The literary critic should pursue his work with dogged seriousness, in any other case he isn’t one: According to Volker Hage’s diary from 1975, this perspective was represented by Marcel Reich-Ranicki, who had not too long ago change into his head of literature on the FAZ on the time. Hage later grew to become head of literature himself, first at “Zeit” after which at “Spiegel”. He would most likely not have been credited with doggedness, however he was nonetheless an necessary critic for many years. In an interview about his canon in 2001, Marcel Reich-Ranicki as soon as stated to Hage: “Stop the jokes!” On his half, this was meant jokingly and benevolently, as a result of Reich-Ranicki valued Volker Hage very a lot.
Hage was born in Hamburg in 1949. There and in Munich he studied German, philosophy and sociology and acquired his doctorate in 1983 with a thesis on literary collages. As “Spiegel” reported, he carried out his first interview with Günter Grass for the college newspaper on the age of 17. At the age of 25 he grew to become an editor on the FAZ, first within the literature division, then on the FAZ journal. From 1986 to 1992 he labored at “Zeit”, then at “Spiegel” till 2014. In his retirement, he revealed his personal novels: first “Free Love” (2015), then “The Fifth Act of Life” (2018), a biography of Arthur Schnitzler.
Since the early Eighties he has additionally written and edited quite a few books and anthologies about German-language and worldwide literature, together with these about Max Frisch, John Updike and Philip Roth. His “writer portraits” (revealed by Wallstein, 2019 and 2022), which have been primarily based on many private conferences, have been significantly properly acquired. Volker Hage has now died in Hamburg on the age of 76.
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/literatur/literaturkritiker-volker-hage-gestorben-accg-200787782.html