Boucquey Thierry (General Editor). Encyclopedia Of World Writers. 3 volumes
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The Woman with the Flying Head and Other Stories of
Kurahashi Yumiko. Translated by Atsuko Sakaki.
Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.
A Work about Kurahashi Yumiko
Sakaki, Atsuko. “(Re)canonizing Kurahashi Yumiko:
Toward Alternative Perspectives for ‘Modern’
‘Japanese’ ‘Literature.’” In Stephen Snyder and
Philip Gabriel, eds., O
¯
e and Beyond: Fiction in
Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1999.
248 Kurahashi Yumiko
249
L
La Guma, Alex (1925–1985) novelist, short-
story writer
One of South Africa’s premier chroniclers of life
under apartheid in South Africa, Justin Alexander
La Guma was born into a trade-unionist house-
hold. This early involvement with socialist poli-
tics combined with his status as a Cape Town
“coloured” (a person of mixed race ancestry
according to apartheid laws established in
1948) conspired to make of La Guma a writer
concerned with issues of class and race in all
his writings.
His parents made him aware of his mixed-race
heritage by stressing the various cultures that were
his heritage. His maternal grandmother had come
to South Africa from Indonesia; his maternal
grandfather came from Scotland. His father was
originally from what is now known as the Mala-
gasy Republic. When La Guma was only 13 years
old, he tried to get to Spain to fight against the fas-
cists in the Spanish civil war, but he was turned
down. Two years later, in 1940, he tried to enlist as
a soldier to fight against Nazi Germany, but he was
refused because of his slight build and unhealthy
appearance. At 17, he went to work doing manual
labor in a box factory where he developed a life-
long awareness of the real concerns of working
people.
In 1955, La Guma worked for a left-wing news-
paper in Cape Town as a journalist until the
apartheid government banned his work; he wrote
political columns, reported on the absurdities of
apartheid laws, and even penned a regular political
cartoon. After the murders of unarmed blacks in
1960 by white policemen, an event since referred
to as the Sharpeville Massacre, all antigovernment
groups were banned, and La Guma himself was
jailed for more than six months. He was later sen-
tenced, in 1962, to five years under house arrest.
The punishment meant that he could not leave his
home, meet with any of his friends, or in any way
communicate with those whose ideology he shared.
In his novel, The Stone Country (1967), La Guma
fictionalizes this experience, and several stays in
prison in 1960 and 1961 when South Africa was
under a state of emergency and many people were
detained without being formally charged.
La Guma was banned from employment as a
journalist during the early 1960s, and he turned
to writing fiction as a result. The publication, in
1962, of a collection of short stories entitled A
Walk in the Night and Other Stories marked the
advent of something truly different in the South
African literary tradition. In the lead story in the
collection, the novella from which the collection
takes its name, La Guma allows his characters to
speak in a sanitized version of the Cape Town di-
alect that the real underclass spoke. Another story
in the collection, “Tattoo Marks and Nails,” fo-
cuses on a prison cell and is a precursor to The
Stone Country. Although he was not the first
South African writer to focus on working people
and their problems, La Guma’s concentration on
the realistic representation of the poorest and
most vulnerable of his culture’s people marked
him as a uniquely South African voice. For exam-
ple, although Peter ABRAHAMS can very easily be
seen as a literary pioneer for his focus on the
poorest of South Africa’s noncitizens in Mine Boy
(1946) and other texts, La Guma allows the streets
to speak for themselves. In many ways, he signals
a resistance to the forms of the European literary
tradition that had, to that date, influenced the
vast majority of South African works written in
English.
La Guma is an important figure in the literary
tradition of South Africa because he points up
something about the way people in the United
States understand places like South Africa. Impor-
tant critics such as Lewis NKOSI and J. M. COETZEE
observed long ago that those of us who read about
foreign cultures often view foreign texts as “socio-
logical” documents; for example, a 1974 essay by
Coetzee examines the reduction of the literary text
to an example of an exotic culture. These astute
critics also have observed that—worse—“weak”
literature all too often is celebrated because its pol-
itics are right. But La Guma’s works have both a
deceptive, realist style and true literary merit. He
is rightly read as much for the quality of his writ-
ing as for his content. As Cecil Abrahams states
“He [La Guma] sees his task as similar to that of
the African storyteller, namely that of recording
events as told to him and fashioning the tale in
such a manner that there is both a moral and an
entertaining purpose involved.”
Other Works by Alex La Guma
In the Fog of the Season’s End. London: Heinemann,
1972.
Time of the Butcherbird. London: Heinemann, 1979.
Works about Alex La Guma
Abrahams, Cecil. Alex La Guma. Boston: Twayne,
1985.
Coetzee, J. M. “Man’s Fate in the Novels of Alex La
Guma.” Studies in Black Literature 5.1 (Spring
1974).
Labrunie, Gerard
See NERVAL
, GERARD DE
.
Lagerkvist, Pär (Fabian) (1891–1974)
poet, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer
Pär Lagerkvist was born in Växjö, Sweden, to An-
ders Johan, a railway linesman, and Johanna (Blad)
Lagerquist. Although he embraced Darwinism and
political radicalism at a young age, Lagerkvist was
influenced throughout his life by his parents’
pietistic Christian faith. He attended the University
of Uppsala in 1911 and 1912. In addition to writ-
ing, he briefly worked as a theater critic for a
Stockholm newspaper in the late 1910s. He mar-
ried Karen Dagmar Johanne Soerensen in 1918
and, after they divorced, married Elaine Luella
Hallberg in 1925.
Lagerkvist first emerged on the literary scene as
a poet. The second of his nine collections, Ångest
(Anguish, 1916), described the despair and pain
of World War I. The volume challenged the
Swedish romantic tradition in verse and is con-
sidered the beginning of poetic modernism.
Lagerkvist continued his search for aesthetic re-
volt and renewal in his dramas. He wrote 13 plays,
including Himlens Hemlighet (The Secret of
Heaven, 1919), which addressed the search for
meaning in life. In the 1930s, Lagerkvist’s dramas,
plays, and short stories dealt with the issues of evil
and fascism. After 1940, he focused on writing
novels. Dvärgen (The Dwarf, 1944), considered by
many to be his best work, explores the evil and
creativity of humans.
Lagerkvist wrote more than 40 major works
and has been translated into 34 languages. He was
elected to the Swedish Academy of Literature in
250 Labrunie, Gerard
1940 and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1951. His influences include the dramatist August
STRINDBERG, and naivism, cubism, and fauvism in
French painting. His literary career lasted a half-
century and encompassed all major genres but still
displayed a remarkable internal consistency.
Lagerkvist wrote about faith, skepticism, death,
and evil, and explored the mysteries of existence.
The scholar Robert Donald Spector observed that
in Lagerkvist’s works “his major theme is a quest
for a god who will replace the deity of his youth.”
Another Work by Pär Lagerkvist
Guest of Reality. Translated by Robin Fulton. New
York: Quartet, 1989.
A Work about Pär Lagerkvist
Spector, Robert Donald. Pär Lagerkvist. Boston:
Twayne, 1973.
Lagerlöf, Selma (1858–1940) novelist
Selma Lagerlöf was born in Marbacka, Sweden.
She was educated at home by her father, a retired
army officer, and her grandmother. Lagerlöf’s
grandmother told her traditional tales of Sweden,
which played an important role in the formation
of her artistic imagination. In 1882, Lagerlöf went
to the Royal Women’s Superior Training Academy
in Stockholm to prepare for a career as a teacher.
After graduation, she taught in a school for girls
for 10 years.
While teaching, Lagerlöf began writing her first
novel. She sent early chapters to a literary contest
in a local magazine and was awarded a publishing
contract for the entire novel. Financially supported
by her lifelong friend, the Baroness Sophie
Aldesparre, Lagerlöf completed her first novel, The
Story of Gösta Berling (1891). Gösta, a young ad-
venturous hero, suffers a series of ordeals before he
marries the dashing heroine, Countess Elizabeth,
and finds peace in his life. The story was significant
in the Swedish romantic revival of the late 1890s.
Lagerlöf’s work appealed to people of all
ranks. Her work was founded on the rich tradi-
tions and deep cultural history of the Swedish
people. With financial assistance from the
Swedish Academy and a pension from Sweden’s
King Oscar, Lagerlöf resigned from teaching to
concentrated on her writing. A journey to Egypt
and Palestine between 1899 and 1900 inspired the
publication of her first major and critically ac-
claimed work, Jerusalem. The collection of stories
describes the destructive effects of a conserva-
tive, religious revival on a small Swedish commu-
nity. The Ingmar family takes a journey to
Jerusalem, and one of the family members is sold
into slavery by another. Still another Ingmar re-
nounces his engagement to the love of his life so
he can marry a rich woman. The collection placed
Lagerlöf on a prominent level in the literary
world of Sweden.
In 1906, Lagerlöf published her best-known
work, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. The work
was commissioned by the Swedish board of educa-
tion to teach geography in the primary school. It
tells the story of a naughty but courageous young
boy, Nils, who is magically reduced to the size of a
gnome. He travels throughout Sweden on the back
of a gander who escapes the farm to join the flock
of wild geese. From them, Nils learns courage,
companionship, and commitment. Although this
story is a fairy tale, it also provides, as it was meant
to do, useful information about Swedish geogra-
phy and life in Sweden. The story is loved and ad-
mired throughout the world.
In 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became the first female
writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature. When
the Soviets invaded Finland in 1939, Lagerlöf do-
nated the Nobel medal to raise money for the
Finnish army. A truly amazing and courageous
person, she helped a great number of German
writers and artists to escape Nazi persecution by
arranging to smuggle them into Sweden. This re-
markable woman is not only a national writer of
Sweden but also its national hero. She used her
artistic talent to depict the cultural history and
customs of her country. Selma Lagerlöf’s work is
still widely read throughout the world today, with
the sad exception of the United States.
Lagerlöf, Selma 251
Other Works by Selma Lagerlöf
Girl from the Marsh Croft, and Other Stories. Trans-
lated by Greta Andersen. Iowa City: Penfield Press,
1996.
Invisible Links. Translated by Greta Andersen. Iowa
City: Penfield Press, 1995.
Memories of Marbacka. Translated by Greta Ander-
sen. Iowa City: Penfield Press, 1996.
A Work about Selma Lagerlöf
Edstrom, Vivi Bloom. Selma Lagerlöf. Boston:
Twayne, 1982.
Laing, B. Kojo (1946– ) novelist, poet
B. Kojo Laing was born in Kumasi in the Ashanti
region of Ghana. He was the eldest son of six chil-
dren and was baptized Bernard Ebenezer, but he
later dropped his Christian name in favor of his
African identity. Laing’s father was the first
African rector of the Anglican Theological Col-
lege in Kumasi. Although Laing’s family belonged
to the educated middle class, they were by no
means rich. Laing had to sell snacks on the street
in Accra when he was a child. His disgust with
this experience influenced his perception of the
city and is distinctly expressed in his writings.
Laing spent the first five years of his early educa-
tion in Accra and was later sent to Scotland in
1957, where he had both his primary and second-
ary education. In 1968, he graduated from Glas-
gow University with a master’s degree, then
returned to Ghana to join the civil service. Laing
left the service in 1979 to work as an administra-
tive secretary of the Institute of African Studies
for five years and then headed Saint Anthony’s
School in Accra in 1984, where he still works
today.
Laing emerged as an important poet in the
1970s but did not become very widely known until
1986 when he published his first novel, Search
Sweet Country (1975). His search for spiritual
meaning is most intensely expressed in this novel,
which is an analogy of his own experience as a civil
servant in the Ashanti region. In the novel, Laing
explores the complexities of human relationships
and the different responses of people from differ-
ent backgrounds to the reign of a corrupt military
government. The bittersweet flavor of Laing’s writ-
ing reveals his continuous attempt, through lan-
guage, to bridge the differences between physical
reality and spiritual ideals.
Laing’s love of nature is also clearly reflected in
his writing. One of his favorite pastimes is hunting,
which provides him with a source of imagery. In
Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988), for example,
Laing uses images that symbolize the natural, sur-
real, and human worlds.An example of Laing’s use
of nature imagery in the novel is his humorous
personification of the lake, which becomes ex-
tremely jealous of the ducks that swim in its waters
and refuses to ripple.
Laing was also deeply influenced by his life
experiences, such as his father’s religious devo-
tion and early death and his own journeys
and failed relationships. His poem “Funeral in
Accra” commemorated his father’s death and
marked his rite of passage from youth to adult-
hood. This poem was published in 1968 together
with two other poems,“African Storm” and “Jaw.”
These poems contain the metaphors of his
psychological struggle between alienation and
dislocation.
Laing’s main contribution to world literature is
his ability to create a hybrid of languages and im-
ages from both the traditional African and modern
Western worlds. His works, such as Godhorse
(1989), appropriate the common symbol of tech-
nology, such as the car, and by simplifying its lo-
comotive movements, compare it with daily
human actions, such as walking or transplanting
crops in the fields. By carefully and cleverly blend-
ing mixed symbols and language, Laing reveals the
complexity of interdependent relationships within
society.
Another Work by B. Kojo Laing
Major Gentl and the Achimota Wars. London: Heine-
mann, 1992.
252 Laing, B. Kojo
Laird, Christopher (1945– ) poet, writer,
editor, producer, director
Born in Trinidad, Christopher Laird is the author
of poetry that has appeared in The New Voices, the
Caribbean Writer, and Kairi. As editor of Kairi, he
has striven to increase the visibility of writers from
and about Trinidad and Tobago. Laird has also
done a number of extensive interviews with cul-
tural personalities, including novelist George
LAM-
MING, carnival artist Peter Minshall, and actor and
dramatist Slade Hopkinson.
Laird’s poetry has been anthologized in Voice-
print: An Anthology of Oral and Related Poetry from
the Caribbean (1989). In “Hosay,” a seven-part
poem published in Voiceprint, the speaker draws
attention to himself with speech and musical
rhythms, but then concludes the poem saying,
I am silent now.
I done talk.
Until a mounting fire
stretches me taut
to move the air again.
As video producer, director, writer, and editor,
Laird examines the Caribbean culture. One of
Laird’s projects, the Caribbean Eye videos, explores
regional Caribbean philosophies, celebrations, and
styles of music and drama. Caribbean Carnivals
(1991), Dramatic Actions (1991), and Women in
Action (1991) are three of the 13 half-hour, made-
for-television Caribbean Eye videos from
Trinidad’s Banyan Studios.
Released in 1992, Laird codirected And the Dish
Ran Away with the Spoon with Tony Hall. Produced
as part of the BBC/TVE Developing World Series,
the video uses poetry, interviews, music, and clips
from television shows to highlight effects of Amer-
ican television broadcasts on local Caribbean cul-
tures. It won best documentary and best video at
Images Caraïbes, the Caribbean Film & Video fes-
tival, and also best documentary at the Prized
Pieces competition of the National Black Pro-
grammers Consortium of the United States.
Laird’s varied projects significantly facilitate the
exploration and appreciation of Caribbean cul-
ture.
Other Works by Christopher Laird
Brown, Stewart, Mervyn Morris, and Gordon
Rohlehr, eds. Selections in Voiceprint: An Anthol-
ogy of Oral and Related Poetry from the Caribbean.
Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 1989.
“Faith, Beauty and Blood.” Caribbean Writer 5 (1991):
49–50.
“Jamestown Beach, Accra.” Caribbean Writer 3
(1989): 44–45.
Lamartine, Alphonse de (1790–1869)
poet, novelist
Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine was born to a
family of minor nobility in Mâcon on October 10.
He received a traditional education and, after
spending a brief period of time in the army, trav-
eled to Italy where he discovered much of the aes-
thetics of love and nature that would prevail in his
works and that tie him closely to French ROMANTI-
CISM.
His first published work, Méditations Poétiques
(1820), met with immediate success. Within the 24
poems that compose this collection, Lamartine ex-
pressed his feelings about religion, love, and na-
ture. Subsequent works, such as Harmonies (1830),
developed his theme of lyricism and his musical
tones. He also expressed his religious views in such
works as Jocelyn (1836), a novel in verse, and La
Chute d’un Ange (An Angel’s Fall, 1838), an epic
poem that describes an evil tyranny.
Politically, Lamartine tried to remain distant
from party conflicts; however, his idealist philoso-
phy tended toward democracy and the campaign
for social justice. His Histoire des Girondins (His-
tory of the Girondists, 1847), a work that promoted
and glorified the aims of a political group of mod-
erate Republicans known as the Girondists during
the French Revolution met with immense popular
success. After competing unsuccessfully against
Napoleon III for the presidency, Lamartine left
politics to devote his life to writing.
Lamartine, Alphonse de 253
Another Work by Alphonse de Lamartine
Poetical Meditations/Méditations Poétiques. Trans-
lated by Gervase Hittle. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin
Mellen Press, 1993.
Works about Alphonse de Lamartine
Boutin, Aimee. Maternal Echoes: The Poetry of Marce-
line Desbordes-Valmore and Alphonse de Lamar-
tine. Cranbury, N.J.: University of Delaware Press,
2001.
Fortescue, William. Alphonse de Lamartine: A Political
Biography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.
Lombard, Charles M. Lamartine. Boston: Twayne,
1973.
Lamming, George (William) (1927– )
novelist, poet, critic, teacher, lecturer, broad-
caster, trade-union activist
George Lamming was born and raised in Carring-
ton’s Village, a former sugar estate on the outskirts
of Barbados’s capital, Bridgetown. Although Lam-
ming’s mother married after his birth, Lamming
said, “it was my mother who fathered me.” Lam-
ming attended Combermere High School on a
scholarship. There, teacher and writer Frank
COL-
LYMORE encouraged his writing. When Lamming’s
courses ended in 1946, Collymore helped Lam-
ming obtain a teaching position at El Colegio de
Venezuala, a boarding school for boys of South
American origin, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. That
year Lamming also started publishing poetry in
Bim, a literary magazine edited by Collymore.
From 1947, the BBC’s “Caribbean Voices” series
broadcast Lamming’s poems and occasional short
prose pieces. Themes Lamming explored during
this period—frustration with West Indian cultural
life and artists’ preference for imported culture—
reappear in later works as well.
In 1950, Lamming sailed to England with other
West Indian immigrants, including the novelist
Samuel Selvon, and briefly worked in a factory and
hosted a book program for the BBC West Indian
Service while writing. Lamming dedicated his first
novel, In the Castle of My Skin (1953), to his
mother and Frank Collymore. This fictional ac-
count of the West Indian experience quickly gar-
nered critical acclaim in the United States and
England. In the preface, U.S. novelist Richard
Wright describes Lamming’s prose as “quietly
melodious,” and in an essay entitled “George Lam-
ming’s In the Castle of My Skin” (1954), the novel-
ist
NGUGI WA THIONG’O calls the work “one of the
great political novels in modern ‘colonial’ litera-
ture.”
Lamming’s subsequent works explore West In-
dian history, culture, and politics. After completing
The Emigrants (1954), a novel that follows a group
of young men of Lamming’s generation from the
West Indies to London, Lamming returned to the
Caribbean to gather material for his third novel, Of
Age and Innocence (1958), set on the fictitious is-
land of San Cristobal. This novel examines rela-
tionships formed during colonial history, as does
Lamming’s fourth novel, Season of Adventure
(1960). In a 1989 interview archived online by
Banyan Limited, Lamming said that Season of Ad-
venture was “probably the first” and “only” novel
“which is in a sense devoted to the elevation of the
steelband not only as a moment of great culture
and triumph, but also showing the way in which
cultural activity can be so decisive in political life.”
Published the same year as Season of Adventure,
The Pleasures of Exile (1960), a collection of essays,
examines West Indian colonialism.
Two more novels published in the early 1970s,
Water with Berries (1971) and Natives of My Person
(1972), use allegory to examine guilt produced by
colonialism and carried by English and Caribbean
characters. Some critics consider the latter work as
Lamming’s major work, while others criticize its
ideological representation of characters. In 1974,
Lamming edited Cannon Shot and Glass Beads:
Modern Black Writing, an anthology examining
black responses to white racism.
In later years, Lamming devoted his attention to
lecturing and essays, regularly contributing to the
journal Casa de las Américas, published in Havana.
Since entering academia as a writer-in-residence
and lecturer at the University of the West Indies in
254 Lamming, George
1967, Lamming has been a visiting professor at the
University of Texas at Austin and the University of
Pennsylvania, a teacher at the University of
Miami’s summer Institute for Caribbean Creative
Writing, and a lecturer in Denmark, Tanzania,
Kenya, and Australia. Regarded as one of the most
perceptive commentators on the West Indies, Lam-
ming is also considered one of the most impor-
tant Caribbean West Indian novelists.
Other Works by George Lamming
Coming, Coming Home: Conversations II: Mono-
graphs. Philpsburg, St. Martin: House of Nehesi,
2000.
“Concepts of the Caribbean.” In Frank Birbalsingh,
ed., Frontiers of Caribbean Literatures in English.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
Drayton, Richard, and Andaiye, eds. Conversations:
George Lamming Essays, Addresses and Interviews,
1956–1990. London: Karia Press, 1992.
Works about George Lamming
Hulme, Peter. “Reading from Elsewhere: George
Lamming and the Paradox of Exile.” In Peter
Hulme and William H. Sherman, eds., The Tem-
pest and Its Travels. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
Phillips, Caryl. “George Lamming.” Wasafiri: Journal
of Caribbean, African, Asian and Associated Litera-
tures and Film 26 (Autumn 1997).
Silva, A. J. Simoes da. The Luxury of Nationalist De-
spair: George Lamming’s Fiction as Decolonizing
Project. Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, 2000.
Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di
(1896–1957) novelist
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was born in
Palermo, Italy, to Prince Guilio di Lampedusa and
his wife, Beatrice. He grew up in a palace and had
a great fondness for his upbringing, which he was
able to capture in his writing. He had an extremely
close, nearly suffocating relationship with his
mother through much of his life. From age 16 to
18, he attended the Liceo-Ginnasio Garibaldi
school, where he proved to be an excellent scholar
in philosophy, history, and Italian. He went on to
study law at the University of Rome.
From 1916 to 1918, Lampedusa fought in the
Italian Alps in World War I and was wounded and
captured. After the war, he traveled extensively in
Italy as well as to London, Paris, and other Euro-
pean cities. In the 1920s, he immersed himself in a
self-directed course of study in European history
and literature. His favorite writers included William
Shakespeare, John Keats, and Charles
BAUDELAIRE.
In 1954, Lampedusa began a course of lectures
on literature, one of which was published as the
book, Lessons on Stendahl (1977). He then turned
to novel writing and began The Leopard, a book
about the Italian aristocracy, which was published
posthumously in 1958. As a diversion from this
book, Lampedusa began his autobiography. It was
a chance to write about his beloved family palace,
which had nearly been destroyed in an air attack
during World War II.
Lampedusa had an active and varied life that
contributed to the richness of his work. He left his
mark in the worlds of education, literature, and
history. David Gilmour, his biographer, writes,“his
work will survive because he wrote about the cen-
tral problems of the human experience.”
A Work about Giuseppe Tomasi di
Lampedusa
Gilmour, David. The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe
di Lampedusa. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
Langgässer, Elisabeth (1899–1950) poet,
novelist, short-story writer
Elisabeth Langgässer was born in Alzey, Germany,
to Eduard and Eugenie Dienst Langgässer. Her fa-
ther, an architect, was a Jew, but she was raised as a
Catholic. After Eduard’s death in 1909, the family
moved to Darmstadt, where Langgässer attended
the Viktoria-Schule. After passing the school-leav-
ing exam in 1918, she taught at a primary school in
Grieshein. In 1935, she married the theologian
Wilhelm Hoffmann.
Langgässer, Elisabeth 255
Langgässer wrote book and theater reviews be-
fore publishing her first poetry collection, Der
Wenderkreis des Lammes (The Tropic of the Lamb,
1924). Her first novel, Proserpina (1933), won the
Literary Prize of the Association of Women’s Citi-
zens. In 1936, the Nazis forbade her from further
publication because she was of Jewish descent; she
defied the ban with a short-story collection in
1938. After World War II, she gained wider popu-
larity and critical acceptance. Her novel Das
Unauslöschliche Siegel (The Indelible Seal, 1946)
earned praise from writers Thomas MANN and
Hermann BROCH.
The influence of Franz KAFKA and James Joyce is
evident in Langgässer’s works. Many considered her
a religious writer, but she often included nonreli-
gious aspects such as war and economic hardship
in her writing. Langgässer’s poems explore the con-
ceptions of soul and psyche and investigate the evil
side of human nature. Not afraid of paradoxes, she
also dealt with the irrationality, beauty, and brutal-
ity of human passions. The literary scholar Her-
mann Boeschenstein writes that Langgässer “is able
to do what has often been termed the prerequisite
to the revitalization of modern religious literature;
she repeats the old truths in an exciting new way.”
Another Work by Elisabeth Langgässer
The Quest. New York: Knopf, 1953.
A Work about Elisabeth Langgässer
Gelbin, Cathy S. An Indelible Seal: Race, Hybridity and
Identity in Elisabeth Langgässer’s Writings. Essen:
Die Blaue Eule, 2001.
Lao She (Shu Qingchun) (1899–1966)
novelist
Shu Qingchun was born Shu She-yü on February 3
in Beijing. When foreign allied forces attacked Bei-
jing in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, his father was
killed. His mother did laundry so that Shu
Qingchun could be privately tutored. He gradu-
ated from Beijing Normal in 1918 and became
headmaster of a primary school, managing it so ef-
ficiently that he was appointed a government post
in 1920. He returned to teaching and did social
work with various Beijing organizations while
studying English at Yenching University. In 1924,
he taught Chinese at the Oriental School of Lon-
don University and assisted in translating a 16th-
century Chinese novel.
Inspired by the writing of Charles Dickens, Shu
began to write (under the pseudonym Lao She),
completing his first novel, The Philosophy of Lao
Zhang (1926), while in London. The book was
published as a serial in Shanghai to critical and
popular acclaim because of its patriotism and real-
istic portrayal of a civil servant, two students, and
a contemptible schoolmaster.
In 1930, Lao She returned to China and taught
Chinese at Qilu and Shandong Universities, where
he continued to write prolifically. His most popu-
lar work was the social critique Lo-t’o Hsiang-tzu
(Rickshaw Boy, 1936), a novel about making a
living in Beijing. In 1940, he completed the trilogy
about Japanese-occupied Beijing, Four Generations
Under One Roof.
As one of the country’s foremost patriotic writ-
ers, Lao She was active in the anti-Japanese move-
ment during the Sino-Japanese War. He was
elected director of general affairs of the All-China
Resist-the-Enemy Federation of Writers and
Artists. In 1946, he traveled to the United States as
a visiting lecturer and wrote his last novel, The
Drum Singers, published in the United States in
1952. He returned to celebrate China’s new Com-
munist regime in 1949 and wrote plays, all of
which became classics of socialist literature, in-
cluding Dragon Beard Ditch (1950), Teahouse
(1956), All the Family Are Blessed (1959), and Be-
neath the Red Banner (1964).
Although he served high posts in the Chinese
Writers Association, Lao She was no exception to
the suppression of writers during the Cultural Rev-
olution. Unable to contend with the disgrace of
public denunciations and criticisms, he committed
suicide on August 24. He was posthumously “reha-
bilitated”by the Communist Party in 1979, and his
complete works were published.
256 Lao She
Other Works by Lao She
Blades of Grass: The Stories of Lao She. Honolulu: Uni-
versity of Hawaii Press, 1999.
Cat Country: A Satirical Novel of China in the 1930s.
Translated by William A. Lyell. Columbus: Ohio
State University Press, 1970.
Heavensent. Translated by Xiong Deni. San Francisco:
China Books and Periodicals, 1986.
Teahouse: A Play in Three Acts. Translated by John
Howard-Gibbon. Beijing: Foreign Languages
Press, 1980.
Works about Lao She
Vohra, Ranbir. Lao She and the Chinese Revolution.
Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center,
Harvard University, 1974.
Wang, David Der-Wei. Fictional Realism in Twentieth-
Century China: Mao Dun, Lao She, Shen Congwen.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
Lasker-Schüler, Else (1869–1945) poet,
novelist
Else Lasker-Schüler was born in Elberfeld, Ger-
many, to Aron Schüler, a banker, and Jeanette
Schüler. The youngest of six children, Else was
deeply devoted to her mother, who encouraged
Else’s early interest in poetry. Paul, Lasker-Schüler’s
older brother, also helped develop her strong pas-
sion for poetry. As a Jewish family, the Schülers had
difficulty in the social environment of Germany.
Because of constant teasing by the Catholic and
Lutheran children, Else had to quit elementary
school and was tutored at home by her parents.
In 1890, Lasker-Schüler suffered the painful loss
of her mother. Four years later, she married
Jonathan Lasker. Lasker-Schüler separated from
her husband in 1899 after refusing to acknowledge
him as the father of their son Paul. Along with her
son, she moved to Berlin in 1899 where she imme-
diately became immersed in the artistic and cul-
tural life of the city. Lasker-Schüler frequented
various literary cafés throughout Berlin where she
composed poetry, made sketches, and conversed
with other artists. For the next 10 years, although
she associated with various literary groups, such
as the expressionists (see
EXPRESSIONISM), her work
does not appear to have been influenced by them.
In 1913, Lasker-Schüler traveled to Russia with
the goal of securing the release of her longtime
friend Johannes Holzmann, who had been arrested
for revolutionary activities and leadership in anar-
chist circles. Her mission was unsuccessful, but it
provided plenty of material for her writings. Dur-
ing World War I, Lasker-Schüler lost many friends,
such as the Austrian poet Georg TRAKL. As a result
of these experiences, she became deeply commit-
ted to pacifism.
In 1932 Lasker-Schüler received the Kleist prize,
one of the highest literary honors in Germany. The
atmosphere in German society, however, was be-
coming dangerous for her with the rise of the Na-
tional Socialists (Nazi) Party. One of the
newspapers controlled by the Nazis commented on
Lasker-Schüler’s award: “The pure Hebrew poetry
of Else Lasker-Schüler has nothing to do with us
Germans.” Fearing for her life, Lasker-Schüler
promptly left Germany for Switzerland. Arriving
without luggage, she spent six nights sleeping on a
bench in a Zurich park but survived by giving po-
etry readings and selling her drawings and sketches,
as well as on generous gifts from her friends and
readers. She spent several years living in Switzer-
land and Jerusalem, where she died in 1945.
Lasker-Schüler’s early poetry was first published
about 1899. Through the years, her poetry became
more and more complex, often treating concrete
ideas with abstract images. Her first collection of
poetry, Styx (1902), reveals some qualities of the
Expressionist school that are characterized by dec-
orative and emotional imagery, as seen in “Cool-
ness” (1902): “In the white blaze / Of bright roses /
I want to bleed to death.” As Ruth Schwertfeger
notes, “Preoccupation with spiritual reality domi-
nates Lasker-Schüler’s thinking.”
Lasker-Schüler clearly considered herself a Jew-
ish poet: In the poem “My People,” published in The
Seventh Day (1905), she openly identifies herself
with the Jewish people:“I have traveled the diaspora
/ From my blood’s fermentation / Constantly over
Lasker-Schüler, Else 257