Austrian Literature

I

Introduction

Austrian Literature, literature written in German from the 16th century to the present by authors of Austrian nationality and of distinguishable Austrian national consciousness. Although the unknown author of the medieval Nibelungenlied and the greatest German minnesinger, Walther von der Vogelweide, were both Austrian, an Austrian culture distinct from that of Germany developed only after the Counter-Reformation, when in the 16th century Roman Catholic Austria and Protestant Germany were separated. As Spain and Italy were at times part of the Habsburg empire, Austrian literature was influenced by both Spanish drama and Italian opera.

II

18th and 19th Centuries

The first uniquely Austrian genre was the magic play of the 18th century, depicting supernatural events in allegorical terms. One that attained worldwide fame was Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791), by Emanuel Schikaneder, set to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Ferdinand Raimund elevated the magic play to tragicomedy. Johann Nepomuk Nestroy wrote magic plays of political satire and literary parody.

Franz Grillparzer, on the other hand, fused the tradition of the German classics with the typically Austrian spirit that Roman Catholicism and the Habsburg empire had shaped. In the play König Ottokars Glück und Ende (King Ottokar: His Rise and Fall, first performed in 1825), he contrasts the arrogance of the enemies of Austria with the Christian humility of Austrian heroes. His many verse dramas treat the history and legends of various parts of the world. Like Grillparzer, his contemporary Adalbert Stifter demonstrated a concern for tradition, literary form, and morality. The well-ordered life is idealized in his novel Der Nachsommer (Indian Summer, 1857). Stifter's prose is an expression of the quiet desperation underlying the era dominated by the Austrian statesman Prince Klemens von Metternich. An important contribution to Austrian literature was made by the dramatist Ludwig Anzengruber. His realistic presentation of social issues, as in Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld (The Village Priest of Kirchfeld, 1870) and Das vierte Gebot (The Fourth Commandment, 1877), mark him as a pioneer of naturalism. He is a humorous and sentimental observer of peasant life in Der G'wissenswurm (The Worm of Conscience, 1874), the forerunner of the regional Heimatkunst (“homely art”), popular tales of the late 19th century.

III

20th-Century Drama

Modern Austrian literature, developing while the Austro-Hungarian Empire was disintegrating, began with Hermann Bahr. He was the author of the sophisticated comedy Das Konzert (The Concert, 1909) and the essayist who promoted impressionism and other new movements. His contemporary, Arthur Schnitzler, unmasked hypocrisy in such plays as The Affairs of Anatol (1893; trans. 1911) and Reigen (1897; trans. Merry-Go-Round, 1953; filmed as La Ronde, 1950). Influenced by impressionism, Schnitzler excelled in the short dramatic episode, such as The Green Cockatoo (1899; trans. 1913); and, anticipating the Irish novelist and poet James Joyce, he used the stream-of-consciousness method in his stories None but the Brave (1900; trans. 1919) and Fräulein Else (1924; trans. 1925). An astute analyst of human behaviour, Schnitzler won the praise of his countryman Sigmund Freud.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal at first turned to a new Romanticism. His early verse plays, such as Der Tod des Tizian (1892; The Death of Titian, 1913) and Der Tor und der Tod (1893; Death and the Fool, 1913), were stylized legends. Later he drew inspiration, as did Grillparzer, from a universal cultural heritage. He wrote in a variety of forms, including Greek drama in Elektra (1903; trans. 1908); drawing-room comedy in Der Schwierige (1921; The Difficult Man, 1963); and opera libretto. His were the librettos used by the German composer Richard Strauss for Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose, 1911), Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne on Naxos, 1912), and Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow, 1919).

For the influential critic Karl Kraus, the work of his contemporaries, castigated in his periodical Die Fackel (The Torch, 1899-1936), was a symptom of moral degeneration. His play Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind, 1919-1922), consisting partly of actual war communiqués and street conversations, paints an apocalyptic picture of Vienna in World War I.

IV

20th-Century Fiction and Poetry

Universality and preoccupation with psychological analysis merge in the biographies written by Stefan Zweig. These include Erasmus von Rotterdam (1934; trans. 1934), Maria Stuart (1935; trans. 1935), and Marie Antoinette (1932). His fiction also plumbs the depth of emotional aberration, as in Amok (1922; trans. 1931), Verwirrung (1925; Conflicts, 1927), and Ungeduld des Herzen (1938; trans. 1939). In the poetry of Anton Wildgans and of Georg Trakl and in the plays of Franz Theodor Czokor, the intensity of the Expressionist style is evident.

Of 20th-century Austrian novelists, Hermann Broch is closest to James Joyce—as was Schnitzler in drama. His Der Tod des Vergil (1945; Death of Virgil, 1946) uses an inner monologue to express the despair of the Roman poet over the discrepancy between art and truth. Robert Musil wrote the monumental unfinished novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (1931-1943; The Man Without Qualities 1953-1960), which probes the possibility of the freedom of humanity, emancipated from prejudices and habits. The novel also analyses the process of disintegration beneath the complacency of Viennese life. Social analysis is also found in the voluminous novels of Heimito von Doderer, Ein Mord, den jeder begeht (1938; Every Man a Murderer, 1964) and Die Dämonen (1956; The Demons, 1964). Doderer, influenced by the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the French writer Marcel Proust, used a web of human relationships to give substance and structure to his novels of Viennese life after World War II. Doderer was probably the most outstanding force in post-World War II Austrian literature.

Among later writers, Fritz Hochwälder achieved renown in Europe with neatly structured historical dramas such as Das heilige Experiment (1941). Ilse Aichinger, a writer of short stories, and Ingeborg Bachmann, a poet, were also widely read. One of the versatile younger authors, who often write for television, is Peter Handke, whose play Kaspar (1969), based on the legend of Kaspar Hauser, was much performed. His novel of extreme alienation, Die linkshändige Frau (1976; The Left-Handed Woman, 1978), was later made into a film.