Ödön Von Horváth's Volksstücke
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Ödön von Horváth’s Volksstücke. Sounds and silences in dramaturgy and theatrical performance Alina Sofronie A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities and Languages Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of New South Wales November 2016 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Signed ………………………… Date ……………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my supervisors, Dr Robert Buch, School of Humanities and Languages, Associate Professor Gerhard Fischer, School of Humanities and Languages, and Dr Meg Mumford, School of the Arts and Media, for the provision of their time, experience and advice. I have appreciated their constructive criticism and guidance during the development of this thesis. Throughout my candidature they have offered me support and generous as well as valuable assistance. I would like to thank the staff members of the following libraries, archives and research centres who have supported me in this project: Dr Michaela Giesing, Die Theatersammlung der Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg Barbara Schultz, Archive Department, Volksbühne Berlin Horváth Archive, Akademie der Künste, Berlin Dr Dagmar Walach, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Theaterhistorische Sammlungen, Freie Universität Berlin Dr Klaus Kastberger, Horváth Archive, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek/Österreichisches Literaturarchiv, Vienna Dr Franziska Lettowsky, Archive Department, Salzburger Festspiele. I am also grateful to and wish to thank my family and my friend Roger Rushton for their encouragement, patience and support. ii ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the dramaturgical art of Ödön von Horváth, currently one of the most staged German playwrights, focusing on the cycle of five plays known as the Volksstücke (Revolte auf Côte 3018, Die Bergbahn, Italienische Nacht, Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald and Kasimir und Karoline). While critical responses to Horváth’s Volksstücke have referred especially to the Bildungsjargon and its verbal patterns, Horváth’s creative use of the theatre’s non- verbal resources has been largely ignored. My research aims to address the lack of scholarly attention in this regard and to explore the intricacies of Horváth’s use of musical and silent moments in these plays. It shows that analysis of the roles of music and silence is crucial for a profound understanding of Horváth’s socially critical Volksstücke as well as for an apt definition of their relevance to contemporary theatre practitioners. The main research methods consist of literary analysis and criticism of Horváth’s Volksstück along with performance analysis of contemporary stage productions based on Horváth’s texts. This study demonstrates that musical and silent interventions support Horváth’s reformation of the Volksstück genre both in its form and spirit. Based on theoretical frameworks that stress on the one hand the social aspect of musical meaning, and on the other the role of silence in dramatic communication, it reveals the direct connection between Horváth’s use of music and silence and the expression of socially critical ideas in these plays. It also demonstrates that music and silence represent significant influences on the way in which Horváth’s texts have been received recently. Christoph Marthaler’s contemporary productions of Horváth’s Volksstück (Kasimir und Karoline, iii Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, 1996, and Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald, Volksbühne Berlin, 2006) are used as the site of analysis. My thesis extends the scholarly attention thus far given to Horváth’s Volksstücke. With its findings, it contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of Horváth’s playwriting technique, as well as encouraging further research into the significance of non-verbal elements throughout Horváth’s oeuvre. In addition, it opens up new discussions about the recent staging implications of Horváth’s use of music and silence. iv CONTENTS ORIGINALITY STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii CONTENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 THESIS OUTLINE 11 NOTE ON PUBLICATION OF HORVÁTH’S WORKS AND ON THE EDITIONS USED 13 NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS 15 CHAPTER ONE Ödön von Horváth’s use of music: influences and critical perspectives 16 1.1. Contextual approach to Horváth’s use of music 17 1.2. Critical perspectives on Horváth’s Use of Music 27 1.3. Music in the tradition of the Volksstück genre and in Horváth’s new Volksstücke 40 1.4. Theoretical perspectives 52 CHAPTER TWO Music in Ödön von Horváth’s ‘political’ Volksstücke 56 2.1. Die Bergbahn 57 2.2. Italienische Nacht 63 v CHAPTER THREE Music in Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald 74 3.1. Overview of the play’s characters 75 3.2. Overview of the musical elements 82 3.3. Johann Strauss’s waltzes 85 3.4. Further aspects of Horváth’s use of waltz music 92 3.5. Wienerlieder 102 3.6. Military music 107 CHAPTER FOUR Music in Kasimir und Karoline 115 4.1. Kasimir und Karoline, the ballad 116 4.2. Overview of the musical elements 121 4.3. Kasimir und Karoline, the ballad of Horváth’s times 127 4.4. Further implications of music: Demaskierung des Bewußtseins 135 CHAPTER FIVE Ödön von Horváth and silence: definitions and critical perspectives 142 5.1. Definitions of silence 143 5.2. Silence and modern drama 148 5.3. Critical perspectives on Horváth’s use of silence 153 5.4. Silence in a dramatic text 161 5.4.1. The conjunctive silence 165 5.4.2. The disjunctive silence 168 vi CHAPTER SIX Silence in Ödön von Horváth’s new Volksstücke 171 6.1. Chronological account of Horváth’s use of silence 172 6.2. Horváth’s conjunctive silence 177 6.3. Horváth’s disjunctive silence 186 6.4. Particular aspects of Horváth’s use of “Stille” 194 6.5. Horváth’s silence in the text-performance translation 201 CHAPTER SEVEN Sounds and silences in Christoph Marthaler’s productions of Ödön von Horváth’s Volksstücke 205 7.1. New directions in theatre practice 206 7.2. Key features of Christoph Marthaler’s approach to theatre directing 211 7.3. Christoph Marthaler’s staging of Kasimir und Karoline 217 7.4. Christoph Marthaler’s staging of Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald 232 CONCLUSION 245 BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 vii INTRODUCTION In the context of German literature, the name of Ödön von Horváth traces a special history. The author of 18 plays, 3 novels, and numerous shorter pieces, he was highly regarded by the audiences and literary elite of the Weimar Republic and widely considered, with Brecht and Zuckmayer, as “one of the leading lights of the newer German drama” (Rosenberg, 1986, p. 376). In 1931, he received the prestigious Kleist Prize (Brecht was the Kleist prize-winner in 1922), awarded to the most promising young German-language dramatist of the year. However, his anti-fascist literary attacks attracted hostility from the Nazi regime, and Horváth was forced to leave Germany after the installation of the new political power in 1933. He spent the next five years in exile and died in an accident in 1938. The history of Horváth’s reception was influenced by the Nazi prohibition of his plays. His name seemed fated to oblivion. The critic Wilhelm Emrich declared in 1963 that Horváth was almost unknown to the literary public (1977, p. 136). The situation changed after the first publication of a few of Horváth’s plays by Rowohlt Verlag in 1961 and after the official opening of the “Ödön von Horváth Archive” in West Berlin in 1963. In the wake of these events, the number of productions of Horváth’s plays increased yearly in the German-speaking countries. By the end of the 1960s the general reception exploded into the so-called ‘Horváth-Renaissance’. His works garnered extensive critical attention and Horváth was placed the eighth most performed playwright in German theatres after authors like Brecht, Shakespeare, Molière and Nestroy.1 This moment marked Horváth’s recognition as one of the most 1 586 Horváth performances were recorded in the 1971/72 theatrical season, according to the blurb page of Materialien zu Ödön von Horváths Glaube Liebe Hoffnung, ed. Traugott Krischke (1973). 1 important German-language authors of the last century. He is now considered a classic author of Austrian and German literature. Scholars share the general opinion that Horváth’s importance rests especially on his Volksstücke. These are five plays written between 1926 and 1932, namely Revolte auf Côte 3018 (Revolt on Côte 3018), Die Bergbahn (The Cable Car), Italienische Nacht (The Italian Night), Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods), and Kasimir und Karoline (Kasimir and Karoline). Some critics include Glaube Liebe Hoffnung (Faith Love Hope) in the cycle of plays Horváth called “Volksstücke”. For example, the first complete edition of Horváth’s works (1970-1971, edited by Dieter Hildebrandt, Walter Huder and Traugott Krischke) included Glaube Liebe Hoffnung in the volume dedicated to Horváth’s ‘folk-plays’. Although originally conceived together with Kasimir und Karoline as a “Volksstück in seven tableaux” (“Volksstück in sieben Bilder” [Horváth Archive, ӦLA BS 39, 3/W 36, p. 1]), Glaube Liebe Hoffnung is later referred to as a “comedy in three” or “in five acts” (Horváth Archive, ӦLA BS 39 [b], 3/W 15) before receiving its final subtitle: “a little dance of death in five tableaux” (“ein kleiner Totentanz in fünf Bildern” [Horváth Archive, ӦLA 3/W225-3/W224, p.