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THE WORK OF GERHARD ROTH 2.0 INTRODUCTION In the previous section the Graz literary phenomenon has been defined largely on the basis of practical literary activities at 'Forum Stadtpark' and the critical reception of works by leading participants in the Graz Group. The Graz Group itself has been shown to be an informal literary group or circle with a clearly delineated inner circle of relatively long standing. It has been argued that 'Grazer Literatur' exhibits a number of distinguishing characteristics which give it a special place in post-war German literature in general and Austrian literary tradition in particular. If the preceding discussion is to be of real literary-historical worth as an approach to Austrian literature of the past three decades, it must yield genuine insights into the development of individual Graz authors. The model established in Section One is applied here to an exami­ nation of the work of Gerhard Roth, a participant in the second wave of the 'Grazer Gruppe' in terms of his literary production, who also had early associations with the 'Studio der Jungen', establishing personal contacts with Bauer, the Graz painter Peter Pongratz, Handke, and Kolleritsch, before achieving his own literary breakthrough in 1972. The early development of Roth's literary career demonstrates the· importance of the stimulus, and the critical receptiveness in West Germany, generated by 'Forum Stadtpark', manuskripte, and the initial critical breakthrough of the first wave of young· Graz authors. From the publication of his first novel in 1972, he was identified by critics as one of the 'Grazer' .101 His acceptance in the early 1970s by established participants in the Graz Group confirms the open and informal nature of this literary group formation. As an instance of 'Grazer Literatur', Roth's work exhibits a number of distinctive features. It also shares many of the general characteristics of 'Grazer Literatur' outlined in Section One. Roth's early work is genuinely avant-garde and experimental, displaying clear links to earlier Austrian and international literary experimentalism as well as to works by other Graz authors. A high level of linguistic self-consciousness is evident in his first published works which are quite literally 'Sprachspiele'. A critical attitude towards positivism, and therefore towards the objectivity of science, is an important departure point, which leads Roth to explore connections between science and aesthetics, a characteristic which also appears markedly in the work of Eisendle, albeit in a different guise. Roth's later work shows a desire to create positive links between avant-garde experimentalism and older narrative traditions. He gives more attention to the external social world, first 101 See p. 49. 74 in his two 'American' novels, Der groj3e Horizont (1974) and Ein neuer Morgen (1976), then in Winterreise (1978), manifesting a desire to break with prevailing conditions in the Austria of the Second Republic. Later, in Der stille Ozean (1980), he redirects the focus towards Austria through a form of 'Anti­ Heimatliteratur'. Amongst the Graz authors, Roth shares with Handke the fascination with America and the eventual return to confront his feelings about Austria. 102 The writing of 'Anti-Heimatliteratur' as a means of countering the persistence of negative German-national myth and ideology in the Second Republic is a distinctive oppositional feature of 'Grazer Literatur'. As the 'Anti-Heimatroman' it has served as a vehicle to explore and confront facts about society and culture in post-war Austria which many Austrians would rather forget or ignore. Roth's novel, Der stille Ozean, invites comparison with the contributions of other 'Grazer' to this genre including Jonke, Geometrischer Heimatroman; Handke, Wunschloses UnglUck; and Gruber, Aus dem Leben Hodlmosers. 2.1 ROTH'S EARLY LITERARY EXPERIMENTS IN GRAZ: 'EINE GESCHICHTSLOSE FORMALE LITERA TUR' Gerhard Roth was born on 24 June 1942. He is a native of Graz and the son of a Graz physician. He attended the Lichtenfels Gymnasium. At nineteen he was already married and the father of a small daughter. Roth's first contact with the literary activities of 'Forum Stadtpark' occurred in ·1962 when he was a young medical student at Carl Franzens University in Graz. He developed an early interest in writing and by 1962 had written a good deal of poetry and a number of prose sketches. 103 At the Gymnasium he had gained some acting experience. Hearing from a friend that actors were urgently required by Forum Stadtpark' s 'Studio der Jungen' for the first production of an experimental drama by Wolfgang Bauer, Roth volunteered his services. He played in two of Bauer's earliest one-act dramas, Der Schweinetransport and Maler und Farbe, both of which were strongly influenced by the Theater of the Absurd, and by the plays of Ionesco in particular. 104 This was Roth's first meeting with Bauer. It was not 102A topic examined in the present writer's M.A. thesis, Three American Journeys - The Influence and Image of America in the Novels of Peter Handke and Gerhard Roth, University of Auckland, 1980. 103A poem of 1962, Das Zimmer, introduces the Roth anthology, Menschen Bilder Marionetten: Prosa Kurzromane Stucke, (Frankfurt/M, 1979), pp. 11-12. 104In 1961 Bauer had seen a German production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros in Graz's Rittersaal which stimulated him to start writing for the theatre. See Gerhard Melzer, Wolfgang Bauer, (Konigsteinffs., 1981), p. 20. 75 until the early 1970s that a close friendship developed between them. Roth felt confident during the rehearsals but on the opening night he suffered an acute attack of nerves. The production itself proved successful and Bauer's career as a dramatist was launched. Roth, however, discovered that he had no real interest in becoming an actor. Roth is an exact contemporary of Bauer and Handke. In view of his early interest in writing and literature, it is all the more surprising to learn that during the nine years between his appearance in Bauer's first one-acters and the publication of Roth's 'Kurzroman' Kiinstel in manuskripte in 1971, he took no part in literary activities at 'Forum Stadtpark'. Indeed, he hardly ever attended its literary productions. As a husband and father with a strong sense of responsibility to his wife and family - by 1964 there were three children - Roth could ill-afford to adopt the carefree literary bohemianism practised in Graz at the time by Bauer, Falk, and Hengstler in particular. Until 1966, when increas­ ing financial difficulties and an unwillingness to remain dependent any longer on help from his father compelled him to leave university, he continued as a full-time medical student. He then took a position as a computer programmer at the Graz medical data centre where he remained for the next ten years, first as a programmer and later as a head of department. It was only in 1976, at the age of thirty-four, that a firm contract with the Suhrkamp Verlag and a moderate income from his first two full-length novels, Der grofle Horizon! and Ein neuer Morgen, finally enabled him to live as a full-time professional writer. Handke and Bauer, on the other hand, progressed directly from their university studies to professional literary careers. In the early 1970s, Roth's literary career rapidly caught up with that of first­ wave Graz authors like Handke and Bauer. In the 1960s, however, his literary development proceeded more slowly than that of his contemporaries. Despite his lack of contact with literary activities at 'Forum Stadtpark', Roth kept himself well-informed of the increasing tempo of cultural events in Graz, directly through friends and acquaintances like the painter, Peter Pongratz, and indirectly through his reading of manuskripte and reports appearing in the media. In 1965, while visiting Pongratz, he met Handke for the first time. Intellectually he felt greatly stimulated by the sense of energetic cultural renewal occurring in Graz. The ambience created by the unleashing of intense artistic activity in the city encouraged him to pursue his own literary efforts under circumstances which were often difficult and discouraging. In the pages of manuskripte he was exposed to work published by already more established contemporaries like Bauer, Frischmuth, Handke, Hoffer, and Hengstler, as well as to the work of other, somewhat older Austrian literary avant-gardists including Jandl, Mayrocker, Okopenko and the 'Wiener Gruppe'. As a source of general literary encouragement and of formal ideas for his early work, Roth's reading of this publication was important 'insofern als eben verschie- 76 denste Romane und Erzahlungen in verschiedenen Stilarten in den manu­ skripten immer vorabgedruckt waren und weil eben der Mut zur Moderne durch die Zeitschrift ins Haus gekommen ist. Das ist, man ist animiert worden, den Stil zu tiberprtifen und sich beim Schreiben weiterzuentwickeln' (Interview 2). It is precisely this 'Mut zur Moderne' which characterises this crucial phase in the literary development of the Second Republic. The courage to accept the challenge of the new, to find ways of tapping into avant-garde impulses as a means of overcoming oppressive cultural conservatism is a keynote of 'Grazer Literatur'. Particularly after 1965, Roth began to read widely within the various avant-garde movements of this century - Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism - including works by Aragon, Schwitters, Htilsenbeck, Peret, Kleb­ nikov, Mayakowski, and the mysterious Daniel Charms. Roth complains that some of his critics seize on the association of members of the 'Wiener Gruppe' with the early years of 'Forum Stadtpark' and manuskripte as the major source of his links with avant-garde traditions in literature. This erroneous conclusion is based on a narrow, linear view of literary cause-and-effect and leads to misunderstandings in the placement and interpretation of Roth's early work.

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