Thomas Bernhard

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Thomas Bernhard

Born February 9, 1931(1931-02-09)
Heerlen, Netherlands
Died February 12, 1989
Ohlsdorf, Upper Austria
Occupation Novelist and Playwright
Nationality Austrian
Writing period 1957 - 1989
Official website

Thomas Bernhard (born Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard, February 9, 1931 - February 12, 1989) was an Austrian playwright and novelist.

Contents

[edit] Life

Thomas Bernhard was born in 1931 in Heerlen, Netherlands as an illegitimate child to Herta Fabjan (1904-1950) and the carpenter Alois Zuckerstätter (1905-1940).

Bernhard spent much of his early childhood with his maternal grandparents in Vienna and Seekirchen, Salzburg. His mother's marriage in (1936) occasioned a move to Traunstein, Bavaria.

Bernhard's grandfather, the author Johannes Freumbichler, pushed for an artistic education for the boy, including musical instruction. Bernhard went to elementary school in Seekirchen and later attended the Johanneum boarding school, which he quit in 1947 to start an apprenticeship with a grocer.

Due to an intractable lung disease (sarcoidosis), Bernhard spent the years 1949 to 1951 at the sanatorium Grafenhof. He trained as an actor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (1955-1957). After that he began work as a freelance author.

Bernhard died in 1989 at home in Ohlsdorf near Gmunden, Upper Austria, where he had moved in 1965. His attractive house is now a museum, the most striking feature of which is the presence of hundreds of pairs of Bernhard's shoes. In his last will, Bernhard prohibited any new stagings of his plays and publication of his unpublished work in Austria. His death was announced only after his funeral.

[edit] Work

Often criticized in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer (one who dirties his own nest) for his critical views, but highly acclaimed abroad, Bernhard is seen by many as a genius.

His work is most influenced by the feeling of being abandoned (in his childhood and youth) and by his incurable illness, which caused him to see death as the ultimate essence of existence. His work typically features loners' monologues explaining, to a rather silent listener, his views on the state of the world, often with reference to a concrete situation. This is true for his plays as well as for his prose, where the monologues are then reported second hand by the listener.

His main protagonists, often scholars or, as he calls them, Geistesmenschen, denounce everything that matters to the Austrian in tirades against the "stupid populace" that are full of contumely. He also attacks the state (often called "Catholic-National-Socialist"), generally respected institutions such as Vienna's Burgtheater, and much-loved artists. His work also continually deals with the isolation and self-destruction of people striving for an unreachable perfection, since this same perfection would mean stagnancy and therefore death.

"Es ist alles lächerlich, wenn man an den Tod denkt" (Everything is ridiculous, when one thinks of Death) was his comment when he received a minor Austrian national award in 1968, which resulted in one of the many public scandals he caused over the years and which became part of his fame. His novel Holzfällen (1984), for instance, could not be published for years due to a defamation claim by a former friend. Many of his plays—above all Heldenplatz (1988)—were met with criticism from conservative circles, who claimed they sullied Austria's reputation. Heldenplatz, as well as the other plays Bernhard wrote in these years, were staged at Vienna's famous Burgtheater by the controversial director Claus Peymann, who was often criticized for staging contemporary plays at that temple of high art.

Even in death Bernhard caused disturbance by his, as he supposedly called it, posthumous literary emigration, by disallowing all publication and stagings of his work within Austria's borders. His heirs, however, have since allowed this from time to time.

[edit] Works (in translation)

[edit] Novels

  • Gargoyles (1970): Originally published as Verstörung (1967), translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston.
  • The Lime Works (1973): Originally published as Das Kalkwerk (1970), translated by Sophie Wilkins.
  • Correction (1979): Originally published as Korrektur (1975), translated by Sophie Wilkins.
  • Concrete (1984): Originally published as Beton (1982), translated by David McLintock.
  • Cutting Timber: An Irritation (1985, novel): Originally published as Holzfällen: Eine Erregung (1984), translated by Ewald Osers. Also translated as Woodcutters, by David McLintock, in 1988.
  • Wittgenstein's Nephew (1988): Originally published as Wittgensteins Neffe (1982), translated by David McLintock.
  • Old Masters: A Comedy (1989): Originally published as Alte Meister. Komödie (1985), translated by Ewald Osers.
  • The Cheap-Eaters (1990): Originally published as Der Billigesser (1980), translated by Ewald Osers.
  • The Loser (1991): Originally published as Der Untergeher (1983), translated by Jack Dawson.
  • On The Mountain (1991): Originally published as In Der Höhe (written 1959, published 1989), translated by Russell Stockman.
  • Yes (1991): Originally published as Ja (1978), translated by Ewald Osers.
  • Extinction (1995): Originally published as Auslöschung (1986), translated by David McLintock.
  • Three Novellas (2003): Collects Amras (1964), Playing Watten (Watten, 1964) and Walking (Gehen, 1971). Translated by Peter Jansen and Kenneth J. Northcott.
  • Frost (2006): Originally published in 1963, translated by Michael Hofmann.

[edit] Plays

  • The President and Eve of Retirement (1982): Originally published as Der Präsident (1975) and Vor dem Ruhestand. Eine Komödie von deutscher Seele (1979), translated by Gitta Honegger.
  • Histrionics: Three Plays (1990): Collects A Party for Boris (Ein Fest für Boris, 1968), Ritter, Dene, Voss (1984) and Histrionics (Der Theatermacher, 1984), translated by Peter Jansen and Kenneth Northcott.
  • Heldenplatz (1988)
  • Over All the Mountain Tops (2004): Originally published as Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh (1981), translated by Michael Mitchell.

[edit] Miscellaneous

  • Gathering Evidence (1985, memoir): Collects Die Ursache (1975), Der Keller (1976), Der Atem (1978), Die Kälte (1981) and Ein Kind (1982), translated by David McLintock.
  • The Voice Imitator (1997, stories): Originally published as Der Stimmenimitator (1978), translated by Kenneth J. Northcott.
  • In Hora Mortis / Under the Iron of the Moon (2006, poetry): Collects In Hora Mortis (1958) and Unter dem Eisen des Mondes (1958), translated by James Reidel.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Gitta Honegger, Thomas Bernhard: the making of an Austrian
  • JJ Long, The Novels of Thomas Bernhard: form and its function
  • Ruth Franklin, "The Art of Extinction," The New Yorker, December 25, 2006 and Jan 1, 2007
Persondata
NAME Bernhard, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernhard, Nicolaas Thomas
SHORT DESCRIPTION Austrian novelist, playwright
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Heerlen, Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1989
PLACE OF DEATH Ohlsdorf, Upper Austria