(review)

Abstract

MLR, 96. I, 2001 MLR, 96. I, 2001 provides a contribution on her mixed fortunes in her publishing links to Britain, while G. P. Butler provides an open-ended and stimulating contribution on the possible sourcesused by Galston in his successfulEnglishtranslationof Transit and Das siebteKreuz.From this volume emerges a Seghersjust as interested in Jewish issues, in artistic and aesthetic questions, in the religious and metaphysical as in socialism and socialist realism. It becomes clear too that these interests do not alwayscombine easily.A piece on Dassiebte Kreuz would have been welcome, given attempts elsewhere to discredit it in line with the recent wave of criticism of communistresistancein the camps (similarly,in 1994,Apitz'sNacktunter Woifen was unfavourably compared by the literary critic Wilfried Schoeller with the 'truer' picture of concentration camp life offered by Remarque in Der FunkeLeben). However, this is not meant as a criticism.I can warmly recommend Ian Wallace's new volume: it is interesting,well-written,readableand stimulating. NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY BILL NIVEN MaxFrisch, Friedrich Durrenmatt: Briefwechsel. Ed. by PETER RUEDI. Zurich:Diogenes. I998. 240 pp. DM 39. It was perhaps inevitable that two very different German-Swiss authors who achieved world fame at approximately the same time should be linked in the perception of the public. The plays Der BesuchderaltenDame,Biedermann unddie Brandstifter, Andorra and Die Physiker all had theirpremieres in Switzerlandbetween 1956 and 1962 before going on to much wider audiences. It is alsoprobably trueto say that the worldperceived them only as playwrights,althoughFrischhad by 1956 firmly established a reputation in German-speaking Europe with Tagebuch I946-I949 and Stiller and althoughboth writerscontinued to publishin a varietyof genres for the remainderof their long lives. The irritationengendered by thisjoint perception is expressedby the French-SwisscriticMaurice Audetat when he writes of 'le Frisch-et-Dtirrenmatt, creature fantasmagorique, accouplement contre nature d'un Zurichois et d'un Bernois'. Academic critics, while seeking to explain difference, possibly only succeeded in reinforcing the notion of similarity:Hans Banziger's FrischundDiirrenmatt, first published in 1960 and running to several revised editions over the years, was followed in 1963 by Diirrenmatt undFrisch. Anmerkungen from Hans Mayer, who was later to edit Frisch'sGesammelte Werke. The one difference between the two men, at least perceived very clearly in their own country, relatednot so much to theirworkbut to their criticismof Switzerlandas a result of which, the present volume points out, Frischbecame 'StaatsfeindNr I' whereasDurrenmattwas 'derHofnarr'(p. 22). The book contains a go-page introduction by the editor entitled 'Fast eine Freundschaft',33 lettersand notes exchanged between the two writersfrom 1947to 1986, copious annotations to these exchanges, numerous photographs and a very useful 'Chronik' of the lives and works. The meticulously researched scholarly apparatusis greaterthan its subjectby a factorof at leastfourto one. When the size of the correspondence, almost certainly comprising all the extant missives, is compared with that of the recently published correspondence between Frischand Uwe Johnson, the modesty of the claim by the editor that the collection will not figure among 'den groBen Zwiegesprachender deutschsprachigenBriefschriftstellerei ' (p. 9) seems entirelyappropriate. It isnone thelessfascinatingto trace,despitethe enormousgaps,the development of the relationshipbetween the two men. It is Frischwho firsttakes up contact in 1947afterreadingthe manuscriptof Esstehtgeschrieben, Durrenmatt'sfirstperformed provides a contribution on her mixed fortunes in her publishing links to Britain, while G. P. Butler provides an open-ended and stimulating contribution on the possible sourcesused by Galston in his successfulEnglishtranslationof Transit and Das siebteKreuz.From this volume emerges a Seghersjust as interested in Jewish issues, in artistic and aesthetic questions, in the religious and metaphysical as in socialism and socialist realism. It becomes clear too that these interests do not alwayscombine easily.A piece on Dassiebte Kreuz would have been welcome, given attempts elsewhere to discredit it in line with the recent wave of criticism of communistresistancein the camps (similarly,in 1994,Apitz'sNacktunter Woifen was unfavourably compared by the literary critic Wilfried Schoeller with the 'truer' picture of concentration camp life offered by Remarque in Der FunkeLeben). However, this is not meant as a criticism.I can warmly recommend Ian Wallace's new volume: it is interesting,well-written,readableand stimulating. NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY BILL NIVEN MaxFrisch, Friedrich Durrenmatt: Briefwechsel. Ed. by...