Arthur Schnitzler: The Green Cockatoo. Hist.-Crit. Edition.

In his one-act play Der grüne Kakadu (The Green Cockatoo) from 1898, Arthur Schnitzler creates an existential confusion between appearance and existence on the eve of the French Revolution: in the title-giving tavern, aristocrats listen to the boasts of supposed criminals who are in fact needy actors. Then a performance turns out so realistic that a duke is actually murdered. The incident is immediately claimed for the revolution for in the meantime the Bastille has fallen. This bloody ending, the playful crossing of social boundaries, the theming of sexual freedom, and last but not least the name of the murdered duke posed a problem on the way to the premiere. Only after some changes and above all the renaming of the Duke, the censors approved the text and the premiere could take place on 1 March 1899 in the Burgtheater in Vienna. Der grüne Kakadu is now published by De Gruyter as the twelfth volume of the historical- critical edition of Arthur Schnitzlers early work, edited by Konstanze Fliedl. The FWF has supported this edition since 2010 now for the third time (P 22195, P 27138, P 30513). Like the volumes Blumen und Reigen, Der grüne Kakadu will be published both in print and digitally open access, the latter being a prerequisite for a digital edition of the volume and also ensuring the distribution of Schnitzler`s works in a reliable edition. While the main features of the censorship process have already been described, there has been no detailed presentation of the text genesis to date. The present edition offers an introduction to the complex writing process and edits the genetic material; handwritten manuscripts are presented in a diplomatic transcription and as facsimiles in their original size. The material includes a first manuscript as well as notes, sketches, scenarios, lists of figures and excerpts from Hippolyte Taines historiographic study The Origins of Contemporary France, from which Schnitzler borrowed the description of pre-revolutionary events reported by the characters of the one-act play. The typescript that had been submitted to the censor is also reproduced. The volume also reconstructs the printing history of Der grüne Kakadu and offers an edited text after the first print, listing variants of the editions published during Schnitzlers lifetime. In addition, a commentary provides explanations on cultural-historical, intertextual, topographical and biographical details as well as Austrian-specific, outdated and foreign-language terms. The commentary also gives information on the actors of the Burgtheater mentioned in the genetic material. The volume is supplemented by an appendix in which, for example, letters and reports by Schnitzler, the censorship authority and the Burgtheater directorate are published for the first time, enabling a deeper understanding of the censorship process and its underlying motivations.