O udręce młodości, resentymencie i wstręcie, a także o tym, czy Thomas Bernhard czytał Witolda Gombrowicza

Artykuł jest interpretacją wybranych utworów Thomasa Bernharda w kontekście twórczości Witolda Gombrowicza. W moim przekonaniu zagadkowa aluzja do polskiego pisarza w powieści Zaburzenie jest nie tylko efektem lektury, ale i artystycznej inspiracji. Bernharda i Gombrowicza łączyłoby uwrażliwienie na międzyludzki aspekt egzystencji i jego kulturowe uwarunkowania. Rodzinę, szkołę postrzegali jako opresywne instytucje uwikłane w symboliczną i realną przemoc. Podstawową strategią obronną bohaterów jest afekt wstrętu.

Artistic means of representation of sociocultural issues in the works of Thomas Bernhard

The article is devoted to sociocultural issues in the works of Thomas Bernhard, the Austrian writer and the playwright of the twentieth century. Born in 1931, the eyewitnesses of nazi transformations, Thomas was too young to resist them. The period of his personal formation was marked by the drams of a more personal, family character, which, nevertheless, later, the writer will always feel as closely associated with the historical destinies of the country and the world. His own childhood and adolescence, dramatic and traumatic, become for the writer permanent source of dramatic literary plots, the main characters of which will be confused, desperate people, losers and travels, unable to cope with the challenges of fate. In this case, the fiction in his works is often almost impossible to separate from the introduced autobiographical material. The numerous works of Bernhard demonstrate the Austrian mass consciousness, full of shame, guilt, disgust to yourself, escapism. Bernhard shows an acutely critical attitude towards the Austrian society and the state that did not get rid of the Nazi past. However, the writer does not declare his social views directly and unequivocally. Special inaccessibility and hints are much more characteristic of his prose. As a result of the analysis of the most striking works by Bernhard (“Frost”, “The Loser”, “Amras”, “Old masters”, “Yes”, “Correction”, “The Lime Works”, “Beton”, “Gargoyles”) some typical artistic techniques are identified — autobiographical reception, eccentricity, monologism (as a symbol of loneliness, removal, isolation from society, acute individualism and even sociophobia), emotional saturation (the spectrum of emotions is monotonous: most often it is deep disappointment, sadness and grief, anxiety and a cured fear), mosaic of narration, motivation of the reader to joint, “interactive” reflection and independent conclusions, some techniques of “musicalization” of literary text.

Geschichten zerstören

»Der typische Geschichtenzerstörer« sei er, sagt Thomas Bernhard über sich und sein Schreiben, Peter Handkes Erzähler wird vom »Antifabeltier« heimgesucht und Elfriede Jelineks Bekenntnis als Romanautorin lautet: »Ich schlage sozusagen mit der Axt drein«. Aber warum unterziehen österreichische Autor*innen nach 1945 das Erzählen als traditionelle Kulturtechnik einer solch scharfen Kritik? Viktor Konitzer verfolgt die Geschichte politischer Erzählfeindschaft bis zu den Ursprüngen einer genuin österreichischen Literatur zurück. Dabei entdeckt er spannende Formen des Nicht-Erzählens - und zeigt, wo die Geschichtenzerstörer*innen Zuflucht suchen: im reinen Fluss der Sprache, der Prosa.

Formalização estética e história na Áustria: anotações sobre Ingeborg Bachmann e Thomas Bernhard

Neste artigo, partimos de um momento representativo da história austríaca, no final dos anos 1950, marcado por alguns desenvolvimentos no plano da vida social que buscavam parceria e harmonia, sem lidar com seu passado em relação ao nazismo. Contra essa situação se insurgem alguns autores fundamentais para a literatura austríaca, buscando formalizações estéticas que efetivam uma localização histórica crítica, que deve muito à perspectiva do materialista histórico benjaminiano. O recorte desse artigo recai sobre duas obras: o conto Unter Mördern und Irren (escrito em 1956-7, publicado em 1961), de Ingeborg Bachmann e o romance Auslöschung (1986), de Thomas Bernhard.

NEW BOOKS ON THOMAS BERNHARD

The paper is a review of three books on the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989), Georg Büchner Prize and Medici Prize winner, one of the most provocative 20th century “classic” writers. The year 2021 is marked with his 90th birthday. Three German biographies of Bernhard, different in genre, evaluative approach, and media form, are of special interest. They are the encyclopedic guide “Thomas Bernhard: Life, work, and influence” (2018), the memoirs of his half-brother (physician) and a heir P. Fabian “A life at Thomas Bernhard’s side. A report” (2021), and the graphic novel biography of the Austrian designer N. Mahler, “Thomas Bernhard: The incorrect biography” (2021). These books, from the guide that systemizes the results of many years of research on the writer, to the comics that offers a travesty biography of a “saint” of a literary world, confirm the canonization of the German literature enfant terrible and demonstrate the inclusion of Bernhard’s poetics in the world literary process, including the sphere of mass literature.