Karl Kraus on Stage: Between Text and Theatricality. (16th February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martens, Gunther
• Other Names: de Beun Cyril guestEditor.; De Cauwer Stijn guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Orbis litterarum. Volume 71:Number 1(2016:Feb.)
• Page Start: 33
• Page End: 52
• Publication Date: 2016-02-16
• Subjects: rhetoric -- pathos -- Karl Kraus -- Thomas Mann -- Elias Canetti -- media studies; Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 809
• DOI: 10.1111/oli.12093
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0105-7510

Abstract

Abstract : Little attention has been paid to Karl Kraus's performance as a public speaker. While his poetics and his contemporaries tell us wildly divergent stories of how he shaped a larger‐than‐life public persona as a cantankerous and infallible moral authority, this article proposes to take a look at the media that were involved in Kraus's staging of his polemical satires. These media include not only recording techniques, but also a specific rhetorical habitus influenced by traditions of pronunciation. In a second step, we discuss the political and intercultural ramifications of Kraus's spoken‐word performance by comparing it with Thomas Mann's speeches. This double outlook allows us to see to what extent Kraus's strong scenic strategy anticipates anti‐illusionistic directing strategies.