In these two short stories, Setz confronts a theme that recurs throughout many works collected in the volume "The Consolation of Round Things": the question of what it actually means to be a living being and whether sometimes we might exist somewhere between life and death. He approaches these meditations in two ways: once with great sensitivity, focusing on Odysseus’s somewhat forgotten companion and possible interpretations of his fate, and once by sketching a comically-ghastly anecdote about a man who has never seen a dead person and is deeply ashamed of it. Reading these two clever, subversive stories through psychoanalytic concepts, we will try to learn something about ourselves — and about whether we are even still here at all!
Host:
Reading: "Elpenor" and "The Living" in: Clemens J. Setz, "The Consolation of Round Things", trans. Agnieszka Kowaluk, Filtry, Warsaw 2024
Clemens J. Setz — born in 1982 in Graz, he lives in Vienna. He has been honored with many awards, including the prestigious Georg Büchner Prize. He is the author of novels, collections of short stories, plays, essays and poems; critics compare his work to that of Franz Kafka, Robert Walser and other classics. "The Consolation of Round Things" is Setz’s first book published in Polish.
Partners:
Concept and organization: Austrian Cultural Forum in Warsaw
📅
17.02.2026 (Tue), 19:00
📍
Austrian Cultural Forum, Próżna 7/9, Warsaw
✉️
Registration required: podroz.zimowa@gmail.com
💸
Free admission after registration
The seminar takes place in person at the above address, without recording or streaming. In Polish.
