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Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian
Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989), a literary figure of international acclaim and arguably Austria's greatest post–World War II writer, became the first of his generation to expose unrelentingly his country's pathological denial of complicity in the Holocaust. Bernhard's writings and indeed his own biography reflect Austria's fraught efforts to define itself as a nation following the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy and the trauma of World War II. Repeatedly he scandalized the nation with novels, plays, and public statements that exposed the convoluted ways Austrians were attempting to come to terms with their Nazi past--or defiantly avoiding doing so. This book, the first comprehensive biography of Thomas Bernhard in English, examines his life and work and their intricate relationship to Austria's geographical, political, and cultural transformations in the twentieth century. While Bernhard was the scourge of his native culture, Gitta Honegger explains, he was also a product of that same culture. Appreciation of his controversial impact on his society is possible only through an understanding of the contradictions, the shame, and the achievements that mark Austrians' self-perception in the postwar years. Honegger shows that for Bernhard the theater was not only a profession but also a paradigm for his life, and that performance was the primary force animating his writing and self-construction. Even after his death, Bernhard's carefully constructed biography continues to fascinate, shock, and expose the Austrian culture at large.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 11, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 24, 2015
First things first: I'm very grateful to Honegger for writing this book, which is so far the only English language biography of Bernhard.
That said, it would be nice if someone would a) write a good one, or b) even translate one from German. Because this is a hot mess. If you want proof of that, consider that Honegger used to work at Yale; it's published by Yale; and the only positive text they could find for a blurb was by... a professor at Yale.
I imagine this is how this book made it into the world:
i) Honegger, who works on drama and theatre, had some interesting ideas about Bernhard as dramatist.
ii) An editor at Yale got wind of this, and decided that instead of an academic monograph about Bernhard's theatrical works, Honegger should write a biography.
iii) Honegger, who knows about Bernhard's life, thinks that's a great idea, because Bernhard's life is *hand fucking made* for biography. Great origin story, great trauma, weird relationships, great success, great posthumous fun.
iv) The editor who decided that Honegger should write a biography proceeds to go on holiday. Honegger freaks out, because she doesn't know how to write a biography. Editor doesn't care, his/her work is just throwing out good ideas, not helping authors.
v) Book is published as a hot mess.
What kind of mess? The repetitive, narrative-less, 'thematic chaptered', let's-write-a-journal-article-then-stretch-it-out-into-a-book-and-stick-in-a-few-biographical-details-and-a-whole-bunch-of-plot-summaries-so-we-can-market-it-as-a-biography kind. There's no sense here that you might like to tell us about Bernhard's writing or life in, you know, order. The argument is perfectly good (Bernhard 'stages' his life; English majors will be familiar with this from a little period we like to call "the Renaissance"), but not at all interesting compared to, for instance, his tuberculosis, his novels, his weird relationships with women, his *bonkers* family, his hatred for almost everyone, etc etc...
So, thanks to Honegger, but we'd all be better off if she wrote a good book about his drama (I'm sure she could), and someone else wrote a good biography.
That said, it would be nice if someone would a) write a good one, or b) even translate one from German. Because this is a hot mess. If you want proof of that, consider that Honegger used to work at Yale; it's published by Yale; and the only positive text they could find for a blurb was by... a professor at Yale.
I imagine this is how this book made it into the world:
i) Honegger, who works on drama and theatre, had some interesting ideas about Bernhard as dramatist.
ii) An editor at Yale got wind of this, and decided that instead of an academic monograph about Bernhard's theatrical works, Honegger should write a biography.
iii) Honegger, who knows about Bernhard's life, thinks that's a great idea, because Bernhard's life is *hand fucking made* for biography. Great origin story, great trauma, weird relationships, great success, great posthumous fun.
iv) The editor who decided that Honegger should write a biography proceeds to go on holiday. Honegger freaks out, because she doesn't know how to write a biography. Editor doesn't care, his/her work is just throwing out good ideas, not helping authors.
v) Book is published as a hot mess.
What kind of mess? The repetitive, narrative-less, 'thematic chaptered', let's-write-a-journal-article-then-stretch-it-out-into-a-book-and-stick-in-a-few-biographical-details-and-a-whole-bunch-of-plot-summaries-so-we-can-market-it-as-a-biography kind. There's no sense here that you might like to tell us about Bernhard's writing or life in, you know, order. The argument is perfectly good (Bernhard 'stages' his life; English majors will be familiar with this from a little period we like to call "the Renaissance"), but not at all interesting compared to, for instance, his tuberculosis, his novels, his weird relationships with women, his *bonkers* family, his hatred for almost everyone, etc etc...
So, thanks to Honegger, but we'd all be better off if she wrote a good book about his drama (I'm sure she could), and someone else wrote a good biography.
May 8, 2017
I hate books and articles that begin with a date of birth. Altogether I hate books and articles that adopt a biographical and chronological approach; that strikes me as the most tasteless and at the same time the most unintellectual procedure.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the highly opinionated Thomas Bernhard (in my view, one of the greatest post-WW2 European authors) had a strong view on how literary appreciation of an author should be written - or rather not written - and by quoting this as her epigraph Gita Honneger sets out her stall immediately for this study of Thomas Bernhard, his life and works.
She explains her approach:
This book is by necessity a cultural biography. It is as much about Austria as about Bernhard. The interactive influences in the co-evolution of the recovering nation and one of its most prominent sons cannot be traced in a linear biography. The fragments salvaged from the ruins of World War II yielded a synchronicity of cross-influences from which Bernhard derived his self-perception. The process of his self-invention reveals more about him and the world he lived in (and staged so masterfully) than a chronological account of his life and work could do.
The references to self-invention and masterful staging in this passage are key to Honneger's approach. She explains her background, and her connection with Bernhard in his later life:
I come to this project as a theatre scholar and practioner and as an Austrian (in all senses of the term I have indicated) whose efforts to reconstruct herself as an American are strongly supported by Bernhard, many of whose plays I translated.
Especially useful for this work was my work as a dramaturg - a function recently imported from the German theatre, still an unpronounceable mystification to most Americans.
Her theme generally throughout the book is to view Bernhard's life and work through the prism of dramaturgy (that word appears it seems on almost every page) and sees the public persona of Thomas Bernhard as the author's own greatest literary creation, and his world as a elaborately staged set.
Honneger's account of his life draws extensively on his own authoritative self-account, albeit she treats this as the life story Bernhard wants to present:
The memoirs are often considered Bernhard's literary masterwork, particularly in he English speaking world where they are published in one volume under the title Gathering Evidence. Relentlessly facing the "truth" about himself, his family, and his culture, he produced his greatest work of fiction.
She does a good job of filling in the gaps missing in his own account: the reality of his origins (his likely biological father committed suicide before the results of a paternity test were revealed: Bernhard had always suggested he was murdered), further information on his grandfather Johannes Freumbichler who Bernhard acknowledged as "one human being of essential importance in my life and existence", and "my only teacher", and his intriguing relationship with "Auntie" Hedwig Stavianicek, 36 years his senior.
She is happy not to speculate too deeply on his ambiguous sexuality, focusing more on his oddly successful ability to insert himself into other people's relationships: indeed she documents cases where both husband and wife were separately infatuated with the author. Although the style of her research here can be a little Sunday-supplement, often focusing on how interviewees received her and how their houses were furnished, rather than any secrets they spilled.
This translated excerpt from another Bernhard biography, on his relationships with women gave me more insight than Honneger's account: https://anathanwest.com/2014/10/15/th...
The focus of her literary criticism is, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the plays, to my disappointment as in the English-speaking world generally, and certainly to me, Bernhard is better known for his suite of magnificent novels (as well as his short-stories and novellas):
Frost (1963), translated by Michael Hofmann (2006)
Gargoyles (Verstörung, 1967), translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1970)
The Lime Works (Das Kalkwerk, 1970), translated by Sophie Wilkins (1973)
Correction(Korrektur, 1975), translated by Sophie Wilkins (1979)
Yes (Ja, 1978), translated by Ewald Osers (1991)
The Cheap Eaters (Die Billigesser, 1980), translated by Ewald Osers (1990)
Concrete(Beton, 1982), translated by David McLintock (1984)
Wittgenstein's Nephew (Wittgensteins Neffe, 1982), translated by David McLintock (1988)
The Loser (Der Untergeher, 1983), translated by Jack Dawson (1991)
Woodcutters(Holzfällen: Eine Erregung, 1984), translated by Ewald Osers (1985) and as Woodcutters, by David McLintock (1988)
Old Masters: A Comedy(Alte Meister. Komödie, 1985), translated by Ewald Osers (1989)
Extinction(Auslöschung, 1986), translated by David McLintock (1995)
On The Mountain(In der Höhe, written 1959, published 1989), translated by Russell Stockman (1991)
(the rather-hard-to-find-hence-expensive Cheap Eaters (a bargain at 199 pounds on Amazon for a new copy) being the only one I have yet to read)
I include the list because, oddly in a literary biography, Honneger omits to include a bibliography of Bernhard's works (and incidentally his poetry seems to be overlooked entirely)
Further the commentary on the plays focuses on the dramaturgy - the staging and the actor's performance: which is very difficult to appreciate and respond to unless one actually has seen the performances.
And Honneger's prose can get somewhat over-elaborate and academic. The following paragraph is essentially simply observing that Bernhard's plays are largely monologues (and actually carries on in this vein for another half page):
They are driven by one speaking voice, which enacts rather than describes the subject's state of mind, more often than not in extreme agitation. Syntax scores identity. The self is constituted in speech. The dramaturgy of Bernhard's language in performance owes more to Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation than to Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lucan. Bernhard squarely stages Vorstellung, which in German connotes performance as well as representation and imagination, in the skull. The brain, since Kant the locus of time and space, becomes the promptbook for reality in the mise-en-scene of Schopenhauer's will, which casts itself as self and others and projects itself into the world. Bernhard's Kopftheater, his theatre of and in the head, is a Vorstellung as representation of self through the will performing itself in language. Speech objectifies Vorstellung (imagination) as Vorstellung (performance).
Overall, this was something of a disappointment. It is comprehensive as a study of the dramaturgy of Bernhard's plays, and her thesis that his life and works are one large performance is both interesting and well supported by her arguments. But I didn't gain insights into his novels in the same way I did with Yasuko Claremont's The Novels of Oe Kenzaburo and Bernhard's own account in Gathering Evidence remains a much better source for his biography, even if it is biased in its presentation.
Two interesting reviews for further insights:
A favourable one from Tim Parks (albeit a review so comprehensive as to almost renders it unnecessary to read the book): http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/...
A much less favourable one from another of Bernhard's many English language translators: http://www.thomasbernhard.org/honnege...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the highly opinionated Thomas Bernhard (in my view, one of the greatest post-WW2 European authors) had a strong view on how literary appreciation of an author should be written - or rather not written - and by quoting this as her epigraph Gita Honneger sets out her stall immediately for this study of Thomas Bernhard, his life and works.
She explains her approach:
This book is by necessity a cultural biography. It is as much about Austria as about Bernhard. The interactive influences in the co-evolution of the recovering nation and one of its most prominent sons cannot be traced in a linear biography. The fragments salvaged from the ruins of World War II yielded a synchronicity of cross-influences from which Bernhard derived his self-perception. The process of his self-invention reveals more about him and the world he lived in (and staged so masterfully) than a chronological account of his life and work could do.
The references to self-invention and masterful staging in this passage are key to Honneger's approach. She explains her background, and her connection with Bernhard in his later life:
I come to this project as a theatre scholar and practioner and as an Austrian (in all senses of the term I have indicated) whose efforts to reconstruct herself as an American are strongly supported by Bernhard, many of whose plays I translated.
Especially useful for this work was my work as a dramaturg - a function recently imported from the German theatre, still an unpronounceable mystification to most Americans.
Her theme generally throughout the book is to view Bernhard's life and work through the prism of dramaturgy (that word appears it seems on almost every page) and sees the public persona of Thomas Bernhard as the author's own greatest literary creation, and his world as a elaborately staged set.
Honneger's account of his life draws extensively on his own authoritative self-account, albeit she treats this as the life story Bernhard wants to present:
The memoirs are often considered Bernhard's literary masterwork, particularly in he English speaking world where they are published in one volume under the title Gathering Evidence. Relentlessly facing the "truth" about himself, his family, and his culture, he produced his greatest work of fiction.
She does a good job of filling in the gaps missing in his own account: the reality of his origins (his likely biological father committed suicide before the results of a paternity test were revealed: Bernhard had always suggested he was murdered), further information on his grandfather Johannes Freumbichler who Bernhard acknowledged as "one human being of essential importance in my life and existence", and "my only teacher", and his intriguing relationship with "Auntie" Hedwig Stavianicek, 36 years his senior.
She is happy not to speculate too deeply on his ambiguous sexuality, focusing more on his oddly successful ability to insert himself into other people's relationships: indeed she documents cases where both husband and wife were separately infatuated with the author. Although the style of her research here can be a little Sunday-supplement, often focusing on how interviewees received her and how their houses were furnished, rather than any secrets they spilled.
This translated excerpt from another Bernhard biography, on his relationships with women gave me more insight than Honneger's account: https://anathanwest.com/2014/10/15/th...
The focus of her literary criticism is, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the plays, to my disappointment as in the English-speaking world generally, and certainly to me, Bernhard is better known for his suite of magnificent novels (as well as his short-stories and novellas):
Frost (1963), translated by Michael Hofmann (2006)
Gargoyles (Verstörung, 1967), translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1970)
The Lime Works (Das Kalkwerk, 1970), translated by Sophie Wilkins (1973)
Correction(Korrektur, 1975), translated by Sophie Wilkins (1979)
Yes (Ja, 1978), translated by Ewald Osers (1991)
The Cheap Eaters (Die Billigesser, 1980), translated by Ewald Osers (1990)
Concrete(Beton, 1982), translated by David McLintock (1984)
Wittgenstein's Nephew (Wittgensteins Neffe, 1982), translated by David McLintock (1988)
The Loser (Der Untergeher, 1983), translated by Jack Dawson (1991)
Woodcutters(Holzfällen: Eine Erregung, 1984), translated by Ewald Osers (1985) and as Woodcutters, by David McLintock (1988)
Old Masters: A Comedy(Alte Meister. Komödie, 1985), translated by Ewald Osers (1989)
Extinction(Auslöschung, 1986), translated by David McLintock (1995)
On The Mountain(In der Höhe, written 1959, published 1989), translated by Russell Stockman (1991)
(the rather-hard-to-find-hence-expensive Cheap Eaters (a bargain at 199 pounds on Amazon for a new copy) being the only one I have yet to read)
I include the list because, oddly in a literary biography, Honneger omits to include a bibliography of Bernhard's works (and incidentally his poetry seems to be overlooked entirely)
Further the commentary on the plays focuses on the dramaturgy - the staging and the actor's performance: which is very difficult to appreciate and respond to unless one actually has seen the performances.
And Honneger's prose can get somewhat over-elaborate and academic. The following paragraph is essentially simply observing that Bernhard's plays are largely monologues (and actually carries on in this vein for another half page):
They are driven by one speaking voice, which enacts rather than describes the subject's state of mind, more often than not in extreme agitation. Syntax scores identity. The self is constituted in speech. The dramaturgy of Bernhard's language in performance owes more to Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation than to Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lucan. Bernhard squarely stages Vorstellung, which in German connotes performance as well as representation and imagination, in the skull. The brain, since Kant the locus of time and space, becomes the promptbook for reality in the mise-en-scene of Schopenhauer's will, which casts itself as self and others and projects itself into the world. Bernhard's Kopftheater, his theatre of and in the head, is a Vorstellung as representation of self through the will performing itself in language. Speech objectifies Vorstellung (imagination) as Vorstellung (performance).
Overall, this was something of a disappointment. It is comprehensive as a study of the dramaturgy of Bernhard's plays, and her thesis that his life and works are one large performance is both interesting and well supported by her arguments. But I didn't gain insights into his novels in the same way I did with Yasuko Claremont's The Novels of Oe Kenzaburo and Bernhard's own account in Gathering Evidence remains a much better source for his biography, even if it is biased in its presentation.
Two interesting reviews for further insights:
A favourable one from Tim Parks (albeit a review so comprehensive as to almost renders it unnecessary to read the book): http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/...
A much less favourable one from another of Bernhard's many English language translators: http://www.thomasbernhard.org/honnege...
April 23, 2020
I hit the phrase "phallic womb" rather early on so, thankfully, I had some forewarning about what lay in wait.
Being an obsessive devourer-devouter of Bernhard, I was very excited to read this book. There isn't much on Bernhard in English, certainly not in the way of biography, hence my great disappointment with this one.
You won't learn much about Bernhard at all, nothing you can't read in his own accounts. His personal relationships are even murkier here since Honegger goes to no great pains to really tell us anything about his life that Bernhard hadn't. Staking out her claim to this being a cultural biography, there are some worthy bits that Honegger focuses on. If you aren't familiar with post-war German language theatre, you will learn a lot. If you aren't familiar with Austrian wishy-washing over the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, you'll learn a lot.
You won't learn much else. Honegger focuses largely on Bernhard's plays, which is fine, but his novels and prose are really given way too short of a thrift and those are his strength. Too much time is spent on doing exactly what Bernhard would've loathed, pomo-jargon laced "deconstruction" of the man and his theatrical life, too much "phallic womb" and not enough of pretty much anything else.
I came away, somehow, knowing less...
Being an obsessive devourer-devouter of Bernhard, I was very excited to read this book. There isn't much on Bernhard in English, certainly not in the way of biography, hence my great disappointment with this one.
You won't learn much about Bernhard at all, nothing you can't read in his own accounts. His personal relationships are even murkier here since Honegger goes to no great pains to really tell us anything about his life that Bernhard hadn't. Staking out her claim to this being a cultural biography, there are some worthy bits that Honegger focuses on. If you aren't familiar with post-war German language theatre, you will learn a lot. If you aren't familiar with Austrian wishy-washing over the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, you'll learn a lot.
You won't learn much else. Honegger focuses largely on Bernhard's plays, which is fine, but his novels and prose are really given way too short of a thrift and those are his strength. Too much time is spent on doing exactly what Bernhard would've loathed, pomo-jargon laced "deconstruction" of the man and his theatrical life, too much "phallic womb" and not enough of pretty much anything else.
I came away, somehow, knowing less...
December 22, 2024
Lots of filler and silly academic theory stuff. Too much focus on the plays. A few paragraphs of interesting ideas sprinkled throughout on some of the novels. Not worth the time.
December 23, 2011
Having read already the exhausting autobiographical work by Bernhard titled Gathering Evidence, I really got little here I was that interested in. I go to Bernhard for his novels and stories, and not so much for his plays which were played a little top-heavy in my opinion regarding this book. But the text was fine, I enjoyed much of it, and I am glad I read it. I did learn more about the so-called aunt that I had not understood completely prior to this study. I would recommend this book to anyone very knowledgeable already with Thomas Bernhard. I am not sure how much help this book would be to the uninitiated.
May 12, 2012
This is a great background to the works of Thomas Bernhard, one that clearly defines the social, political, and cultural issues that are so prevalent in both his written and spoken words.
September 22, 2018
I was really surprised by the terrible reviews this book received. I thought it was inspired. I wasn't even planning to read a biography of the novelist but had happened upon a chapter of the book that had been published separately in the Performing Arts Journal and was so impressed by the beautiful writing. It was incredibly evocative and I learned so many tidbits about Bernhard, as well as insightful interpretation by Honegger that I picked up a copy of the biography and absolutely LOVED it! That is saying a lot since I am not interested in theater or her own personal passion of dramaturg. I care about that so little that I couldn't be bothered to even look it up.
But her gorgeous writing style and the way each chapter is theme-based was so illuminating about a challenging writer. I had two burning questions going in. One: the habsburgs and Bernhard and Two: Wittgenstein and Bernhard. To a lesser extent I was interesting in Steinhof. Well, the author answered my questions and more. I LOVED her cultural approach and in seeing the man through Austrian culture. It loomed so large for him.
Loved her writing style and appreciated her keen insights into a challenging author... a challenging human being.
But her gorgeous writing style and the way each chapter is theme-based was so illuminating about a challenging writer. I had two burning questions going in. One: the habsburgs and Bernhard and Two: Wittgenstein and Bernhard. To a lesser extent I was interesting in Steinhof. Well, the author answered my questions and more. I LOVED her cultural approach and in seeing the man through Austrian culture. It loomed so large for him.
Loved her writing style and appreciated her keen insights into a challenging author... a challenging human being.
March 23, 2020
A mixture of enlightening and annoying, perceptive and ridiculous. Seems to be more focus on his plays (which I have not read) than his novels (of which I've read all but one translated into English).
February 14, 2010
Wretched book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews