German-language author (1905 ? 1994)
Elias Canetti
(
Bulgarian
:
Елиас Канети
; 25 July 1905 ? 14 August 1994;
;
[1]
German pronunciation:
[e?liːas
ka?n?ti]
[2]
) was a
German-language
writer, born in
Ruse, Bulgaria
to a
Sephardic
Jewish family. They moved to
Manchester, England
, but his father died in 1912, and his mother took her three sons back to continental Europe. They settled in Vienna.
Canetti moved to England in 1938 after the
Anschluss
to escape Nazi persecution. He became a British citizen in 1952. He is known as a modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and nonfiction writer.
[3]
He won the
Nobel Prize in Literature
in
1981
, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".
[4]
He is noted for his nonfiction book
Crowds and Power
, among other works.
Life and work
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Born in 1905 to businessman Jacques Canetti and Mathilde
nee
Arditti in
Ruse
, a city on the
Danube
in
Bulgaria
,
[5]
Canetti was the eldest of three sons.
[6]
His ancestors were
Sephardic Jews
.
[7]
His paternal ancestors settled in Ruse from
Ottoman
Adrianople
.
[6]
The original family name was
Canete
, named after
Canete, Cuenca
, a village in
Spain
.
In Ruse, Canetti's father and grandfather were successful merchants who operated out of a commercial building, which they had built in 1898.
[8]
Canetti's mother descended from the Arditti family, one of the oldest Sephardic families in Bulgaria, who were among the founders of the Ruse Jewish colony in the late 18th century. The Ardittis can be traced to the 14th century, when they were court physicians and astronomers to the
Aragonese
royal court of
Alfonso IV
and
Pedro IV
. Before settling in Ruse, they had migrated into Italy and lived in
Livorno
in the 17th century.
[9]
The trading house of Elias Avram Canetti, grandfather of Elias Canetti in
Ruse
,
Bulgaria
Canetti spent his childhood years, from 1905 to 1911, in Ruse until the family moved to Manchester, England, where Canetti's father joined a business established by his wife's brothers. In 1912, his father suddenly died, and his mother moved with their children first to
Lausanne
, and later in the same year, when Canetti was seven, to
Vienna
. His mother insisted that he learn and speak German. By this time, Canetti already spoke
Ladino
(his native language),
Bulgarian
, English, and some French; the last two he studied in the year he spent in Britain. Subsequently, the family moved first (from 1916 to 1921) to
Zurich
and then (until 1924) to
Frankfurt
, where Canetti graduated from high school.
Canetti went back to Vienna in 1924 in order to study chemistry. However, his primary interests during his years in Vienna became philosophy and literature. Introduced into the literary circles of
First Republic
Vienna
, he started writing. Politically leaning towards the left, he was present at the
July Revolt of 1927
, came near to the action accidentally, was most impressed by the burning of books (recalled frequently in his writings) and left the place quickly with his bicycle.
[10]
He received a doctorate in chemistry from the
University of Vienna
in 1929, but never worked as a chemist.
[11]
He published two works in Vienna,
Komodie der Eitelkeit
1934 (The Comedy of Vanity) and
Die Blendung
1935 (
Auto-da-Fe
, 1935), before escaping to Great Britain. He reflected the experiences of Nazi Germany and political chaos in his works, especially exploring mob action and group thinking in the novel
Die Blendung
and in the non-fiction
Crowds and Power
(1960). He wrote several volumes of memoirs, contemplating the influence of his multi-lingual background and childhood.
Canetti's tombstone in
Zurich
,
Switzerland
Personal life
[
edit
]
Canetti Peak
, in the
South Shetland Islands
,
Antarctica
, named after Elias Canetti
In 1934 in Vienna he married
Veza (Venetiana) Taubner-Calderon
(1897?1963), who acted as his muse and devoted literary assistant. Canetti remained open to relationships with other women. He had a short affair with the sculptor
Anna Mahler
, the daughter of the composer
Gustav Mahler
. In 1938, after the
Anschluss
with Germany, the Canettis moved to
London
. He became closely involved with the painter
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
, who was to remain a close companion for many years. His name has also been linked with the author
Iris Murdoch
(see
John Bayley
's
Iris, A Memoir of Iris Murdoch
, which has several references to an author, referred to as "the Dichter", who was a Nobel Laureate and whose works included
Die Blendung
[English title
Auto-da-Fe
]).
After Veza died in 1963, Canetti married Hera Buschor (1933?1988), with whom he had a daughter, Johanna, in 1972. Canetti's brother
Jacques Canetti
settled in Paris, where he championed a revival of French
chanson
.
[12]
Despite being a German-language writer, Canetti settled in Britain until the 1970s, receiving British citizenship in 1952. For his last 20 years, Canetti lived mostly in
Zurich
.
Career
[
edit
]
A writer in German, Canetti won the
Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power". He is known chiefly for his celebrated trilogy of autobiographical memoirs of his childhood and of pre-Anschluss
Vienna
:
Die Gerettete Zunge
(The Tongue Set Free);
Die Fackel im Ohr
(The Torch in My Ear), and
Das Augenspiel
(The Play of the Eyes); for his modernist novel
Auto-da-Fe
(
Die Blendung
); and for
Crowds and Power
, a psychological study of crowd behaviour as it manifests itself in human activities ranging from mob violence to religious congregations.
In the 1970s, Canetti began to travel more frequently to Zurich, where he settled and lived for his last 20 years. He died in Zurich in 1994.
[13]
Honours and awards
[
edit
]
Works
[
edit
]
- Komodie der Eitelkeit
1934 (
The Comedy of Vanity
)
- Die Blendung
1935 (
Auto-da-Fe
, novel, tr. by
Cicely Wedgwood
(Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1946). The first American edition of Wedgwood's translation was titled
The Tower of Babel
(Alfred A. Knopf, 1947).
- Die Befristeten
1956 (1956 premiere of the play in Oxford) (
Their Days are Numbered
)
- Masse und Macht
1960 (
Crowds and Power
, study, tr. 1962, published in Hamburg)
- Aufzeichnungen 1942 ? 1948
(1965) (
Sketches
)
- Die Stimmen von Marrakesch
1968 published by Hanser in Munich (
The Voices of Marrakesh
, travelogue, tr. 1978)
- Der andere Prozess
1969 Kafkas Briefe an Felice (
Kafka's Other Trial
, tr. 1974).
- Hitler nach Speer
(Essay)
- Die Provinz des Menschen
Aufzeichnungen 1942 ? 1972 (
The Human Province
, tr. 1978)
- Der Ohrenzeuge. Funfzig Charaktere
1974 ("Ear Witness: Fifty Characters", tr. 1979).
- Das Gewissen der Worte
1975. Essays (
The Conscience of Words
)
- Die Gerettete Zunge
1977 (
The Tongue Set Free
, memoir, tr. 1979 by
Joachim Neugroschel
)
- Die Fackel im Ohr
1980 Lebensgeschichte 1921 ? 1931 (
The Torch in My Ear
, memoir, tr. 1982)
- Das Augenspiel
1985 Lebensgeschichte 1931 ? 1937 (
The Play of the Eyes
, memoir, tr. 1990)
- Das Geheimherz der Uhr: Aufzeichnungen
1987 (
The Secret Heart of the Clock
, tr. 1989)
- Die Fliegenpein
(
The Agony of Flies
, 1992)
- Nachtrage aus Hampstead
(
Notes from Hampstead
, 1994)
- The Voices of Marrakesh
(published posthumously, Arion Press, 2001, with photographs by
Karl Bissinger
and etchings by
William T. Wiley
)
- Party im Blitz; Die englischen Jahre
2003 (
Party in the Blitz
, memoir, published posthumously, tr. 2005)
- Aufzeichnungen fur Marie-Louise (written 1942, compiled and published posthumously, 2005)
Reviews
[
edit
]
- Stevenson, Randall (1982),
The Privacy Industry of
Franz Kafka
, a review of
Kafka's Other Trial: The Letters to Felice
, in
Cencrastus
No. 9, Summer 1982, pp. 45 & 46,
ISSN
0264-0856
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Canetti"
.
Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
.
- ^
Dudenredaktion: Duden ? Das Ausspracheworterbuch [The Pronunciation Dictionary] (7th ed.). Berlin: Dudenverlag.
- ^
Lorenz, Dagmar C.G. (2009).
"Introduction"
.
A Companion to the Works of Elias Canetti
. Twayne Publishers. pp.
350
.
ISBN
978-080-578-276-9
.
- ^
"The Nobel Prize in Literature 1981"
. Nobel Foundation
. Retrieved
8 April
2014
.
- ^
"Canetti Trading House"
. Bulgarian National Television.
- ^
a
b
Lorenz, Dagmar C. G. (17 April 2004).
"Elias Canetti"
.
Literary Encyclopedia
. The Literary Dictionary Company Limited.
ISSN
1747-678X
. Retrieved
13 October
2009
.
- ^
"Heroes ? Trailblazers of the Jewish People"
.
Beit Hatfutsot
. Archived from
the original
on 7 November 2019
. Retrieved
7 November
2019
.
- ^
"The Canetti House ? a forum for alternative culture"
. Internationale Elias Canetti Gesellschaft. Archived from
the original
on 24 March 2010
. Retrieved
13 October
2009
.
- ^
Angelova, Penka (2006).
"Die Geburtsstadt von Elias Canetti"
(PDF)
.
Elias Canetti: Der Ohrenzeuge des Jahrhunderts
(in German). Internationale Elias-Canetti-Gesellschaft Rousse. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 10 April 2018
. Retrieved
29 October
2017
.
- ^
Stieg, Gerard,
Fruits de Feu - l'incendie du Palais du Justice de Vienne en 1927 et ses consequences dans la Litterature Autrichienne
. Universite de Rouen (
ISBN
9782877750080
), 1989.
- ^
"Elias Canetti | Bulgarian-born writer | Britannica"
.
www.britannica.com
. Retrieved
14 February
2023
.
- ^
Patrick Labesse (10 June 1997).
"Jacques Canetti, Le decouvreur de Brassens et de Brel"
.
Le Monde
. Retrieved
22 January
2015
.
- ^
"
Encyclopædia Britannica
profile"
. 20 February 2024.
- ^
"Großer Osterreichischer Staatspreis"
.
Bundesministerium fur Kunst, Kultur, offentlichen Dienst und Sport
(in German). Archived from
the original
on 23 November 2021
. Retrieved
10 December
2023
.
- ^
Kunste, Bayerische Akademie der Schonen.
"Thomas-Mann-Preis der Hansestadt Lubeck und der Bayerischen Akademie der Schonen Kunste"
.
www.badsk.de
(in German)
. Retrieved
10 December
2023
.
- ^
"Reply to a parliamentary question"
(PDF)
(in German). p. 348
. Retrieved
19 October
2012
.
- ^
a
b
Kirkup, James (23 September 2004). "Canetti, Elias (1905-1994), author".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
.
Oxford University Press
.
- ^
Hageraats, G.J.E.M (2012).
"De mens is het verwandlungsdier: Elias Canetti over verwandlung, massa en meer"
(PDF)
.
Universiteit van Amsterdam
(in Dutch).
- ^
"Nelly-Sachs-Preis"
.
Dormund.de
. Retrieved
16 February
2024
.
- ^
"Gottfried Keller-Preis"
.
Gottfried Keller Preis
.
- ^
"Canetti | ORDEN POUR LE MERITE"
.
www.orden-pourlemerite.de
. Retrieved
10 December
2023
.
- ^
"Hebel- Preis und Hebelpreistrager"
.
hausen.pcom.de
. Retrieved
10 December
2023
.
- ^
"Hanser Verlag author page"
. Archived from
the original
on 12 November 2013
. Retrieved
12 November
2013
.
- ^
Gobel, Helmut (2005).
Elias Canetti
(in German). Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag.
ISBN
978-3-499-50585-0
.
- ^
Kerbel, Sorrel (23 November 2004).
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1-135-45606-1
.
- ^
"Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer"
(PDF)
.
Antarctic Place-names Commission
(in Bulgarian)
. Retrieved
20 March
2024
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Parry, I.
, "
Attitudes to Power
", in
I. Parry
,
Speak Silence
(1988), p. 253-
- Manuel Vazquez Montalban
and
Willi Glasauer
(1988).
Scenes from World Literature and Portraits of Greatest Authors
.
Barcelona
:
Circulo de Lectores
.
- Gentis, Roger
,
La folie Canetti
,
Paris
:
Maurice Nadeau
, 1993
- Donahue, William Collins
,
The End of Modernism: Elias Canetti's Auto-da-Fe
(
University of North Carolina Press
, 2001).
- Brill, Lesley
, "
Terrorism, "Crowds and Power", and the Dogs of War
",
Anthropological Quarterly
76(1), Winter 2003: 87?94.
[1]
- Morgan, Peter
(2005), "
Georges Kien and the 'Diagnosis of Delusion' in Elias Canetti's Die Blendung
",
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Volume 157.
United States
:
Gale
.
- Donahue, William Collins
and
Julian Preece
(eds),
The Worlds of Elias Canetti: Centenary Essays
(
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
, 2007).
- Lorenz, Dagmar C.G.
(2009),
"Introduction": A Companion to the Works of Elias Canetti
.
- Brighenti, Andrea Mubi
, "
Elias Canetti and the Counter-Image of Resistance
",
Thesis Eleven
, August 2011 vol. 106 no. 1 73-87.
[2]
- Antonello Lombardi
,
La scuola dell'ascolto: Oralita, suono e musica nell'opera di Elias Canetti
,
Ut Orpheus Edizioni
,
Bologna
2011,
ISBN
978-88-8109-474-5
- Antonello Lombardi
, "
Gli animali mancanti: La fauna nell'opera di Elias Canetti
", in
In forma di parole, Animali
, volume secondo, IV 2012,
Bologna
2013.
- Antonello Lombardi
,
Le memorie di Georges Kien
,
Portatori d'Acqua
,
Pesaro
2015,
ISBN
978-88-987790-3-1
- Antonello Lombardi
, "
Elias Canetti e la scuola dell'ascolto
", in
Nuova informazione bibliografica (il Mulino
)]
2/2016,
aprile-giugno
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]
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