Ödön von Horváth: Edition and Dissemination

The Austrian author Ödön von Horvth (1901 1938) is a modern classic. His plays are among the most often performed on the German-language stage, and his novel Jugend ohne Gott (Youth without God) is a standard work. The project Ödön von Horvth: Edition und Dissemination, which is being carried out at the Franz Nabl Institute at the University of Graz, will conclude work on the historical-critical edition of the authors complete works while giving new impetus to their continuing reception and dissemination, not only among literary researchers, but also in contemporary dramatic practice. Many performances at prominent houses throughout Germany and Austria have shown how important an authoritative textual basis can be to theatrical production. The historical-critical edition of Horvths works began publication in 2009 with the eminent Berlin publishing house de Gruyter and is one of the largest edition projects on modern literature currently underway. It places particular emphasis on materials that throw new light on the genesis of Horvths texts, increasing our understanding of how some of the most influential works of German literature were produced. In a total of nineteen volumes, the edition includes the authors finished works and fragments, as well as all of his notebooks, letters and personal documents. The next phase of the project will complete the edition with Autobiographisches, Theoretisches, Vermischtes (volume 17 autobiographical, theoretical and miscellaneous texts), Briefe, Lebensdokumente, Akten (volume 18 letters, personal documents, legal and administrative files) and Notizbücher (volume 19 - notebooks). These three final volumes provide new material, not only on the authors works but also as regards his biography. The project has already produced a digital edition of Horvths most famous play, Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods). This makes electronic versions of both final versions of the play freely accessible online and provides the public with specialized tools with which to approach the text in new ways. For example, network diagrams of the characters can be generated as well as overviews of how stage directions are distributed throughout the play, or else the famous instances of silence in Horvth or his use of music. The next phase of the project will extend the digital edition to cover all of the dramatic works. This phase will be carried out in close cooperation with one of the leading institutes for Digital Humanities, the Centre for Information Modelling at the University of Graz. In addition, the project will also produce a research handbook on Ödön von Horvth, in which literary studies experts as well as specialists in theatre and cultural studies will use the historical-critical edition and its digital equivalent as the basis for opening up a range of new perspectives on the authors work.

This project marks the completion of the historical-critical edition of Ödön von Horvth's (1901-1938) works. In a total of nineteen large-format volumes, this edition includes all of the author's completed and fragmentary works as well as all notebooks, letters and documents dealing with Horvth's life. In addition to the final print versions, the entire textual-genetic material of the estate is made available in transcriptions and facsimiles. This provides literary and theater scholars as well as general readers with a long-sought-after, complete and reliable textual base and source materials for one of the most important and most popular representatives of modern literature in the German-speaking world. In addition, the edition also illustrates the author's ultra-modern working processes: he used cut-and-paste techniques that manifest themselves directly in the material. Digital editions of all of Ödön von Horvth's plays in the public domain supplement and expand the print edition with the possibilities of digital humanities. In addition to an interactive reproduction of the drama texts, which have been labeled according to established data standards and made freely accessible, the digital edition (https://gams.uni-graz.at/horvath-edition) allows the representation of dramatic networks as well as numerous other statistical evaluations. Ödön von Horvth's historical-critical edition is also published as an eBook by the renowned academic publisher de Gruyter. It is widely used, not only in literary research, but also in the field of contemporary theater practice. Numerous productions utilize the newly available texts. These include a widely acclaimed performance of Kasimir and Karoline at the Residenztheater in Munich. In it, the well-known director Frank Castorf made central reference to our critical edition by placing the production process of the text, which we had made comprehensible, directly on stage, to the enthusiasm of critics and audiences alike. From the very beginning, numerous educational activities framed our work on the historical-critical edition: we have published Reclam editions of Horvth's most important works (Kasimir and Karoline, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Youth without God, Faith Love Hope, The Eternal Philistine, Judgment Day). These books are also very popular in schools. Students have been introduced to the historical-critical edition in courses in German and theater studies departments. As part of several workshops and symposia, we have also encouraged established researchers to use the fresh possibilities for interpreting Ödön von Horvth's work in their own scholarship. A Horvth Handbook (de Gruyter 2023), which was also edited by the two project members Nicole Streitler-Kastberger and Martin Vejvar, provides a compact overview of the current state of research. This volume also closes a gap that has long been lamented by Horvth researchers.