Elias Canetti

(click to enlarge)
Canetti (credit: Horst Tappe/Camera Press/Globe Photos)

(born July 25, 1905, Ruse, Bulg. — died Aug. 14, 1994, Zürich, Switz.) Bulgarian-born British novelist and playwright. Canetti was from a Spanish-speaking Jewish family. His best-known work, the novel Auto-da-Fé (1935), deals with the dangers in believing that detached intellectualism can prevail over evil and chaos. He settled in Britain in 1938. Later works that reflect his interest in the psychopathology of power include Crowds and Power (1960); the plays The Wedding (1932), Comedy of Vanity (1950), and Life-Terms (1964); and his series of autobiographies beginning with The Tongue Set Free (1977). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.

For more information on Elias Canetti, visit Britannica.com.

Canetti, Elias (Rusčuk, Bulgaria, 1905-94, Zurich), descended from Spanish Jews, whose language (Ladino) he spoke, emigrated with his parents to Manchester, where his father died in the year of their arrival (1911). Having attended an English school, he moved with his mother to Lausanne, where she taught him German in preparation for his education in Vienna (from 1913), Zurich (from 1916), and Frankfurt (1921-4). In 1929 he completed his studies of chemistry at Vienna University with a doctorate. A decisive influence in Vienna, his ‘literary home’, was Karl Kraus. He turned to writing, spent periods in Berlin, where he met H. Broch, and Paris (with his mother, whose death in 1937 marked the end of a striking relationship). In 1938 he emigrated via Paris to London where he settled, in later years spending prolonged periods in Zurich.

Canetti's socio-psychological investigations into crowd behaviour and power structures, which are basic to his entire work, were the direct outcome of his experience of mass protests and state violence in Germany (Frankfurt) and Austria (Vienna) following the First World War. Convinced that the major causes of these conditions, which promoted the rise of National Socialism, derived from the deep-seated mentality of the bourgoisie, especially the intellectual élite, he set out to expose their manifestations. Using the same method by which he had traced these, he in effect created his own ‘school of hearing’ that characterizes his creative writing. Long virtually ignored, he rose to prominence in the early 1960s, subsequently reinforcing his theories by his excellent public readings from his works. Apart from his novel Die Blendung (1935-6, Auto da Fé, transl. by C. V. Wedgwood, 1946), which gained him international acclaim after its republication in 1963, he wrote the plays Die Hochzeit (1932, The Wedding), Komödie der Eitelkeit (1950, Comedy of Vanity, transl. by G. Honegger, 1982), and Die Befristeten (performed at the Oxford Playhouse in 1956 as The Numbered; transl. by G. Honegger as Life-Terms, 1982, written in 1952). Both in the novel and in the plays the function of a traditional plot is taken by an idea (Einfall), and character portrayal is replaced by portrayal through language, the ‘acoustic mask’ that typifies each figure; the ‘masks’ consist of distinct and familiar patterns of speech that reveal their state of mind and obsessions, while ‘blinding’ them towards those of others. Die Befristeten is a parable concerned with one of Canetti's fundamental reflections on death in relation to power, whose origin he traces to the ‘moment’ at which the death of another induces in the ‘survivor’ both fear of his own death and gratification at being the ‘victor’ (Macht und Überleben). He applies this theory to Hitler in Hitler nach Speer: ‘Wahn und Wirklichkeit’. In the play a grotesque situation, characteristic of Canetti's technique of provoking responses, illustrates the cunning psychological exploitation of death as a principle of power. The figures representing the people know at what age they will die, but not at what ‘moment’; they blindly trust an ‘authority’ that manipulates their humanity and deprives them of their social awareness. The play is best seen in the context of Canetti's utopian ideal of ‘Verwandlung’, which envisages a mental reorientation transforming ingrained habits and releasing the energies that promote the evolutionary potential inherent in every individual. This is also implied in his notion that death should be ‘resisted’; to him ‘resistance against death’ (Widerstand gegen den Tod) is a necessary rational alternative to an irrational life ‘for’ death, which in the play turns out to be an illusion once the deceit is revealed.

Canetti's ideas grew with the progression of his major work, Masse und Macht (2 vols., 1960), begun more than three decades before its publication. In principle opposed to inflexible systems of philosophy, he spread his enquiry into conditions relating to the phenomena of crowds over various disciplines of anthropological relevance, notably mythology, history, and psychology. Meanwhile he assembled diverse jottings, which appeared as Aufzeichnungen 1942-1942 (1965), Die Stimmen von Marakesch. Aufzeichnungen einer Reise (1968), Die Provinz des Menschen. Aufzeichnungen 1942-1942 (1973), Das Geheimherz der Uhr. Aufzeichnungen 1973-1973 (1987), and the late selection Die Fliegenpein (1992). A further volume arranged by himself appeared as Aufzeichnungen 1992-1992 in 1996. The essays and speeches, exemplifying the precision of Canetti's prose, include the collections Die gespaltene Zukunft. Aufsätze und Gespräche (1972) and Das Gewissen der Worte. Essays (1975), containing Karl Kraus. Schule des Widerstands, Der Neue Karl Kraus (largely concerned with the letters to Sidony Nádherný von Borutin), and the significant speech in honour of Broch (1936); Der andere Prozeß. Briefe an Felice (1969, transl. by C. Middleton as Kafka's Other Trial, 1974), which offers a dual perspective of power as represented by society (Felice) and by the man and artist in isolation; Macht und Überleben (1975); Der Überlebende (1975); and Der Beruf des Dichters (1976). Der Ohrenzeuge. Fünfzig Charaktere (1974, recorded selection, 1976) consists of figures quizzically depicting diverse human characteristics. In the titles of his autobiographical volumes, which end with the death of his mother, Canetti acknowledges his indebtedness to the instruments on which he relied with exceptional intensity for his insights into existence within and without: Die gerettete Zunge. Geschichte einer Jugend (1977, The Tongue Set Free); Die Fackel im Ohr. Lebensgeschichte 1921-1921 (1980, The Torch in My Ear), alluding to Kraus, and Das Augenspiel. Lebensgeschichte 1931-1931 (1985, The Play of the Eyes). Nachzeichnungen aus Hampstead 1954-1954 appeared posthumously in 1994.

The recipient of many European honours, Canetti was awarded the Büchner Prize in 1972, and in 1981 the Kafka Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Quotes:

"Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?"

"Whether or not God is dead: it is impossible to keep silent about him who was there for so long."

"As if one could know the good a person is capable of, when one doesn't know the bad he might do."

"There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight."

"It doesn't matter how new an idea is: what matters is how new it becomes."

"There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth."

See more famous quotes by Elias Canetti

Elias Canetti
Born	25 July 1905(1905-07-25) Ruse, Principality of Bulgaria
Died	14 August 1994 (aged 89) Zürich, Switzerland
Occupation	Novelist
Language	German
Nationality	British
Notable award(s)	Nobel Prize in Literature 1981

Elias Canetti (Bulgarian: Елиас Канети; 25 July 1905–14 August 1994) was a Bulgarian-born novelist and non-fiction writer of Sephardi Jewish ancestry who wrote in German. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981.

Contents 1 Life 2 Works 3 Honour 4 See also 5 Bibliography 6 External links

Life

Born to Jacques Canetti and Mathilde née Arditti in Ruse, a city on the Danube in Bulgaria, Elias Canetti was the eldest of three sons in a Jewish merchant family.^[1] His ancestors were Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492. His paternal ancestors had settled in Ruse from Ottoman Adrianople.^[1] The original family name was Cañete, named after a village in Spain. In Ruse, Elias' father and grandfather were successful merchants who operated out of a commercial building, which they had built in 1898.^[2] Canetti's mother descended from one of the oldest Sephardi families in Bulgaria, Arditti, who were among the founders of the Ruse Jewish colony in the late 18th century. The Ardittis can be traced back to the 14th century, when they were court physicians and astronomers to the Aragonese royal court of Alfonso IV and Pedro IV. Before settling in Ruse, they had lived in Livorno in the 17th century.^[3]

Elias spent his childhood years, from 1905 to 1911, in Ruse until the family moved to England. In 1912 his father died suddenly, and his mother moved with their children to Vienna in the same year.

They lived in Vienna from the time Canetti was aged seven onwards. His mother insisted that he speak German, and taught it to him. By this time Canetti already spoke Ladino (his mother tongue), Bulgarian, English and some French (he studied the latter two in the one year in England). Subsequently the family moved first (from 1916 to 1921) to Zürich and then (until 1924) to Frankfurt, where Canetti graduated from high school.

Canetti's tomb-stone in Zürich, Switzerland

Canetti went back to Vienna in 1924 in order to study chemistry. However, his primary interests during his years in Vienna became philosophy and literature. Introduced into the literary circles of first-republic-Vienna, he started writing. Politically leaning towards the left, he participated in the July Revolt of 1927. He gained a degree in chemistry from the University of Vienna in 1929, but never worked as a chemist. In 1938, after the Anschluss of Austria to greater Germany, Canetti moved to London where he became closely involved with the painter Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, who was to remain a close companion for many years to come. His name has also been linked with that of the author Iris Murdoch (see John Bayley's Iris, A Memoir of Iris Murdoch, where there are several references to an author, referred to as "the Dichter", who was a Nobel Laureate and whose works included Die Blendung (English title Auto-da-Fé).

Despite being a German writer, Canetti settled and stayed in England until the 1970s, receiving British citizenship in 1952. For his last 20 years, Canetti mostly lived in Zürich.

In 1981, Canetti won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power". He is known chiefly for his novel Auto-da-Fé (Die Blendung), and for Crowds and Power, a study of crowd behavior as it manifests itself in human activities ranging from mob violence to religious congregations.

He died in Zürich.

One of the best studies on Canetti's life and work was done by the French psychoanalyst Dr. Roger Gentis [1], "La folie Canetti", published by Maurice Nadeau (Paris, 1993).

Works

• Komödie der Eitelkeit 1934 (The Comedy of Vanity)
• Die Blendung 1935 (Auto-da-Fé, novel, tr.1946)
• Die Befristeten 1956 (1956 premiere of the play in Oxford) (Their Days are Numbered)
• Masse und Macht 1960 (Crowds and Power, study, tr. 1962, published in Hamburg)
• Aufzeichnungen 1942-48 1965 (Sketches)
• Die Stimmen von Marrakesch 1968 published by Hanser in Munich (The Voices of Marrakesh, travelogue, tr. 1978)
• Der andere Prozess 1969 Kafkas Briefe an Felice (Kafka's Other Trial, tr. 1974).
• Hitler nach Speer (Essay)
• Die Provinz des Menschen Aufzeichnungen 1942-1972 (The Human Province, tr. 1978)
• Der Ohrenzeuge. Fünfzig Charaktere 1974 ("Ear Witness: Fifty Characters", tr. 1979).
• Das Gewissen der Worte 1975. Essays (The Conscience of Words)
• Die Gerettete Zunge 1977 (The Tongue Set Free, memoir, tr. 1979)
• Die Fackel im Ohr 1980 Lebensgeschichte 1921-1931 (The Torch in My Ear, memoir, tr. 1982)
• Das Augenspiel 1985 Lebensgeschichte 1931-1937 (The Play of the Eyes, memoir, tr. 1990)
• Das Geheimherz der Uhr: Aufzeichnungen 1987 (The Secret Heart of the Clock, tr. 1989)
• Die Fliegenpein (The Agony of Flies, 1992)
• Nachträge aus Hampstead (Notes from Hampstead, 1994)
• The Voices of Marrakesh (published posthumously, Arion Press 2001, with photographs by Karl Bissinger and etchings by William T. Wiley )
• Party im Blitz; Die englischen Jahre 2003 (Party in the Blitz, memoir, published posthumously, tr. 2005)
• Aufzeichnungen für Marie-Louise (written 1942, compiled and published posthumously, 2005)

Honour

• Canetti Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named for Elias Canetti.

See also

• Crowd psychology

Bibliography

1. ^ ^{a b} Lorenz, Dagmar C. G. (17 April 2004). "Elias Canetti". Literary Encyclopedia (The Literary Dictionary Company Limited). ISSN 1747-678X. http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=725. Retrieved 2009-10-13. 
2. ^ "The Canetti House – a forum for alternative culture". Internationale Elias Canetti Gesellschaft. http://www.eliascanetti.org/73.0.html?&L=3. Retrieved 2009-10-13. 
3. ^ Angelova, Penka (2006). "Die Geburtsstadt von Elias Canetti" (in German). Elias Canetti: Der Ohrenzeuge des Jahrhunderts. Internationale Elias-Canetti-Gesellschaft Rousse. http://www.archives.government.bg/tda/docs/canetti_izlojba_ruse.pdf. 

• Lesley Brill, "Terrorism, Crowds and Power, and the Dogs of War," Anthropological Quarterly 76(1), Winter 2003: 87-94.
• William Collins Donahue, The End of Modernism: Elias Canetti’s Auto-da-Fé (University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
• William Collins Donahue and Julian Preece (eds), The Worlds of Elias Canetti: Centenary Essays (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007).

External links

• Nobel Prize mini-site
• Preface to Donahue, The End of Modernism

v • d • e Nobel Laureates in Literature Saul Bellow (1976) · Vicente Aleixandre (1977) · Isaac Bashevis Singer (1978) · Odysseas Elytis (1979) · Czesław Miłosz (1980) · Elias Canetti (1981) · Gabriel García Márquez (1982) · William Golding (1983) · Jaroslav Seifert (1984) · Claude Simon (1985) · Wole Soyinka (1986) · Joseph Brodsky (1987) · Naguib Mahfouz (1988) · Camilo José Cela (1989) · Octavio Paz (1990) · Nadine Gordimer (1991) · Derek Walcott (1992) · Toni Morrison (1993) · Kenzaburo Oe (1994) · Seamus Heaney (1995) · Wisława Szymborska (1996) · Dario Fo (1997) · José Saramago (1998) · Günter Grass (1999) · Gao Xingjian (2000) Complete roster · 1901–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

Persondata
NAME	Canetti, Elias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Bulgarian-born novelist
DATE OF BIRTH	25 July 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rousse, Bulgaria
DATE OF DEATH	14 August 1994
PLACE OF DEATH	Zurich, Switzerland

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)