Franz Grillparzer by Bruce Thompson (review)

138ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW ...Es un libro de texto para estudiantes universitarios de las ramas de Humanidades , Pedagogía y Literatura, deseosos de ahondar en la psicología infantil y en la psicología del adolescente, y para todo estudioso de la sociedad de nuestro tiempo, visto que se analizan muy bien las interacciones familiares y de grupos humanos encuadrados en sus edades formativas de la personalidad del individuo. In fact, Pascal's monograph is not a study of child psychology at all but rather — and with its merits and its considerable limitations — the "ensayo critico" she suggests. MARY S. VASQUEZ Arizona State University Bruce Thompson. Franz Grillparzer. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. (TWAS 637) 165p. Bruce Thompson states that his work is written for the English speaking nonspecialist . With this in mind, Thompson sets out to introduce the neophyte to Grillparzer as a man and a writer, as well as to provide a critical study of the poet's works. Thompson accomplishes this undertaking quite competently by writing a very readable book that is ideal for those interested in becoming acquainted with Grillparzer and his oeuvre, and likewise it is sufficiently erudite to perform a recapitulative service for those who are already familiar with Grillparzer's works. Thompson views Grillparzer as a person who is unable to maintain lasting happiness, as an individualistic writer whose works are rooted in his personal life in the atmosphere of imperial Vienna. For the author, Grillparzer is more than merely a Biedermeier-writer. In Grillparzer's works a God-given order and system of values is affirmed vis-à-vis the imperfect world of human affairs that interestingly enough knows no true villain, unless one considers Zawisch as a villain. According to the author, Grillparzer's works are generally allegories of the conflict between duty and desire. Thompson speaks of Grillparzer's subtle characterization, his masterful conception of challenging theatrical roles, and his appeal to the senses; that is to say, his effort to impress the spectator with the beauty of the stage. He sees Grillparzer as a master in conveying great psychological truth. Grillparzer's interest in the destructive aspects of sexuality makes him one of the leading psychological writers of the 19th century. Grillparzer's life and works cannot be disassociated from the complex political and ideological issues of his day. Thompson's brief references to this association are generally adequate except for one or two instances. Emperor Francis I and Metternich are said to have clung to the outmoded "absolutist principles of the Middle Ages" (p. 12); this is impossible since absolutism was not a hallmark of that period. Moreover, at least not until Henry Kissinger do we know that Metternich was not a bête noir as liberal utopianism and nationalist emotionalism tended to depict him. Incidentally, it would have been good to have clarified Grillparzer's own nationality or rather his ethnicity; i.e., by giving Grillparzer's Book Reviews139 statement in which he said that he considered himself first to be an Austrian, and secondly a German. In discussing Weh' dem, der lügt, Thompson confuses the Franks with the French (p. 76), and it is quite debatable whether or not Grillparzer might have wanted to suggest in this play the Austro-German superiority over other Germans. Thompson states that Grillparzer had renounced traditional Christian beliefs, and that his plays do not expound behavior patterns derived from the code of ethics of any orthodox faith (pp. 143-44). The issue, however, is not as simple as Thompson suggests it to be. Grillparzer grew up in the atmosphere of a rationalist Josephinic Catholicism which gave him the essentials of his moral code. He himself was a Staatskirchler. His latent skepticism did not keep him from having a life-long concern for current or timeless ecclesiastical and theplogical issues. In his younger years, Grillparzer toyed with the idea of vicariously carrying out an imitatio Christi, through his cousin Marie Rizy who had become a nun ("An Selenen"). Not only was "Liebster Jesu!" his Liebling's Stoszseufzer, but later the aging poet even considered going to confession. His concept of Dichterberuf as Kunstpriestertum is essentially a secularized form of the Catholic Priestertum. Grillparzer...