Studien zur österreichischen Literatur: Von Nestroy bis Ransmayr by Gabriella Rovagnati (review)

Most of this collection of twenty-six articles appeared in print in German or were published originally in Italian and then translated for a German-speaking audience, while others are appearing here for the first time. The topics run the gamut, the Hapsburg era and Nestroy as “ein Künstler der Hyberbole” right through postwar Austria and Christoph Ransmayr. All of the studies are organized in this text chronologically, spanning about 150 years of Austrian literature.

The first five studies in this collection are devoted to Nestroy. Indeed, his presence in this volume is an effort made by the author to bring recognition of Nestroy as a powerful presence to an Italian audience. Nestroy’s work in the theater world is largely unknown to the Italian theater public. In the German-speaking world, on the other hand, Nestroy is little-known and goes mostly unnoticed. The author admits to the difficulty of translating Nestroy’s plays into Italian, a primary reason for his absence in the Italian theater realm. Further articles in this collection delve into other aspects of Austrian connections to Italy, specifically Giacomo Casanova, who fascinated the world with this descriptions of adventures, his “carpe diem” attitude before World War I and his actions shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The topic of Casanova runs into Hofmannsthal’s work Tizian, which Ervino Pocar translated into the Italian language. Hofmannsthal’s attraction to Casanova bridges the articles in the work to the studies on Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke’s relationship to Milan and his friendship with Duchess Aurelia Gallarati-Scotti cement the author’s presence in Italy. In fact, Rilke’s relationships with several Italian women made Italy one of his most beloved playgrounds. The article “Les belles infideles: Rilkes frühe Übersetzungen aus dem Italienischen” speaks to the translation of Rilke for the Italian reading audience.

Four studies are presented on Stefan Zweig, who also had some connections to Italy. Zweig’s official Italian translator, Lavinia Mazzucchetti, produced the first Italian translation of Zweig’s Die Welt von gestern. In addition, Zweig’s stance on Italian fascism is also represented in this collection, as is his friendship with Benno Geiger, with whom Zweig had a long history of personal and political epistolary exchange.

Franz Werfel’s relationship with Gertrud Spirk, whose letters supported Werfel while he was involved in World War I, is also explored in “Krieg und Liebe: Franz Werfel und Gertrud Spirk.” In “’Das Gegengift gegen alles Deutsche’: Verdi von Franz Werfel,” Rovagnati explores Werfel’s discovery of Verdi’s operas. Werfel was of the opinion that the world could be enriched and sustained by opera and that modern opera’s existence especially depended on the recognition of the greatness of Verdi’s operatic talent. Werfel’s work Verdi becomes the springboard from which Werfel bases his trust in Italian opera. “Die Musik Verdis wird dem Schriftsteller zum Anlass, seine Verachtung gegen den ‘deutschen Geist’ frei auszudrücken, der hier zum Inbegriff von Kälte, Gefühllosigkeit und Kalkül wird. Der Drang der Deutschen zur Normierung, die absolut und universell gültige Regeln suchen, die um eine leblose Vollkommenheit ringen, ist eigentlich eine Todeskrankheit” (259).

The collection ends with two articles on Thomas Bernhard and his connection to Elias Canetti. His work Immanuel Kant and his working relationship with Carl Peymann are also discussed. In the final selection in this collection, Christoph Ransmayr’s body of work, spanning from Glänzender Untergang to Morbus Kitahara, is analyzed very nicely. Although there are Italian characters in Ransmayr’s work, he has gathered little attention in Italy. Perhaps this collection will be the impetus to wider scholarly recognition in that country as well as abroad.

All in all, it is admirable that Rovagnati assembled this collection of articles and indeed, it is a great contribution to Austrian literature from the perspective of...