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Book Cover
E-book
Author Honegger, Gitta, 1942-

Title Thomas Bernhard : the making of an Austrian / Gitta Honegger
Published New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, ©2001

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Description 1 online resource (xviii, 341 pages) : illustrations
Contents Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Fool on the Hill: Thomas Bernhard�s Mise-en-Sc�ne -- Chapter 2. In Search of Family -- Chapter 3. The Construction of Origin -- Chapter 4. The Staging of Kinship -- Chapter 5. Fatherland/Mother�s Body -- Chapter 6. Native Son: Is It a Comedy? Is It a Tragedy? -- Chapter 7. Playing Against: An Austrian Maverick in the German Theater of Guilt -- Chapter 8. Writing Wittgenstein: Thinking in Action -- Chapter 9. Self-Projections/Self-Reflections -- Chapter 10. Theatermacher: Plays and Histrionics -- Chapter 11. Stand-Up Writer
Chapter 12. Questions of GeniusChapter 13. The Staging of a Nation -- Epilogue: The Drama of the Will -- Chronology -- Notes -- Illustration Credits -- Illustrations 1 -- Illustrations 2 -- Index
Summary 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Bernhard, Thomas.
SUBJECT Bernhard, Thomas fast
Subject Authors, Austrian -- 20th century -- Biography
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- German.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Literary.
Authors, Austrian
Genre/Form Biographies
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2001017971
ISBN 0300129653
9780300129656