Aufbau wozu: Neues zu H. C. Artmann ed. by Marc-Oliver Schuster (review)

Aufbau wozu, whose title is drawn from an interview with H. C. Artmann (1921–2000), has as its goal the idea of restarting scholarly interest in this undervalued author, especially in light of the fact that the City of Vienna acquired his private library in 2004. As general interest in cultural studies has turned to the immediate postwar era, the Wiener Gruppe and Artmann have reemerged as forces in reestablishing Austrian literature that still require much elucidation. Marc-Olivier Schuster starts his introduction with the last, successful phase of Artmann’s career, as he surveys recent scholarly interest and the lacunae in present scholarship, especially on Artmann’s poetics and his use of context. He then presents a magisterial set of twelve essays that survey problems in and options for Artmann research as models for the best in contemporary literary scholarship.

The first three essays turn their attention to poetics in ways that unfold particular aspects of Artmann’s project. Monika Schmitz-Emans, in “‘Kein zauber ist mir fremd geblieben’: H. C. Artmanns Wortgeburten,” has written a tremendously interesting essay about “word magic,” including the author’s idea that magic formulae, spells, and “word creatures” transform ordinary words and figures into living beings that can conjure visions of different worlds. Particularly engaging is her comparison to Christian Morgenstern and to his use of the Kasperl figure in light of his contemporaries—all with substantial passage interpretations. Peter Pabisch’s “Die vielfältigen Sprachmasken und eigenwilligen Textsorten bei H. C. Artmann” takes up the texts’ “I” figures to show how Artmann uses his context, especially his experience of World War II, in drawing poetic self-portraits. Michael Backes discusses “H. C. Artmanns Darstellung der Dichterexistenz und die Wiener Gruppe” to place him within the context of the group’s experimental semiotics. The result is a broad survey of Artmann’s early career, including, most notably, the “8 point proclamation” and his diaries documenting the group’s split.

Several subsequent essays deal with Artmann’s use of intertextualities. The first is John J. White’s study of his interest in Baroque literature, “Hans Carl Artmann und die europäische Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts,” especially as represented in Artmann’s poetic alter ego, “St. Achatz am Walde,” “churfürstlicher Sylbenstecher” (73), and in his use of epigrams and alter egos as implementations of Baroque writing strategies and poetic identity politics. Drama is the focus of Elisabeth Parth’s “H. C. Artmann—Dichter und Übersetzer: König Ubu, die Wiener Fassung des Ubu Roi von Alfred Jarry” in the context of his constant translation work. Parth offers excellent comparisons of text passages and handling of characters to show Artmann’s poetics in action. Alexandra Millner pursues Artmann’s interest in Volkstheater in “Kasperl als Dichter: Über die lustige Figur in H. C. Artmanns Stücken” and compares his theater pieces to those of Rühm and Bayer, again with substantial passage detail. Finally, Sonja Kaar discusses one famous “Dramolett” in “H. C. Art-mann, how lovecraft saved the world: Modell einer Analyse” in relation to two stories by H. P. Lovecraft, considerably broadening our knowledge of these borrowings.

In turning to Artmann’s prose in “Hans Carl Artmann als Diarist: Das schwedische Tagebuch Das suchen nach dem gestrigen Tag,” Jacques Lajarrige outlines Artmann’s reflections of his five years in Sweden at the end of the 1960s after the success of his dialect poetry. Marc-Olivier Schuster fills out our sense of Artmann’s intertextuality as a method common to many of his prose texts from the 1960s. In “‘Bei allem, was weiß ist’: Intertextuelle Komplexität und implizite Ästhetik in H. C. Artmanns Frankenstein in Sussex,” he provides an extraordinarily detailed consideration of citation as a postmodern tactic in poetics.

Artmann’s poetry is discussed sensitively by Alois Brandstett er in “Konkrete Bildlichkeit: Zu einem Gedicht H. C. Artmanns,” which introduces the problem of Artmann’s academic reception. That topic is the focus of an...