Frost (novel)

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Frost is the first published novel by the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard . The novel was published in 1963 and translated into English by Michael Hofmann in 2006 . In 2013, Raimund Fellinger and Martin Huber published two preparatory papers on Frost under the title Arguments of a Winter Walker.

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Frost is a diary novel , told by an unnamed first-person narrator and medical student who is currently completing his internship at a hospital in Schwarzach in Pongau, Austria . The starting point of the novel is an unusual assignment from his superior, the surgeon Strauch: The trainee is supposed to travel to the mountain town of Weng and observe the surgeon's brother, the painter Strauch, who lives there: “He demands precise observation of his brother from me, nothing more. Description of his behavior, his daily routine; Information about his views, intentions, statements, judgments. A report on his walk. About his way of gesticulating, of flaring up, of 'fending off people'. About handling his stick. ›Observe the function of the stick in my brother's hand, watch it closely.‹ «The brothers haven't seen each other for twenty years and correspondence has been broken for twelve years (ibid.).

The novel consists of the 27 diary entries and six letters to the surgeon Strauch, which the trainee wrote during his stay in Weng. The reader does not learn how the surgeon deals with the trainee's communications. In his entries, the trainee notes the conversations he has with the painter during the long walks. He also records conversations with the residents of Weng, above all the landlady, the Wasenmeister or the gendarme. In doing so, he usually omits his part of the conversation and only reproduces the statements of his counterpart directly or indirectly.

The painter destroyed all of his pictures and retired to Weng after he was afflicted by an incurable disease that was not specified in detail. He often suffers from severe headaches and footaches, and the trainee discovers signs of "putrefaction" in him. Nevertheless, he manages long walks without any effort. Typical of him are his walking stick, hat and the edition of Pascal's pensées , which he always carries with him. In his conversations with the trainee, he talks about his childhood and youth and philosophizes about politics, people, nature and art. His view of things is marked by decay: »... we are in a state of absolute neglect. Our state [...] is a hotel of ambiguity, the brothel of Europe, with an excellent reputation overseas. «During his stay, the trainee finds it increasingly difficult to understand and reproduce the painter's speeches. In the end, he feels overpowered by him: "I discovered myself talking through the mouth of this person, constantly choppy." The novel ends with the trainee who had returned to Schwarzach learning of the painter's disappearance from the Democratic People's Journal. He then immediately finished his internship, traveled back to Vienna and started studying medicine again.

Awards

Bernhard was awarded the Bremen Literature Prize in 1965 for the work, and in 1968 he received the Austrian Prize for Literature .

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literature

  • Lee Ho-Kyoung: Narrative characteristics and their functions in the novel Frost by Thomas Bernhard . Giessen 2004. pdf

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/books/review/Benfey.t.html
  2. ^ Bernhard, Thomas: Frost. Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp 2003 (works in 22 volumes. Ed. By Martin Huber and Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler. Volume 1), 2nd day, p. 12.
  3. ↑ Ibid., 7th day, p. 53.
  4. ↑ Ibid., 24th day, p. 283.
  5. ↑ Ibid., 25th day, p. 299.
  6. ↑ http://www.kritierter.de/Thomas_Bernhard