel "Ins Offene", he was awarded the Hölderlin Prize and the Thaddäus Troll Prize, and in 2021 he received the Joseph Breitbach Prize.