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Walberberg 2007: You cannot be serious! |
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The British, I regret to say, have some prejudices about the Germans. Of these, the most widely held is the notion that the Germans do not have a sense of humour. When I told people here that I was going to a seminar in Germany on the subject of humour and seriousness, they laughed. Every time. I thought this was probably unfair. I have one German friend, and he has a sense of humour. I read Heine, and he has a sense of humour too. But I admit that I was a little nervous about reading to an audience of German academics. Would all these Herrn Profs and Frau Drs disapprove of me because of the humour in my poems? Would any of them laugh?
I needn't have worried. The audience was as responsive as any I have read to in this country and, yes, they did laugh. I was even more nervous about doing a creative writing workshop with German intellectuals but that was fine too. My group was all female, mostly young, and they were easy and delightful to work with.
I greatly enjoyed the Walberberg Seminar – the formal sessions and the conversations at mealtimes. As a result of attending it, I have been invited to read in Augsburg and Leipzig in June 2007, and there is a possibility of a visit to Köln in the summer of 2008. I am very much looking forward to these trips.
Wendy Cope
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