Thomas Bernhard’s Afterlives

In his prose fiction, memoirs, poetry, and drama, Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989)–one of the 20th century’s most uniquely gifted writers–created a new and radical style, seemingly out of thin air. His books never tell a story in the received sense. Instead, he rages on the page, he rants and spews vitriol about the moral failures of his homeland, Austria, in the long amnesiac aftermath of the Second World War.

Yet this furious prose, seemingly shapeless but composed with unparalleled musicality, and taxing by conventional standards, has been powerfully echoed in many writers since Bernhard’s death in 1989. These explorers have found in Bernhard’s singular accomplishment new paths for the expression of life and truth.

Thomas Bernhard’s Afterlives examines the international mobilization of Bernhard’s style. Writers in Italian, German, Spanish, Hungarian, English, and French have succeeded in making Bernhard’s Austrian vision an international vision. This book tells that story.