Wolfgang Kasack

Wolfgang Kasack

Date of Birth: 20.01.1927
Country: Germany

Content:
  1. Early Life and Education
  2. Academic Career
  3. Literary Contributions
  4. Influence and Recognition

Early Life and Education

Wolfgang Kasack was born in Potsdam, Germany into a literary family. His father was the renowned writer Hermann Kasack. At the age of 17, he was drafted into military service and sent to a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. During this period, he was exposed to Russian language and culture, which ignited his passion for Slavic studies.

Academic Career

Upon his return to Germany in 1946, Kasack pursued an academic career. He earned a doctorate in Slavic Studies from the University of Göttingen in 1953. From 1956 to 1960, he served as a translator at the West German embassy in Moscow, and from 1960 to 1969, he was responsible for scientific exchange between West Germany and the USSR.

In 1969, Kasack became the Head of the Department of Slavic Languages and Director of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Cologne, where he remained until his retirement.

Literary Contributions

Kasack's most notable work is the "Lexikon zur russischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts" (Lexicon of 20th Century Russian Literature), a comprehensive biographical and bibliographical reference. He also translated numerous works from Russian into German, including those of Konstantin Paustovsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Vladimir Tendryakov.

Influence and Recognition

According to D. Chkonia, Kasack accurately conveyed the meaning of Russian prose in his translations, although he faced challenges in interpreting poetry. Nevertheless, his contributions to Slavic studies and literary translation had a profound impact on the field.

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