Guglielmo Tell per la scuola

by Max Frisch, Enrico Filippini (Translator)

In Italian.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, German Literature

87 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Max Rudolph Frisch was born in 1911 in Zurich; the son of Franz Bruno Frisch (an architect) and Karolina Bettina Frisch (née Wildermuth). After studying at the Realgymnasium in Zurich, he enrolled at the University of Zurich in 1930 and began studying German literature, but had to abandon due to financial problems after the death of his father in 1932. Instead, he started working as a journalist and columnist for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), one of the major newspapers in Switzerland. With the NZZ he would entertain a lifelong ambivalent love-hate relationship, for his own views were in stark contrast to the conservative views promulgated by this newspaper. In 1933 he travelled through eastern and south-eastern Europe, and in 1935 he visited Germany for the first time.

Some of the major themes in his work are the search or loss of one's identity; guilt and innocence (the spiritual crisis of the modern world after Nietzsche proclaimed that "God is dead"); technological omnipotence (the human belief that everything was possible and technology allowed humans to control everything) versus fate (especially in Homo faber); and also Switzerland's idealized self-image as a tolerant democracy based on consensus — criticizing that as illusion and portraying people (and especially the Swiss) as being scared by their own liberty and being preoccupied mainly with controlling every part of their life.

Max Frisch was a political man, and many of his works make reference to (or, as in Jonas und sein Veteran, are centered around) political issues of the time.

information was taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Frisch

Reviews

[ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book should be required reading for all swiss nationals.

in this book Frisch deconstructs the swiss founding myths. based on solid archival work, he shows that very few of our national founding events actually occurred, and that those which did happened very differently than they are remembered.

the end result is an amusing revision of the Tell myth, coupled with a very subversive history lesson.

[EmBe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darin erinnere mich, weil das Buch vorgelesen wurde. Als Ergänzung zu "Wilhelm Tell" von Schiller.

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grande ironia - e un gioco di doppio piano di scrittura mirabile - per narrare il mito fondativo della Svizzera in maniera inedita e disincantata.

[Francesco Feola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cronaca smaliziata e di affetta ingenuità che ha per soggetto principale le disavventure di un balivo grasso ed emicranico, indolente, pavido e forse (lui sì, a differenza del cronista) davvero ingenuo.

Il balivo Corrado di Tillendorf è un “dead man walking” che sin dall’inizio sappiamo destinato a essere assassinato, probabilmente nell’agosto del 1291, durante la sua ambasceria a Uri, nella Svizzera Primitiva, per conto degli eredi di re Rodolfo d’Asburgo. Vittima di una congiura dei confederati, tanti, troppi segni premonitori, oltre a storie e leggende che hanno già coinvolto altri balivi in quelle terre, sembrano preannunciarne a gran voce l’inevitabile morte violenta.
Anche se i riferimenti cronologici sono un po’ malfermi, lo spropositato apparato di note - quasi sempre ben più nutrito della porzione di racconto cui di volta in volta si riferisce, e che scomoda all’uopo autorevolissime fonti - sembra comunque scandire l’unico dato certo: il destino del cavaliere, o balivo che chiamar si voglia, cui questi si avvicina inesorabilmente pagina dopo pagina, anzi nota dopo nota. Questo dato rende Corrado o Konrad immediatamente simpatico al lettore, nel senso che quest’ultimo “patisce insieme” al malcapitato protagonista della storia: non foss’altro che per i suoi continui mal di testa, per i suoi diffusi acciacchi, o semplicemente per l’incapacità di leggere la situazione intorno a lui.
Lungo il racconto e tra le note - di una maniacale accuratezza filologica - si evince il gusto di Max Frisch nel far trasparire, quasi in maniera accidentale, una satira su alcuni aspetti della comunità svizzera, dall’epoca dei fatti narrati ad altri periodi storici fino a quella contemporanea all’autore, fatti passare però come una cosa cui l’autore per primo è placidamente rassegnato se non allineato e compiacente, e ponendo in questo modo la satira su un doppio livello: una satira della - o nella - satira.
E il Guglielmo Tell che promette il titolo, il nome del paladino della libertà consegnato alla Storia? Poco più di una comparsa, quasi a rendere giustizia a un personaggio al confronto ben più interessante e immeritatamente passato in silenzio: Corrado o Konrad von Tillendorf, o forse Albrecht Gessler, o addirittura da altri conosciuto come Hermann.

[Patrick Lang]

The structure of the book is worth mentioning. Short chapters present a retelling of the Wilhelm Tell story, interspersed with chapter endnotes of similar length to the chapters themselves. The endnotes, as a significant part of the book, are provided in a jarringly flat academic style, and pull you out of the narrative, like the theatrical concept of estrangement adapted for prose. You are not allowed to sink into the literary story, but constantly forced to contend with the fact that it is mere narrative. In this respect, it is very important that these are chapter endnotes rather than footnotes or endmatter notes, which in the first case would have been more smoothly integrated into the narrative, and in the second case would have been more easily ignored all together. The reader is essentially forced to read the endnotes through their placement, and has to flip back and forth between endnote and story, breaking up the experience even more.

This structure works well with the author’s intention for the book: undermining National foundation myths, and the story of Wilhelm Tell in particular. His story questions Tell’s heroism, and his references to the early chronicles question the reality of the Tell story as a whole, suggesting that the key scene - the apple-shot - was plagiarized from older, Nordic myths. In content and form, Frisch chips away at the reality of the story. But that doesn’t mean the book isn’t also fun: Frisch’s sardonic comedy comes through both in his story, and on the occasional, baffling insertion of what I would call “cultural fun fact” endnotes among his more serious ones.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Required reading for uni*
a different take on a classis swiss tale/myth
impressive research
dry, condescending (in classical Max Frisch manner)
quick to read through
more enjoyable if you know the original drama by Schiller

[Lukas Rupp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hier hat Max Frisch kurzerhand Tell, Schiller mitsamt den Eidgenossen gekonnt Hops genommen.

Immer wieder interessante Fussnoten zur Forschung über den Mythos des Rütlischwurs und der Tellsage.

[Claudio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante, asciutta e spietata analisi della leggenda di Guglielmo Tell. Tante note a pie' di pagina rendono la lettura molto faticosa. Prima di leggere questo libro consiglio di leggersi la leggenda "classica", per capire meglio.

[Valia · Rating 4 out of 5]

We had to read this book in school and it was very good for a schoolbook. I really liked like the story and how the main charakter changed.