{"product_id":"thomas-bernhard-s-comic-materialism","title":"Thomas Bernhard’s Comic Materialism","description":"Twenty-two years after his death, Thomas Bernhard’s work continues to fascinate, irritate, and please readers. This book analyzes Bernhard’s writings in the light of post-war Austrian history, challenging the prevailing formalist and psychological reception of his work. It does so by revealing the close connection between individual texts and contemporaneous economic and political events, such as the relationship of the 1969 story \u003ci\u003eWatten. Ein Nachlass\u003c\/i\u003e to the incipient decline of the social-partnership state, or the connection of the 1970 novel \u003ci\u003eDas Kalkwerk\u003c\/i\u003e to the shifting balance of power between bourgeoisie and proletariat. Furthermore, the book argues that much of Bernhard’s engagement in public life was an attack on the «pseudo-socialism» of the Austrian socialist party and especially of Bruno Kreisky. Bernhard’s critique is effected through what the author terms a «comic materialism» – an unrelenting focus on the material aspects of life – evident in his protagonists’ ludicrously obsessive fixation on the objects of everyday life and in his comic critique of Viennese society.","brand":"Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54248369291608,"sku":"9783034302869","price":43.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9783034302869.jpg?v=1777828521","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/thomas-bernhard-s-comic-materialism","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}