As of: March 15, 2024, 3:30 p.m
By: Sven Trautwein
The mother of all literary programs, the “Literary Quartet,” starts in May with a new direction.
As of December 1st, 2023, there was a big change in the literary program “The Literary Quartet”: a live audience could no longer be present at the recording of the program from the foyer of the Berliner Ensemble.
From this show onwards, presenter Thea Dorn invited her guests to a round table under oversized lighting.
And from May onwards, ZDF is planning to further soften the show, whose legendary scenes with Marcel Reich-Ranicki († 93, 2013) have gone down in television history.
“The Literary Quartet” from March 15th.
From left: Iris Radisch, Jan Fleischhauer, Thea Dorn, Cornelius Pollmer © Claudius Pflug/ZDF
One thing is certain: the May broadcast will once again focus on four titles, as will the March 15th edition.
It remains to be seen whether there will be as much laughter in the group as in the September issue.
The literary program, which in the past caused criticism and literary-critical discussions, has increasingly become a marketing format, as literaturcafe.de aptly describes.
Wolfgang Tischer rightly asks why a radio show is broadcast on television.
Fewer and fewer emotions were conveyed.
“The Literary Quartet”: Changes from May
In addition to the titles by Barbara Kingsolver, Timon Karl Kaleyta, Julien Green and Stephan Wackwitz, the press release already sheds light on new changes from the next episode.
Thea Dorn ushers in a new era for “The Literary Quartet”.
She transformed it from a conventional criticism group into a literary salon, which in the coming broadcasts is geared towards the widespread book clubs in the country.
Four culturally savvy and passionate bibliophiles discuss which novels really deserve to be read.
It's also about which books can make a social or aesthetic claim and which reading material you can put aside without hesitation.
Here you will find the reasons when you can put a boring book aside.
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The long and successful history of “The Literary Quartet” is inextricably linked to Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
He gave literary criticism on television cult status from 1988 until his last broadcast in 2001.
The founding members were Sigrid Löffler, Helmut Karasek and Jürgen Busche.
And as the saying goes: the last person turns out the light.