Paul Hatvani

Paul Hatvani (born August 16, 1892 in Vienna , † November 9, 1975 in Kew near Melbourne ; real name Paul Hirsch ) was an Austrian writer, chemist and translator from Hungarian .

As a student he lived temporarily in Hungary. He studied chemistry in Vienna. In Hungary he got to know early works of Expressionism there, some of which he translated. Hatvani has published in various magazines since the 1910s . The editors Silke Hesse and Pavel Petr also consider him one of the best theorists of literary expressionism.

Expressionism is a revolution ... In Impressionism, the world and I, inside and outside, were united in harmony. In Expressionism, the ego floods the world. So there is no longer an outside. The expressionist realizes art in a previously unexpected way. (1917)

The language is a limitlessness that cannot be restricted by thoughts ... the age-old fact of the language experience must first be rediscovered at a time when a new art of colors and forms seems to be emerging alongside portrait painting.

The linguist must first smash the language, create the chaotic original state, an absolute homogeneity of matter, so that the formless, the woman, emerges from it. Then his work begins. ... The opposites divide, the formless gets content and the contentless gets form. - and behold, the woman becomes pregnant when the man is touched. ... The writer must be able to discover woman in language and all the imagination that he needs to create his works must be an induction (influence) of language.

He writes about expressionism: prose is abstraction! What matters is not what she has to say, but that she says it. You tell yourself. - The idea of ​​E. was a revolt against the conventional balance between form and content. The relationship was no longer determined by aesthetic considerations; the shape broke and there was a beautiful passion that, bursting the horizontal, piled high and, for my part, was concentrated. - In Expressionism, the ego floods the world. - From 1921 on, Hatvani and Ivan Goll proclaimed the "death of expressionism".

As a Jew and as a modern writer, he left his native country shortly before the Second World War . His writing was initially interrupted by his exile . When his early work was rediscovered in the early 1960s, he began to write again and some older writings were reprinted. Most of his writings are difficult to access.

Typical of his writing between 1924 and 1933 is the short story " Der Gast " (1924). It reflects the unrest in the interwar period. The unreal is already hinted at, but there is still a conventional narrative context. The story is reminiscent of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's “Chandosbrief”, Franz Kafka's castle and Robert Musil's man without qualities . A man is gradually pushed out of his apartment by an intruder without defending himself and finally leaves it completely, losing his identity . A play on words between “He” and “I” (for “I”) marks the shift in power. - Other stories from this period also deal with repression , strangers and flight. Hatvani seems to have dealt with this possibility early on.

The texts published in the early 1960s then deal with the real intrusion of the previously unreal into the world: the Anschluss of Austria , Nazi rule, the persecution of the Jews and exile. The style becomes repetitive. When the usual life becomes intangible, language becomes its framework, it is a remnant of home. The words: fear, doubt, the "yes", catch the eye.

The late work of fiction can best be seen in the short story The Ants . The insects are a symbol of apocalyptic plague, they break in, seem harmless at first. However, with them the horror reaches a climax. The term “coming to terms with the past” shows what Hatvani is all about with this symbol.

The essay “ Not there, not there: Australia ” from 1973 is autobiographical , here the emigrant summarizes his thoughts.

Most of Hatvani's writings are widely dispersed, especially in his cultural and literary criticism. His estate is in the Department of German Studies at Monash University , Clayton, Australia. It needs to be viewed and possibly published by research on exile literature. Part of the estate is in the Vienna City Hall. Further documents in the Ludwig von Ficker archive in the Innsbruck University Library, Brenner archive.

Writings, literature

• Publications in the journals:
  • The burner
  • The forum. International magazine for cultural freedom, political equality and solidarity work in it: Tubutsch in the undergrowth. On the 80th birthday of Albert Ehrenstein Vienna, issue 155, p. 768f (reprint at Ueberreuter)
  • Akzente 1968, Issue 1, pp. 71–74: In Feindesland (again in: Die Ameisen ); - ... bowed head pp. 74 - 76; - 1971, pp. 71 - 75: Irrwege (a piece without end, i.e. at the end it startsalloveragain); - 1973, pp. 564 - 571: Not there, not there - Australia (autobiographical essay, reflection on exile ) - Reprint of all issues: 2001-Verlag, Frankfurt, 1975
  • Journal for the history of the Jews , in it: The nights of the Tino of Baghdad . On the 100th birthday of Else Lasker-Schüler . Journal for the History of the Jews ZGJ, ed. Hugo Gold , issue 3/4, 6th year, Olamenu, Tel Aviv 1969
  • The cross section. The magazine of the current eternity values in 1928: Das Metarestaurant ; 1930: Sofia
  • The leaflet 1917–1918 (Ed. Oskar Maurus Fontana and Alfons Wallis, Verlag Anzengruber, Vienna & Leipzig, or self-published) therein PH: March and May 1918
  • The storm
    • 1912, issue 105: Lecture by Else Lasker-Schüler and issue 115–116: Lichtenberg ; Issue 136/137 Spracherotik (this again in: Anz & Stark, Expressionismus, p. 610f.)
    • 1913: February issue 148/149 Wagner celebration ; July issue No. 170/171 Voice of the Time
    • 1914, issue 8: contemplation and February 1914: 196/197: folk art
    • 1916: Issue 1 Notes , Issue 2: Notes: Ghosts. Everyday journal sheet
  • Die Weltbühne 1926 (a poem based on Alfred Polgar's work)
  • The upswing. A literary magazine (from No. 2: Der Aufschwung. Zeitschrift der Jüngsten ) Vienna, Verlag Der Aufschwung 1919. Ed. (Changing) Friedrich Gustav Tietz, Tobias Sternberg, Emil Gustav Gruchol (PH here under both names, Hirsch and Hatvani)
  • Literature and criticism. Austrian monthly published by Gerhard Fritsch u. a .; PH: Experiment with Karl Kraus . Otto Müller, Salzburg. June 1967, pp. 269-278
  • Der Merker vol. 6, part 2 (spring 1915) about Strindberg's historical dramas (reprint Scarsdale 1970)
  • The action , in it: Attempt on Expressionism 7/1917, No. 11-12, (Reprint Kraus, New York 1983)
  • Podium. Literaturzeitschrift Wien, Issue 10, 1973, p. 21: By the way (prose) [1]
  • The Jew. A monthly 2 / 1917-18, see web links
  • The peace. Weekly for Politics, Economics and Literature Vienna, by PH: Der Mensch in der Mitte 1918-19
  • Saturn H. 3, 1913: On the 10th day of Otto Weininger's death .
  • The initial. Journal for book lovers Eduard Strache, Vienna, from February 1921
  • Die Neue Schaubühne H. 2, 1920. P. 33 - 35: Prosaisches Weltbild
• (Same title) for the place of publication Heidelberg, 1913 (again in: Paul Pörtner: Literature Revolution 1910-1925. Documents - Manifests- Program Vol. 1: On Aesthetics and Poetics. Luchterhand: Darmstadt & Neuwied, 1960, pp. 301– 303)
• PH: The ants. Universitätsverlag Siegen, 1994, eds. And epilogue: Silke Hesse & Pavel Petr (series: Forgotten authors of modernity, no. 62) ISSN  0177-9869
• Leslie Bodi & Stephen Jeffries: German Connection. Sesquicentenary Essays on German-Victoria Crosscurrents 1835-1985 . Monash University , Dept. of German, Melbourne 1985 ISBN 0950097314
• Wilhelm Haefs: "Expressionism is dead ... Long live Expressionism!" PH as a literary critic and literary theorist of Expressionism. in: Klaus Amman & Armin A. Wallas Ed .: Expressionism in Austria. The literature and the arts. Böhlau, Vienna 1994, pp. 453-485

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Hatvani in the catalog of the German National Library
• Article by PH in Der Jude Heft 10-11, 1917-18, pp. 718f Jüdische Reflection Article by PH in Der Jude Heft 10–11, 1917-18, pp. 718f Jüdische Reflection
• Estate (partial estate) Estate (partial estate) Jeannie Ebner , Vienna Library in the City Hall. The typescripts contain the titles of many of PH's stories, but no information about the places of printing. (PDF file; 187 kB)
• Angelika Zawodny: Traces of the Apocalypse in Expressionist Poetry Diss. Phil. Cologne 1999 (passim; PDF file)
• Entry on Paul Hatvani at litkult1920er.aau.at , a project of the University of Klagenfurt

notes

1. ↑ Vienna Library, Jeannie Ebner estate ( online ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ), Signature 4.1.9. 
2. ↑ possibly digitized according to the Digitization___Yes list ( memento of September 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ); not available in stores. The digital version must be requested there.