586:"We’re often led to exaggerate, I said later, to such an extent that we take our exaggeration to be the only logical fact, with the result that we don’t perceive the real facts at all, only the monstrous exaggeration. I’ve always found gratification in my fanatical faith in exaggeration, I told Gambetti. On occasion I transform this fanatical faith in exaggeration into an art, when it offers the only way out of my mental misery, my spiritual malaise…With some, of course, the art of exaggeration consists in understating everything, in which case we have to say that they exaggerate understatement, that exaggerated understatement is their particular version of the art of exaggeration, Gambetti. Exaggeration is the secret of great art, I said, and of great philosophy. The art of exaggeration is in fact the secret of all mental endeavor. I now left the Huntsman’s Lodge without pursuing this undoubtedly absurd idea, which would assuredly have proved correct had I developed it. On my way to the Farm, I went up to the Children’s Villa,
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childhood, because it no longer exists, I told myself. The
Children’s Villa affords the most brutal evidence that childhood is no longer possible. You have to accept this. All you see when you look back is this gaping void. Not only your childhood, but the whole of your past, is a gaping void. This is why it’s best not to look back. You have to understand that you mustn’t look back, if only for reasons of self-protection, I thought. Whenever you look back into the past, you’re looking into a gaping void. Even yesterday is a gaping void, even the moment that’s just passed."
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460:. In the first half of the novel, he reflects on the spiritual, intellectual, and moral impoverishment of his family to his Roman student Gambetti. He only has respect for his Uncle Georg, who similarly cut himself off from the family and helped Murau to save himself. In the second section, he returns to his family’s estate, Wolfsegg, for the
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Gambetti is Murau’s collaborator. His presence provides the mirror to the society of his parents, and reveals that Murau too has established an audience for himself that unknowingly endorses his obscure tactics. He stops speaking to
Gambetti in the second half of the novel because Gambetti has been
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and tell myself that I have only to go back there in order to rediscover my childhood. This has always proved to be a gross error, I thought. You’re going to see your parents, I have often told myself, the parents of your childhood, but all I’ve ever found is a gaping void. You can’t revisit your
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519:. But Bernhard wouldn’t be Bernhard if such a denigration, so relentless and ruthless, didn’t mutate in a vertiginous cascade of words with compulsive musical pitches of extraordinary beauty (and beautifully rendered by translator David McLintock) – a melodic
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in this role of unjustified absolution. To
Gambetti, the "great" of "great art" was just that; when he thinks on his villa in Wolfsegg, "great" comes to mean something new: criminal art that has the power to make people pardon themselves for mortal sins.
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whose lightness sharply contrasts with the gloomy character of Murau’s proclamations. It’s this very rhythm – an inexorable, spiralling mechanism of hyperboles and superlatives – which confers to the narrative the specific
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Throughout the novel, Murau talks about the void that he has created for himself via exaggeration combined with understatement. Murau then incriminates all of
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in self-exile, obsessed and angry with his identity as an
Austrian, and resolves never to return to the family estate of
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There’s something utopian in this novel, underscored by the ending, where
Wolfsegg’s entire estate is donated to the
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David McLintock was awarded the
Austrian state prize for his translations of Bernhard's works. He graduated from
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This then prompts Murau to remember a reflection he made to his student
Gambetti on the subject of exaggeration:
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Murau has cut himself off from his family and sought to establish an intellectual life as a tutor in
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reflecting that it was the
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In a remarkable passage, the narrator Murau, an expatriate professor based in
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without which his own literary achievements would have been inconceivable.
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an agent in Murau’s self-deception. This in turn allows Murau to write his
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I feel death ever pinching me by the throat, or pulling me by the back.
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In this last of his novels, Bernhard uses repetition to achieve a
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so characteristic of
Bernhard’s work. Exaggeration changes into
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745:"An Introduction to Thomas Bernhard", by Thomas Cousineau
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398:Three Novellas (Amras, Watten, Gehen)
53:Learn how and when to remove these messages
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731:, a Critical Anthology of Bernhard's works
414:’s novels. It was originally published in
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636:, and then taught at the universities of
175:Learn how and when to remove this message
157:Learn how and when to remove this message
648:, publishing extensively on comparative
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762:, critical review by S. Mitchelmore (
496:effect while delivering himself of a
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441:land-owning family. Murau lives in
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511:. It’s a radical and destructive
34:This article has multiple issues.
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720:The Nihilism of Thomas Bernhard
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42:or discuss these issues on the
697:Although it must be said that
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752:The Novels of Thomas Bernhard
737:Understanding Thomas Bernhard
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16:1986 novel by Thomas Bernhard
137:the claims made and adding
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674:Women in a River Landscape
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334:(and 9780140186826 in the
993:Novels by Thomas Bernhard
488:Imagery, style and themes
293:Published in English
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668:for his translations of
739:, by Stephen D. Dowden
722:, by Charles W. Martin
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429:takes the form of the
1003:Alfred A. Knopf books
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569:I sometimes think of
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666:Schlegel-Tieck Prize
376:PT2662.E7 A9513 1995
84:improve this article
658:medieval literature
212:Original title
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86:by rewriting it in
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122:possibly contains
88:encyclopedic style
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528:"vis comica"
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96:January 2009
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82:Please help
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36:Please help
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949:Old Masters
941:Woodcutters
850:Heldenplatz
662:translation
654:linguistics
435:black sheep
364:833/.914 20
216:Auslöschung
188:Extinction
982:Categories
957:Extinction
901:Correction
772:Extinction
770:Review of
713:References
517:birthplace
482:Extinction
427:Extinction
407:Extinction
388:(Ja)
222:Translator
147:April 2009
131:improve it
39:improve it
933:The Loser
885:Gargoyles
650:philology
646:Cambridge
606:Montaigne
532:grotesque
494:cathartic
418:in 1986.
311:Paperback
262:Publisher
256:Monologue
135:verifying
45:talk page
917:Concrete
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557:Wolfsegg
546:Excerpts
502:language
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439:Austrian
351:31514543
307:Hardback
230:Language
834:Am Ziel
703:Heerlen
699:legally
630:MĂĽnster
590:(sic)."
536:tragedy
462:funeral
305:Print (
286:Austria
129:Please
968:(1989)
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888:(1967)
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837:(1981)
829:(1975)
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756:(2001)
747:(2001)
741:(1995)
724:(1995)
656:, and
644:, and
642:London
638:Oxford
634:Munich
626:Oxford
540:comedy
513:utopia
466:estate
416:German
321:325 pp
309:&
240:Series
234:German
202:Author
77:review
877:Amras
869:Frost
861:Prose
818:Drama
766:1999)
612:Notes
538:into
318:Pages
252:novel
248:Genre
632:and
567:Rome
565:"In
553:Rome
522:aria
458:Rome
443:Rome
345:OCLC
327:ISBN
297:1996
277:1986
909:Yes
672:'s
473:art
386:Yes
133:by
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