| Author's Name: | Franzen, Jonathan | | Title: | THE KRAUS PROJECT |
| Subject: | Fiction (Literary) | | Synopsis: | In this wildly inventive and timely new book, The Kraus Project, Franzen revives the prescient, wise and even laugh-out-loud witty voice of a major figure of fin-de-cicle Europe: Karl Kraus. Kraus was a playwright, poet, social commentator and satirical genius, wildly known and influential throughout Europe. Jonathan Franzen here translates three major essays, but it’s Franzen’s sharp, deep and colorful annotations on Kraus’ work which makes up two-thirds of the book.
From his perch in Vienna, Kraus lived through the First World War, saw the Austrian Empire collapse, and witnessed Nazis (“those troglodytes”) sweep across the threshold of his city. In the midst of these rumblings of the twentieth century, Kraus used his independent wealth to publish Die Fackel (The Torch), a hugely effective magazine striking for its editorial independence. The 922 issues of Kraus’ periodical appeared irregularly, but they published some of the best authors of the time (including Arnold Schönberg, Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Mann, Theodor Adorno, Georg Trakl, August Strindberg, Frank Wedekind, Walter Benjamin, W.H. Auden and Oscar Wilde) for years. After 1911, Kraus was its sole author. During its peak years, Die Fackel’s circulation was 30,000 copies per issue.
Perennially known as impossible to translate, Franzen assumes the task for three of Kraus’ major essays (“Heine and the Consequences” a takedown of the beloved German poet, “Nestroy and Posterity” which established that playwright’s reputation in Austria to this day, and “Afterword to Heine and the Consequences”). But it is Franzen’s plentiful, trenchant yet off-beat annotations that make up the bulk of the project. In these he takes on Kraus’ mantle-commenting on what Kraus would say (and what Franzen’s opinion is) about Macs and PCs; decrying Twitter’s claim of credit for the Arab Spring; and unfurling how media conglomerates influence on politics in their quest for profits. But beyond the relevance of the topics, Franzen, like Kraus, is as always precise in his language; spot on in his satirical targets, curmudgeonly, funny, and with a hearteningly distinct point of view.
The Kraus Project will stir up controversy and discussion, but should also inspire reflection about the role of form and content, the effect of technology in shaping our thoughts as well as interactions, the morality of art, and, of course, hold up Kraus’ aphoristic Germanic satire alongside Franzen’s own illuminating, inviting voice.
| | Rights sold: | USA |
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