The crack-up
The Crack-Up , published in German under the title Der Knacks , is an autobiographical essay by the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald , which was published in three installments between February and April 1936 in Esquire magazine. It is the most important document of Fitzgerald's life crisis, which eventually led to his alcoholic death at the age of 44.
At the same time, The Crack-Up is the title of a collective work that was first published in 1945 and compiled by Edmund Wilson after Fitzgerald's death in 1940. It includes other late essays such as Echoes of the Jazz Age , Fitzgerald's alphabetized notebook in which he collected aperçus, brief character studies, and other observations for later use in his works, as well as appreciations of Fitzgerald's life's work written by Glenway Wescott , John Dos Passos , John Peale Bishop, and others.
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content
The essay was first published in the spring of 1936 in three tranches in Esquire magazine :
- The Crack-Up (February 1936)
- Handle with Care (German: " Handle with care "; March 1936)
- Pasting It Together (German: " cobble it together"; April 1936)
The essay of the title begins with the words “Of course all life is a process of breaking down” (German: “Of course all life is a process of breaking down [...]”), which already refer to the theme of the collection. In the following, Fitzgerald develops his idea of “emotional bankruptcy” (see also Burnout Syndrome ). By 1931 he had published a short story entitled "Emotional Bankruptcy".
effect
The essays were harshly criticized after their publication, especially because of the private disclosures. Ernest Hemingway accused Fitzgerald specifically of "public whining". The collection was later rated somewhat more positively and recognized as an insight into the low point in Fitzgerald's life.
The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze adopted the term crack-up from Fitzgerald as a term for his interpretation of the death drive .
Quotes
- In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning. ("On a really dark night of the soul it is always three in the morning.")
- The true test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind, and continue to function. ("The real test of first-class intelligence is the ability to keep two opposing ideas in mind and keep functioning")
expenditure
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Crack-Up . New Directions, New York 1945.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: The crack . From the American by Walter Schürenberg. Merve, Berlin 1984.
Secondary literature
- A. Banerjee: A Move towards Maturity: Scott Fitzgerald's The Crack-Up (PDF; 642 kB) . In: Revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 8, 1995. pp. 47-56.
- Kirk Curnutt: Making a 'clean break': Confession, Celebrity Journalism, Image Management and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Crack-Up . In: Genre 32: 4, 1999. pp. 297-328.
- Scott Donaldson: The Crisis of Fitzgerald's 'Crack-up' . In: Twentieth-Century Literature 26, 1980. pp. 171-88.
- Edward Gillin: Telling Truth Slant in the Crack-Up Essays . In: F. Scott Fitzgerald Review 1, 2002. pp. 158-76.
- Bruce L. Grenberg: Fitzgerald's Crack-up Essays Revisited: Fictions of the Self, Mirrors of a Nation . In: Jackson R. Bryer et al. (Ed.): F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Perspectives . Georgia University Press, Athens GA and London 2000. pp. 203-15. ISBN 0820321877
- Patricia Hampl: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Essays from the Edge . In: The American Scholar (online edition), Spring 2012.
Web links
- The Crack-Up - Text on Esquire magazinewebsite
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review by Tracy Simmons Bitonti ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed January 3, 2010
