Why Bernhard?

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Why Bernhard? MATTHIAS KONZETT Tale University The Novels ofThomas Bernhard. Form and Its Function. By J. J. Long. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2001. 232 pp. ?40.00; $60.00. isbn I~57II3-224-4. Osterreich und andere Katastrophen. Thomas Bernhard in mem?ri?m. Beitr?ge des Internationalen Kolloquiums Universit?t des Saarlandes. Ed. by Jeanne Benay and Pierre B?har. St Ingbert: R?hrig Universit?tsverlag, 2001. 393 pp. 31,00. isbn 3-86110-271-4. Thomas Bernhard. Essential Companions and Legacy. Ed. by Martin Huber, Manfred Mittermayer and Peter Karlhuber. Linz: Adalbert-Stifter Institut, 2001. 206 pp. 28,00. isbn 3-900424-27-6. Thomas Bernhard. TheMaking ofanAustrian. By Gitta Honegger. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. 341 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-300-08999-6. Wissenschaft als Finsternis? Ed. by Martin Huber and Wendelin Sghmidt Dengler. (Jahrbuch der Thomas-Bernhard-Privatstiftung in Kooper ation mit dem Osterreichichen Literaturarchiv). Vienna: B?hlau, 2002. 208 pp. 24,90. isbn 3-205-99454-x. While one readily speaks of a Bernhard industry surrounding the author's legacy, itbelies the fact that outside the German-speaking areas the author is known to only a small group of experts. This lack of widespread international recognition may be attributed to the increasingly rare transla tions of foreign-language authors, although this is not the case with Bernhard, whose works have been translated by renowned presses. One suspects that the recent debates on the canon have made many critics wary of embracing seminal figures towering too big over the diversity of literary productions seen today. This suspension of canonicity may open up the field tomore diversity within a native language and ensure a greater democratiza tion of expression; however, within a foreign context, as given, for example, in theAnglo-American reception of German literature, such suspension of canonical relevance can have serious consequences. As foreign cultures are generally absorbed with higher degrees of stereotyping and abbreviation, 204 Why Bernhard? the lack of a focal figure produces a lack of interest. A Nobel Prize winner such as Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez single-handedly helped bring about greater interest in Latin American fiction. Thomas Bernhard could similarly play the role of a catalyst but will need much more support and endorsement to serve in a similar fashion. Thus, a surge in the Bernhard industry, as witnessed recently, can also have beneficial effects in rallying support for a continuing engagement with foreign language cultures and literatures in an increasingly Anglo-dominant global environment. This review will highlight five recent contributions to Bernhard scholar ship, pointing to their particular stance on the author's achievement and cultural relevance. In the German-language reception of Bernhard, works are mostly at risk of joining a repetitive academic ritual of affirming the author's relevance as an institutional commonplace. Directly from the source of the Thomas-Bernhard-Privatstiftung, the yearbook edited by Martin Huber and Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler presents a volume on Wissenschaft als Finsternis? which addresses these problems of academic standardization in response to literature. In his preface to the volume, Schmidt-Dengler speaks of the various threats to a serious engagement with Bernhard coming from different directions such as themass of standardized dissertations on Bernhard, the growing superficial event culture surrounding stagings of Bernhard and the new cultural studies orientation within the discipline of literature handing over the literary text to non-literary experts in the harder positivist sciences of history, sociology and political science. As a self-avowed traditionalist of art, Schmidt-Dengler calls for the return to the literary text, though not without asking himself why an author like Bernhard constantly exceeds the boundaries of the discipline of German literary studies. In short, Schmidt-Dengler is far from advocating a hermetic and formal literary science; however, he is also reluctant to accept socio cultural studies on Bernhard that show no awareness of his rhetorical and literary stances. From within Bernhard's literary reception, Schmidt-Dengler points to two common malpractices: first, efforts on the part of hermeneuticists of influence to locate Bernhard in the tradition of any of the frequently mentioned authors and thinkers in his works. In addition, superficial genre identifications such as...