In January and February 2024, I completed a SPIN Internship at the Richard Burton Archives, listing materials relating to the Centre for Contemporary German Literature (CCGL – now known as the Centre for Contemporary German Culture) and translating content from German into English. From my time at the Archives, three blog entries emerged, each capturing an important part of the internship. This first blog gives an overview of the CCGL and the Visiting Writers Programme, while the second blog looks more closely at the process of literary translation. Finally, the third blog captures my impressions of working at the Archives and serves as a peek into the world of archivists.
Susanne Roesner
PhD Creative Writing
Richard Burton Archives SPIN placement, January 2024
Imagine receiving a letter on thick, sturdy paper. You feel the rich texture of the paper as you open the envelope, while your eyes take in the official letterhead. It’s bilingual, in blue, followed by an invitation in your native language and a smooth signature.
You’re being invited to stay in a scenic house, close to the sea, in a country perhaps unknown to you. Away from the safe bubble of your daily life, you’ll hear seagulls from the living room and breathe in the harsh salty air. When you want to charge your phone, the plug won’t fit. Magnificent coastal sunsets will be accompanied by bilingual TV programmes, but both languages are not your native tongue. At University you will discuss your work with students, and in the evening visit the pubs with your hosts to try unfamiliar beer. There are stunning coastal walks, charming castle ruins, and unforgettable times full of lively discussions with other scholars.
Well, if you were invited, would you go?
In 1993 the German writer, Peter Schneider, was invited to Swansea University by the newly founded Centre for Contemporary German Literature (CCGL) as part of the Visiting Writers Programme. He was the first of many to accept the invitation and come to Swansea with his family. As writers in residence, the German creatives could stay a few weeks at Caswell House, close to Caswell Beach, and would give lectures or readings at Swansea University. There was the option of accommodation closer to the city, but Caswell House was a popular choice.
An excerpt from the accompanying text, sent with the photograph, advertised Caswell House in the following: “A large country house in its own private grounds with beautiful views of Caswell Bay, Langland Golf Course and the Bristol Channel”. Among the visitors drawn to Swansea University were well-known writers and poets such as Volker Braun, Sarah Kirsch, Uwe Timm, Jurek Becker, and Nobel laureate Herta Müller.
Professor Rhys W. Williams, together with Dr Colin Riordan and Dr Mererid Hopwood, established the CCGL in 1993, to promote research into German post-war literature, and to expand the level of expertise on the works of contemporary German authors in Wales and Great Britain as a whole.
ref: 2022/13. Courtesy of the Richard Burton Archives
In a video recorded originally for the 2020 planned exhibition “Poets by the Sea”, initiated by Professor Julian Preece and curated by Dr Anja Gerigk, Colin Riordan, by then Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University, recounts the beginnings of the CCGL and his involvement. The video is now accessible on the website of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (AGS).
To achieve the objectives outlined in the Constitution of the CCGL, German writers and scholars were invited to spend around four weeks in Swansea. During this time, the writers would take part in seminars or lectures, read from their work, and be available for interviews. These interviews would later be published in a series of monographs, together with original writing from their time in Wales, and scholarly articles on their work by academics at Swansea and elsewhere in the UK.
The University events and publications were often not the only way in which the writers and scholars left their mark in Swansea Bay. Sarah Kirsch, for instance, wrote a poem which can still be found on the wall of the local Mumbles pub The Pilot today. It was translated into English by Rhys W. Williams and captured the essence of having a drink during a rain-pelted stormy night in Mumbles Bay.
Till I had to leave the following evening
Original from: Erlkönigs Tochter. Gedichte (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1992), pp. 38-39
I explored seventeen different pubs.
Always, as in the PILOT, for the professor
A quarter of heavenly beer, for the lady
On her lecture tour a pint. The storm
Whipped into whirlpools, cut the sea into ice.
As we left the KING ARTHUR. The wind
Clatters the soul to the core. Nothing
Surprised us, not even that here the sheep queue up
At the bus stop, rummaging for their fare.
Christoph W. Aigner, who visited Swansea in 1994 together with Sarah Kirsch, summarised his impressions of the land in the following:
Ich geh am scharfen Rand der Klippen zurück zur Caswell-Bucht. Zwei Maikäfer. Rotkehlchen, Amseln bleiben zwei Armlängen vom Spaziergänger im Stechginster sitzen. […] Auch ich könnte jeden Tag hier gehn, alle fünf Schritten stehenbleiben und mich aufsaugen lassen von diesem Spiel des Meers mit dem Land, sanft und schroff, hochaufbrandend und zart verebbend. […] Bishop’s Wood ist ein Zauberwald. Knoblauchgeruch des blühenden Bärlauchs. Moosbepelzte Stämme, über Wege und Unterholz hängende Lianen. Gebrochene Eichenstämme, auf denen Farne wachsen, Glockenblumen, Akelaien, Orchideengewächse.
(Swansea/Abertawe, Literatur und Kritik 29 (1994), 285/286, p. 5)
I walk along the sharp edge of the cliffs back to Caswell Bay. Two cockchafers. Robins and blackbirds, at two arm’s length from the walker, remain sitting in the gorse. […] I, too, could walk here every day, stop every five steps, and let myself be absorbed by this play of the sea with the land, soft and rugged, surging and gently ebbing. […] Bishop´s Wood is an enchanted forest. Garlic scent from blooming wild garlic. Furry moss-covered trunks, lianas hanging over paths and undergrowth. Broken oak trunks on which ferns grow, bluebells, columbines, orchids. (Translation by S. Roesner)
It is clear that during his visit Aigner enjoyed his walks at Caswell Bay and through the local nature reserve Bishop’s Wood. The German department at Swansea University he notes as an excellent example of how interest in German language and poetry can be increased through critical openness and liveliness. As a writer and poet, he was also interested in the language and poetry of Wales and he states: “Man sagt, daß den Walisern Dichtung kein totes Bildungsgut sei, sondern Gebrauchsgegenstand, und daß viele ihre Dichter so gut kennen wie die Rugbyregeln“ (Literatur und Kritik 29 (1994), 285/286, p. 7) – It is said that for the Welsh, poetry is not a dead object of education, but an object in everyday use and that many know their poets as well as they know the rules of rugby. (Translation by S. Roesner)
Jurek Becker visited Swansea University in 1995, the year after Sarah Kirsch, followed by Herta Müller in 1996.
The picture above shows Herta Müller and Mererid Hopwood during a walk through the welsh countryside, and it captures quite well the natural warmth and cordiality which is apparent in the correspondence between the visiting German writers and the CCGL.
Thirteen years after her residency in Swansea, in 2009 Müller was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature. According to Professor Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, “She’s an excellent author with a truly fantastic language […] [and has] a capacity of really giving you a sense, not only about what it’s like living in a dictatorship but also what it’s like being part of a minority in another country” (Video Interview Prize announcement. Nobelprize.org. 8 Oct. 2009)
In 2012 Herta Müller was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow by Swansea University and read from her work Atemschaukel (The Hunger Angel) at the Centre for Contemporary German Culture (previously: Literature). A video recording of her reading is available here: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities/arts-and-humanities-research/arts-and-humanities-research-centres-and-groups/ccgc/herta-muller/.
More quotes and impressions from visiting German writers were originally compiled by Dr Anja Gerigk for the 2020 Swansea University Centenary Exhibition “Poets by the Sea”. They can be accessed on the website of Swansea University’s German department. Also assembled by Dr Gerigk was the following list of all German visitors, who followed the invitation of the CCGL to Swansea:
| Peter Schneider November-December 1993 | Zafer Şenocak May 2000 |
| Volker Braun March-April 1994 | Kerstin Hensel September-October 2000 |
| Sarah Kirsch May 1994 | Esther Dischereit July 2003 |
| Christoph W. Aigner May 1994 | Feridun Zaimoglu July 2008 |
| Uwe Timm October 1994 | Jörg Bernig October-November 2013 |
| Peter Bichsel January-February 1995 | Andreas Dresen November 2014 |
| Jurek Becker October 1995 | |
| Herta Müller October 1996 | |
| Hermann Peter Piwitt September-October 1999 | |
| Hans- Ulrich Treichel March 2000 | & translators and critics: Stephan Reinhardt (Dec. 1993), Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Oct. 1994), Dagmar von Hoff (Oct. 1996), Kevin A. Perryman (1997), Inge Leipold (May 1999) |
The materials relating to the CCGL can be found at the Richard Burton Archives, located in Swansea University’s library on Singleton Campus. These materials consist of correspondence between the CCGL, especially by Mererid Hopwood, and the invited German Writers, VHS cassettes with recorded talks and literature readings, and a variety of old photographs.
While reading through the correspondence it is fascinating to note the warmth and extraordinary kindness in the invitations and responses. Writers were almost wooed, with a mixture of appreciation of their talents and the prospect of a fruitful academic exchange. A bonus was of course the intriguing location and Caswell House.
Some of the writers left traces in Swansea, and Swansea left its mark in their work. Sarah Kirsch, for instance, made a documentary about her visit to Wales, reading her poems by the sea and capturing her impressions. This documentary, together with readings by Herta Müller and Peter Schneider, has now been digitised by the Richard Burton Archives.
Together with letters by well-known German writers, such as Günter Grass, who expressed a wish to visit himself, there is more material of interest in this collection. Many recordings await digitisation. Additionally, there are drawings and postcards by Sarah Kirsch and previously unpublished writings by German authors. It will certainly be worthwhile for other researchers to spend time with the CCGL collection in the future and unearth further treasures.
Contact the Richard Burton Archives via archives@swansea.ac.uk or visit the website.