The foundations of the Horváth philology

The literary study of the work and biography of Ödon von Horvth requires a well-founded and thorough textual and bibliographical basis. The necessity of such a comprehensive philological basis and its relevance to renewed interpretation of Horvth`s work has repeatedly been underlined in the last few years and particularly in the new and perhaps even surprising literary findings that have begun to emerge recently. Literary research into the author`s unpublished works carried out by the Austrian National Library`s Literary Archives (Österreichisches Literaturarchiv, ÖLA) has given rise to many of these studies and also supported their progress and even in some instances taken an active part. This specific project is to carry on in a more systematic and comprehensive manner what hitherto could only be investigated in selected problem areas. The project`s main objectives are to achieve the following: 1. To list as comprehensively and systematically as possible all of the author`s published and unpublished texts, letters, notebooks and personal documents and to evaluate them, while taking into account their contemporary reception; 2. To reach a qualified evaluation of the genetic convolutes and a representation of the work genesis obtained from original typescripts and manuscripts together with a reliable transcript of the textual material; 3. To accomplish textual accuracy in final versions; 4. To allow for and to encourage further individual interpretation of these sources on the basis of new philological findings gained in university seminaries, graduation papers, special conferences and other forms of cooperation.

Ödön von Horvth (1901-1938) is one of the twentieth century`s most renowned authors. His novels and prose texts are perennially popular with the reading public and his plays (including the famous Tales from the Vienna Woods) continue to have a powerful effect on today`s stages. For decades, Horvth has also been the object of intense and diverse academic scrutiny. Literary scholars have repeatedly drawn attention to the necessity of establishing a reliable text and source basis for research on his works and biography. Using the author`s extensive literary estate, which is kept at the Literary Archives of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, the present project has laid the methodological foundations for a historical critical edition (known as the `Vienna Edition`) and produced its first four volumes. The complete edition will comprise 18 volumes to be published by de Gruyter in Berlin. They will contain all of the author`s finished and unfinished works as well as all of the available letters and ego documents. To date the following have been published or are about to appear: Kasimir und Karoline (2009), Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg (june 2010), Der ewige Spießer (december 2010), Figaro lässt sich scheiden (april 2011). The Vienna Edition puts especial emphasis on documenting and describing the complex genesis of Horvth`s works. He often changed the basic concept of his texts, rewrote sizeable sections of them and subjected his materials to intensive cutting and sticking operations. The edition does not just rely on facsimiles to demonstrate this extremely modern way of working; for particularly complex phases of Horvth`s work, a special model of simulation graphics has been developed. The Vienna Edition offers considerable scope for applying the study of textual genetics, an area which is currently of great methodological interest, not only in literary research, but also in interdisciplinary fields. This opening up of new methodological approaches is a programmatic part of the present project that focuses, not just on the edition itself, but also on the role the edition plays in such discursive fields. In Horvth`s case, there is also a very immediate interest in the genetic materials themselves: theatre directors integrate material from the writing process in their productions and participate in this way in an open concept of the text, which is one of the guiding principles behind the Vienna Edition. The project`s results have also been put to further use: four of the author`s best known works (Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald, Kasimir und Karoline, Der jüngste Tag, Jugend ohne Gott) have been published by Reclam in low-cost editions, each with a selection of genetic materials, factual commentary and a detailed afterword.