ELLIAS CANETTI

ELLIAS CANETTI

(1905-1994)



Bulgarian-born German novelist, essayist, sociologist, and playwright, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981. Elias Canetti's best-known works is Crowds and Power (1960), an imaginative study of mass movements, death and disordered society which drew on history, folklore, myth, and literature. The book was inspired by the burning of the Palace on Justice in Vienna in 1927. Canetti started publishing in the 1930s but it was not until the 1960s and especially after the Nobel price that his work started to gain sustained critical attention. Most of his life he was resident in London, but he did not actively associate with English writers or German language colleagues.

"Die charaktervollsten gelehrten sein um Bücher willen schon zu Verbrechern geworden. Wie gross sei die Versuchung erst für einen intelligenten und bildungshungrigen Menschen, die zum erstenmal Bücher mit all ihren Reizen drückten!" (from Die Blendung, 1935)
Elias Canetti was born in Ruse (Ruschuk), a small port in Bulgaria on the river Danube, into a Sephardic Jewish family. The family were well-to-do merchants, who spoke old Spanish. Canetti's father, Jacques, was a businessman. Mathilde Arditti, his mother, was especially proud of her backgound. "Although the literatures of the civilized languages she knew became the true substance of her life," Canetti later recalled, "she never felt any contradiction between this passionate universality and the haughty family pride that she never stopped nourishing." German was the fourth language Canetti acquired – after Ladino, an archaic Spanish dialect, Bulgarian, and English. He eventually chose to write in German and retained a lasting love of German culture. The role model of his youth was the Austrian satirist and poet Karl Kraus, who once said, that "The German language is the profoundest of all languages, but German speech is the shallowest." When Canetti was six, his family moved to Manchester, England. After the sudden death of his father, his mother took the family to Vienna, where he learned German.

From 1916 to 1921 Canetti studied in Zürich, and produced his first literary work, JUNIUS BRUTUS, a verse play. During a visit to Berlin in 1928 he met Bertolt Brecht, Isaak Babel, and George Grosz, and started to plan a series of novels on the subject of human madness. The idea resulted in the novel DIE BLENDUNGEN, (translations into English in 1947 and 1964), considered to have been ahead of its time. The book was well received after WW II among others by Thomas Mann and the English novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch. Canetti had an affair with Murdoch in the 1950s, but his portrayal of her in PARTY IM BLITZ: DIE ENGLISCHEN JAHRE (2003) is remarkably negative: "You could call Iris Murdoch the bubbling Oxford stewpot. Everything I despise about English life is in her. You could imagine her speaking incessantly, as a tutor, and incessantly listening: in the pub, in bed, in conversation with her male of female lovers."

Canetti graduated in 1929 with a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Vienna. In the early 1930s he translated works by the American writer Upton Sinclair. While in Austria he had an experience that would affect all his future work: angry protesters burned down the Palace of Justice and the author was caught up in the crowd, later describing how he felt himself becoming part of the mob. In 1934 Canetti married Veza Taubner-Calderón, a writer and translator; she died in 1963, completely forgotten as a novelist. However, in the 1980s Canetti started to edit and publish her works. Canetti's second marriage was with Hera Buschor; they had one daughter. Hera Buschor, who worked at the Kunsthaus in Zürich, was Canetti's old friend from the 1950s. The third part of Canetti's autobiography was dedicated to her. She died from cancer in 1988.

In the 1930s Canetti wrote two plays, DIE HOCHZEIT (The Wedding), a comedy of manners, and DIE KOMÖDIE DER EITELKEIT, forerunners of the theater of the absurd. DIE BEFRISTETEN, produced in Vienna in 1967, asked the question what happens if one knows the exact date of ones death.

To escape the systematic persecution of Jews, Canetti fled to Paris in 1938 and next year he immigrated to England, where he mostly lived for the rest of his life. From the 1970s Canetti also maintained a home in Zürich, where he spent his last years with his daughter.

Canetti's breakthrough work, Die Blendung (Auto-da-Fé), apperared in 1935. It was banned by the Nazis, but beside this dubious acknowledgment Canetti did not gain much attention as a writer before the 1960s when the book was reprinted. The protagonist is Peter Klein, a forty-year-old philologist and sinologist. He knows much of ancient languages but is unable to decipher contemporary voices. "He himself was the owner of the most important private library in the whole of this great city. He carried a minute portion of it with him wherever he went. His passion for it, the only one which he had permitted himself during a life of austere and exacting study, moved him to take special precautions. Books, even bad ones, tempted him easily into making a purchase. Fortunately the great number of the book shops did not open until after eight o'clock." Klein feels safe with his 40 000 characters of the Chinese alphabet and 25 000 books. He fears social and physical contacts, and his inhumane view of the world contradicts his learning. However, he allows himself to get into the clutches of his ignorant and grasping housekeeper Therese Krummholz, nearing 60, whom he marries, and who robs him of everything. In this she is helped by Benedikt Pfaff, the proto-fascist caretaker of the apartment block. Klein descends to the lower, surrealistic depths of society. His brother Georges, who is a psychiatrist, tries in vain to cure him. Doomed Klein dies in apocalyptic self-destruction amidst his books.

Crowds and Power (1960), brought together material from many disciples, but avoided such names as Marx or Freud, who is mentioned once in a note. It started from the assumption that crowd instinct is as fundamental as the passion to survive. "The lowest form of survival is killing." The first half analyses the dynamics of different types of crowds and of 'packs'. The second part focuses on the question how and why crowds obey rulers. Canetti presented Hitler as the paranoiac ruler of crowds, fascinated by the size of the crowds he commands. The persecution of the Jews he connects with the German experience of inflation – they needed to pass this humiliation on to something else which would be reduced to worthlessness. "Our most pressing need, as Canetti very movingly and convincingly argues at the end, is to control the 'survivor mania' of our rulers, and the key to this is 'the humanisation of command'. But how is command to be humanised? Canetti has not given us a psychology with which to picture the humanisation of command." (Iris Murdoch in The Spectator, September 1962)

Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice (1969) examined Kafka's struggle between comfortable middle-class life and individual isolation. As an essayist Canetti became known with The Conscience of Words (1976). With one exception, these essays date from the 1960s and 1970s and deal mostly with literary topics. Canetti sees that writers are responsible of the preservation, revivification, and invention of the life-sustaining myths and their meaning. Tolstoy is rejected as a model for having "struck a kind of pact with death" in his late turn to religion, and Kafka emerges "among all writers as the greatest expert on power". "Canetti has a very acute ear for colloquialisms and the banalities of everyday speech, creating what he term as "acoustic mask" for each figure, a core vocabulary of a few hundred words that marks out a character's habits of thoughts and behavior. Canetti's penetration of his various social representative's linguistic habits is quite remarkably sustained, creating a world of complete self-absorption, vanity, and personal and public insanity." (Anna.Marie Taylor in Contemporary World Writers, ed. by Tracy Chevalier, 1993)

Before the Nobel Prize made Canetti world- famous, he lived modestly in Hampstead. The German literature critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki met him for the first time in the mid-1960s and already noted his charisma and his greats skills as a conversationalist (see Mein Leben, 1999). Canetti admitted that he did not have patience to listen to others. He had written most of his diary in cipher so that intrusive critics would not understand it. When Reich-Ranicki asked him to write a short essay on Heinrich Böll, who had portrayed the moral emptiness of modern German society, Canetti refused. Reich-Ranicki's impression was that Canetti did not place much value much on Böll's books.

Among Canetti's several awards were Foreign Book Prize (1949, France), Vienna Prize (1966), Critics Prize (1967, Germany), Great Austrian State Prize (1967), Bavarien Academy of Fine Arts Prize (1969), Bühner Prize (1972), Nelly Sachs Prize (1975), Order of Merit (1979, Germany), Europa Prato Prize (1980, Italy), Hebbel Prize (1980), Kafka Prize (1981), Great Service Cross (1983, Germany). He had also honorary degrees from two universities. Canetti died on August 13, 1994 in Zürich. His autobiographical works include DIE GERETTETE ZUNGE (1980), in which the author returned to the traumatic experience of his father's death, DIE FACKEL IM OHR (1982), and DAS AUGENSPIEL (1985). DIE STIMMEN VON MARRAKESCH (1967), a travel book, dealt also with death.

For further reading: Elias Canetti by D. Barnouw (1996); Elias Canetti: The Failing of the Novel by R. Elbaz (1995); Elias Canetti by Thomas H. Falk (1993); Understanding Elias Canetti by Richard H. Lawson (1991); Das autobiographische Werke von Elias Canetti by F. Eigler (1988); Essays in Honor of Elias Canetti, ed. by F. Eigler (1987); Erinnerung und Vision by B. Meili (1985); Elias Canetti by Edgar Piel (1984); Elias Cantti by Dagmar Barnouw (1979); Kopf und Welt by D. Roberts (1975); Canetti Lesen, ed. by Herbert G. Göpfert (1975); Essays on German Literature, ed. by F. Norman (1965) - NOTE: Irish Murdoch dedicated her novel The Flight From the Enchanter (1956) to Elias Canetti

Selected works:

translator: Leidweg der Liebe by Upton Sinclair, 1930
translator: Das Geld schreibt by Upton Sinclair, 1930
translator: Alkohol by Upton Sinclair, 1932
HOCHZEIT, 1932 (play) - The Wedding (tr. 1986)
DIE BLENDUNG, 1935 - Auto da Fe (tr. by C.W. Wedgwood) / The Tower of Babel (tr. C. V. Wedgwood) - Sokeat (suom. Liisa Ryömä)
KOMÖDIE DER EITELKEIT, 1950 (play) - Comedy of Vanity (tr. 1983)
FRITZ WOTRUBA, 1953 - Fritz Wotruba (tr. 1955)
MASSE UND MACHT, 1960 - Crowds and Power (tr. Carol Stewart) - Joukko ja valta (suom. Markus Lång)
WELT IM KOPF, 1962 (ed. by Erich Fried)
DRAMEN, 1964
DIE BEFRISTETEN, 1964 - Life-Terms (play, prod. in England in 1956)
AUFZEICHUNGEN 1942-1948, 1965
DIE BEFRISTETEN, 1967 (play)
DIE STIMMEN VON MARRAKESCH: AUFZEICHNUNGEN NACH EINER REISE, 1968 - The Voices of Marrakesh: A Record of a Visit (tr. J.A. Underwood) - Marrakešin ääniä (suomentanut Esa Adrian)
DER ANDERE PROZESS: KAFKAS BRIEFE AM FELICE, 1969 - Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice (tr. Christopher Middleton)
ALLE VERGEUDETE VEREHRUNG, 1970
DIE GESPALTENE ZUKUNFT, 1972
MACHT UND ÜBERLEBEN. DREI ESSAAYS, 1972
DIE PROVINZ DES MENSCHEN: AUFZEICHNUNGEN 1942-72, 1973 - The Human Province (tr. Joachim Neugroschel) - Ihmisen alue: muistiinmerkintöjä (suom. Liisa Laukkarinen, ruotsinnoksesta Människans provins)
DER OHRENZEUBE: FÜNFZIG CHARAKTERE, 1974 - Earwitness: Fifty Characters (tr. 1979) - Avainkorva: viisikymmentä luonnetta (suomentanut Jari Tammi)
DAS GEWISSEN DER WORTE: ESSAYS, 1975 - The Conscience of Words (tr. Joachim Neugroschel)
DER BERUF DES DICHTERS, 1976
DIE GERETTETE ZUNGE: GESCHICHTE EINER JUGEND, 1977 - The Tongue Set Free (tr. 1979) - Pelastunut kieli: erään nuoruuden tarina (suom. Kyllikki Villa)
DIE FACKEL IM OHR: LEBENSGESCHICHTE, 1921-1931, 1980 - The Torch in My Ear (tr. Joachim Neugroschel) - Soihtu korvassa (suom. Kyllikki Villa)
DAS AUGENSPIEL: LEBENSGESCHICHTE, 1931-1937, 1985 - The Play of the Eyes (tr. Ralph Manheim) - Silmäpeli: elämäntarina vuosilta 1931-1937 (suom. Kyllikki Villa)
DAS GEHEIMHERZ DER UHR: AUFZEICHNUNGEN 1973-1985, 1987 - The Secret Heart of the Clock: Notes, Aphorisms, Fragments 1973-1985 (tr. Joel Agee) - Kellon salainen sydän: muistiinpanoja 1973-1985 (suomentanut Kyllikki Villa)
DIE FLIEGENPEIN AUFZEICHNUNGEN, 1992 - The Agony of Flies: Notes and Notations (tr. H.F. Broch de Rothermann)
AUFZEICHNUNGEN, 1942-1985, 1993
NACHTRÄGE AUS HAMPSTEAD: AUS DEN AUFZEICHNUNGEN, 1954-1971, 1994 - Notes from Hampstead: the Writer’s Notes, 1954-1971 (tr. by John Hargraves)
WORTMASKEN: TEXTE ZU LEBEN UND WERK VON ELIAS CANETTI, 1995
PARTY IM BLITZ: DIE ENGLISCHEN JAHRE, 2003 - Party in the Blitz: the English Years (tr. by Michael Hofmann)
AUFZEICHNUNGEN FÜR MARIE-LOUISE, 2005
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Körleşme (Die Blendung, Tam türkçe çevirisi Kamaşma)


1981 Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü sahibi Elias Canneti'nin ilk olarak 1935'te Almanya'da yayımlanmış tek romanı.

Yazıldığı Dönem
Körleşme, yazıldığı dönem açısından ve yazarı açısından içinde çeşitli ipuçları barındıran çağının ötesinde bir edebi eserdir. 1930'ların başında Nasyonal Sosyalizm'in ayak seslerinin yeni duyulmaya başladığı bir dönemde, yahudi kökenli bir Alman vatandaşı olan Elias Canetti tarafından yazılmıştır. Canetti'nin kitle ve iktidar ilişkisine duyduğu yakın ilgi bu ilk kitabında bile yoğun şekilde hissedilir. Canetti bu romanı yazdığında henüz 26 yaşındaydı.

Kitap, I. Dünya Savaşı ile II. Dünya Savaşı arasındaki dönemde, Almanya'nın ilk dünya savasşının yenilgisini üzerinden atamadığı ve yenilgi psikolojisinin faşizme önayak olduğu bir dönemi, bu dönemde faşizme taban olacak sıradan insanları tüm çıplaklığıyla anlatır.

Kitabın anti-kahramanı, bir filolog olan Kien'in tüm tutkusu kitapları ve bilimdir. Tüm dünyası 25 bin kitap içeren evinden ibaret olan Kien kendini dış dünyadan soyutlamış, kendinden başka herkesi değersiz, cahil, küçük gören kibirli ve bencil aydının bir prototipidir.

Konusu
Kitap üç bölümden oluşmaktadır:

Dünyasız Bir Kafa : Evinde dışarı adım atmayan kitapları ve bilimi ile yaşayan Kien'in ev içindeki hayatını anlatan bu bölümde, hizmetçisi Therese'ye, kitaplarına gösterdiğine inandığı yakın ilgiden dolayı yakınlaşması ve evlenmesi anlatılır. Bölüme verilen isimden anlaşılacağı gibi, Kien'in kafasında oluşturduğu, dış dünyadan tamemen bağımsız iç dünyasında yaşar. Bu bölümde, bu dünyasız kafa tüm açıklığıyla ortaya serilir.

Kafasız Bir Dünya : İkinci bölümde, evinden dışarı hiç çıkmamış, insanlarla ilişki kurmayı bilinçli olarak reddetmiş Kien, eski hizmetçisi, yeni karısı Therese tarafında sokağa atılır ve daha önce tanımadığı bir dünyaya zorunlu bir adım atar. Küçük gördüğü, değersiz bulduğu insanların elinde oyuncak olması, oradan oraya savrulması anlatılır bu bölümde. Bu dünya, rasyonaliteden uzak, kafasız bir dünyadır.

Kafadaki Dünya : Bu bölümde, tüm yaşadıklarından sonra kafasında oluşturduğu yeni dünyanın delilik sınırlarına getirdiği Kien'in trajik sonu anlatılır.

“Canetti’nin romanı, James Joyce’un Ulysses ile erişmek istediğinin ötesine geçen bir adımdır… bu roman, gerçekçi romanın hiçbir zaman başaramadığı bir şeyi; olaylar ile yaşananlar arasındaki değişken sınırla, insanoğlunun kendi eliyle kurduğu, sonra da kendisine yabancılaşmış, düşman kesilmiş bulduğu dış çevreyi, yepyeni biçim içerisinde ve en uçta sayılabilecek araçlarla betimlemeyi başarmaktır. Bu yapıt, roman türünün varabileceği en uç noktayı mı belirtmektedir, yoksa roman alanında yepyeni olanaklara götüren bir yolu mu – bu, irdelenmeye değer.”

Frankfurter Zeitung

Kısaca Prof. J. Isaacs’ın yorumuna da bakalım; ona göre “Yüzyılımızın en büyük romanlarından olan Körleşme’nin çekiciliği, ilk okuyuşta ancak Karamazof Kardeşler’le ya da James Joyce’un Ulysses’i ile karşılaştırılabilir. Yapıtın tüm zenginliğinin bilincine varmak ise ancak zamanla üstesinden gelinebilecek bir iştir. Uygarlığın yıkılışıyla insanoğlunun aşağılanması, romanın konusunu oluşturur.”

Prof. J. Isaacs

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