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Odon von Horvath's Back and Forth: Teetering between Exile and ReturnI PAUL M. MALONE Although the mass emigration of writers and intellectuals from Nazi Germany would at first appear a fairly straightforward historical phenomenon, the perception and reception of Getman exilic literature have themselves had a spotted and controversial history. The very questions of who was or was not an exile, and whether a particular work should fall under the category of Exilliteratur , have proven to be complicated by a number of factors, and further clouded by differing histories of reception in the fifty years that Germany was divided. Against a background of official neglect and denial in West Germany , and virtually automatic canonization (at least of left-wing writers) in the German Democratic Republic - in both cases, often with little regard for aesthetic aspects - it was only in the 19605, after economic and political crises had changed the West German moral climate in particular, that it was possible to establish as a discipline the systematic investigation of the Exilanten and their works (Stem, "Prolegomena" I; Winckler 68). This achievement, however, rendered no easier the question of what criteria could serve to define the object of investigation; generalizations that sought to characterize the exiles in terms of period (1933-1945), geographical dispersion (flight to Paris, Moscow, South America, the USA), aesthetic direction (realism, or the lack of it), political commitment (antifascist, socialist, or democratic - but preferably activist), or moral superiority (humanism vs. brutality; "real" German culture vs. its travesty; suffering as opposed to comfort) have all been contested as often serving to marginalize certain apparently obviously exilic writers or works, in the interest of promoting the desirable model of an "other," "better" German tradition (Englmann 4-7; Schmollinger 36; Winckler 73). Among the authors whose behaviour and works have not always easily fit the various moulds proposed by critics of Exilliteratur is the Hungarian-born playwright and novelist Odon von Horvath, and the play of Horvath's whose Modern Drama, 46:1 (Spring 2003) 55 PAUL M. MALONE reputation has suffered most from these attitudes is his 1933 farce Hill und Her (Back and Forth, or To alld Fro), which, owing to its supposedly inappropriately light tone despite its exilic theme, tends to be either overlooked by those who do regard Homlth as an exile writer (Strelka 73)2 or denigrated by those who (not unreasonably) find his behaviour in the early years of the Third Reich - exactly when the play was written - so incomprehensible or objectionable that his status as an exile is qualified or compromised (Bartsch, Odon von Horwith 12; Schnitzler 159-63). This is unfortunate, since Back and Forth, despite a history of ill-starred productions, is nonetheless an extremely interesting and entertaining work: in addition to its long-acknowledged overtones of the nineteenth-century Viennese folk play in the style of Ferdinand Raimund or Johann Nestroy, Back and Forth's clever songs belie Horvath's lack of experience as a lyricist,3 its plot and tongue-in-cheek sentimentality are worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan, and its dark humour, expressed with Horvath 's wit, anticipates the early comedies of Friedrich Durrenmatt or Max Frisch. In the present context, however, the important question is whether or not it is an exile play. Back and Fortiz is set at a bridge spanning the river border of two unnamed states. The protagonist, Ferdinand Havlicek, is exiled from his land of residence after fifty years; his pharmacy has gone bankrupt, and since he never applied for citizenship the state wishes to unburden its social welfare system by deporting him. Yet when Havlicek attempts to cross over the bridge into the nation of his birth, he is barred from entering. Twenty years previously, this nation passed a law demanding that all citizens living abroad register at their consulates or lose their citizenship. Havlicek is now forced to live on the bridge between the two countries, and so becomes enmeshed in the lives of the two border guards: Konstantin, at one end of the bridge, is in love with Eva, the daughter of Szamek, Konstantin's counterpart at the other end. Szamek, however, forbids the match out of prejudice and because...

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