Melancolia americana
Melancolia americana. Portraits is a collection of essays by Jürg Federspiel . The book was published in 1994 by Limmat Verlag in Zurich.
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Melancolia Americana consists of twelve pointed short portraits of writers . With the exception of Blaise Cendrars, these are American authors.
From shoe shine to millionaire: Horatio Alger
Horatio Alger , who was very successful in the 19th century and who had idealized the American Dream in his works according to the tried and tested scheme , is shown. Attention is drawn to the discrepancy between one's own homosexuality and the defense of Puritan values. At the end it is noted that by 1930 nothing was left of its previous fame.
A John of the Slaughterhouses: Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair became known in 1905 for the publication of his socially critical novel The Swamp (later: The Jungle) . He earned the reputation of a nest polluter. Federspiel points out that despite his vehement criticism of the intertwining of religion and power in the United States, Sinclair was an admirer of Jesus Christ. The fact that Sinclair was forgotten after his death, he relativized with a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre that people write primarily for their time. A curiosity is that Sinclair published 90 books in 90 years of life.
The stranger: Nathanael West
Federspiel introduces the author Nathanael West , who first lived as a bohemian and tried unsuccessfully as a writer before he came to Hollywood and wrote his novel Day of the Locust about conditions in the film industry. West, reviled by contemporary literary criticism , was not rediscovered and celebrated until the second half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, to this day it is practically unknown in the German-speaking world.
Existence as a masking shop: Horace McCoy
Federspiel is the fourth writer to portray Horace McCoy, who is also unknown in Germany . He explains that he too wrote a novel about Hollywood and was a successful screenwriter. In McCoy's novel Just Horses, Federspiel admires the style. It is "no cynicism, no irony, rather bitterest humor."
A concierge of intellectual nobility: Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein is described as an author who knows a lot about literature and art, but who grossly overestimates her own influence on literature. Nevertheless, Federspiel recognizes her as a pioneer of genuinely American literature and her place in the women's movement.
Success and Breakdown: Francis Scott Fitzgerald
The life of F. Scott Fitzgerald was marked by alcoholism and the consuming love for his wife Zelda, which quickly broke up with reality and became nervous. Unsuccessful outside of literature, he became famous with his novel This Side of Paradise . Scott Fitzgerald also dealt with the subject of Hollywood in his works. He seems to have foreseen his early death at the age of 44.
A no to death: William Faulkner
The writer and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner stands out for his sophisticated handling of language and storytelling techniques. Federspiel sums up: "Faulkner's work, like that of the greatest Americans, lives from the fact that he sees the greatness of people in their possible invincibility."
Respectability and Condemnation: James Jones
James Jones was not seen as a serious writer during his lifetime. His most important work is Doomed for Eternity on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . According to Federspiel, the leitmotif in Jones' oeuvre is the weakness, sexual frustration and inner emptiness of the American citizen of the post-war period.
Heart of Darkness: Eugene O'Neill
The award-winning Eugene O'Neill has become known as the author of autobiographically colored one-act plays. He sees the American Dream as a missed opportunity that has turned into a nightmare. This experience is also reflected in the characterization of his literary figures.
From the endless man. Etcetera: EE Cummings
In his tenth essay, Federspiel introduces EE Cummings , who faces a world that is not interested in art. Therefore, Cummings does not write his books for the so-called "master people". He is convinced that “this so-called world” is nothing .
The day after: Henry Miller
Henry Miller is characterized as an author who - in contrast to some of the authors described so far - is not entirely averse to modern life. He had given uninhibited sexuality a new status in culture, beyond repression and condemnation.
The way at the end of the world: Blaise Cendrars
Blaise Cendrars was a world traveler and adventurer. He was interested in the medium of film early on, which has also influenced his literary writing. Federspiel observes: "Blaise Cendrars is a poet of enchantment and disenchantment at the same time, and the contradictions that can be found everywhere in him only embody the antagonisms of any affirmation of existence."
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- Jürg Federspiel: Melancolia Americana . Limmat, Zurich 1994 (first edition).