Ödön von Horvath: Vienna Edition

The Vienna Edition of the collected works of Ödön von Horvth (1901-1938) is a critical historical edition. Eighteen volumes are planned, of which one to two are to appear each year. The edition will not only comprise the author`s completed works, but also all those that remained fragments, along with all the available letters and ego- documents. Taken as a whole, therefore, the Vienna Edition provides for the first time a long-awaited, complete and reliable textual and documentary resource on one of the most important and popular representatives of literary modernity. Each individual volume of the Vienna Edition contains a foreword, text and commentary. These three sections interact to show how Horvth`s works developed, a process which can be followed step by step right up to the final versions. The forewords sketch the genesis of each work and survey its contemporary reception. The text sections order the genetic materials chronologically, and include the author`s notes and preliminary drafts in facsimile. The texts are reproduced in linear transcription and are accompanied by critical notes, which further comment on the texts` genesis. This annotation elucidates the changes on which the constituted versions are based. In addition, the final versions of the works are presented in emended form. The commentary section includes a chronological register describing all the textual sources, both formally and as regards their contents. It also presents arguments for the sequence of the drafts and versions of each text. Simulation graphics are used to depict the complex genetic processes that were typical of the author`s highly modern way of working. Research work for the Vienna Edition is being carried out at the Literary Archives at the Austrian National Library in Vienna, where the extensive literary estate of the author is kept. Four volumes of the edition 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 present project will cover research for the volumes Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald, Jugend ohne Gott/Ein Kind unserer Zeit as well as Ein Sklavenball/Pompeji, one of the author`s later works, for which a particularly large amount of complex genetic material has been preserved. In addition, work will be carried out on the volume Briefe und Lebensdokumente [Letters and Ego-documents], which will provide a new, source-based foundation for Horvth research. It is expected that the project will have positive effects through the open concept of the text that it propagates, not only in the staging of genetic materials in the theatre, but also within discursive fields dealing with writing processes from a cultural historical point of view.

Ödön von Horvth (19011938) is one of the twentieth centurys most renowned authors. His novels and prose texts are perennially popular with the reading public and his plays continue to have a powerful effect on todays 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 authors extensive literary estate, which is kept at the Literary Archives of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, the present project has improved the methodological foundations for a historical critical edition (known as the Vienna Edition) of previous projects and produced six more volumes. The complete edition will comprise 18 volumes to be published by Walter de Gruyter in Berlin. They will contain all of the authors finished and unfinished works as well as all of the available letters and ego documents. In the present project, the following have been added: Der jüngste Tag / Ein Dorf ohne Männer (2011), Eine Unbekannte aus der Seine / Hin und her (2012), Jugend ohne Gott (2013), Ein Kind unserer Zeit (2014), Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (2015) und Ein Sklavenball / Pompeji (2015). Two more volumes, Sladek / Italienische Nacht and Sportmärchen, Kurzprosa und Werkprojekte are in immediate preparation. The Vienna Edition puts especial emphasis on documenting and describing the complex genesis of Horvths 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 Horvths 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. Thus, the methodological consideration of the intricate relationship between textual criticism and textual interpretation is a recurring topic in the Vienna Editions editorial practice. In Horvths 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.