South Atlantic Modern Language Association

Anti-Nazi Writers in Exile by Egbert KrispynReview by: Siegfried MewsSouth Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Nov., 1979), pp. 69-70Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3198987 .

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SAB 69 SAB 69

MacCurdy rightly sees that don Alvaro's hamartia in the second part is "his unrelenting urge to play God," in particular by creating hechuras who later will turn against him. This flaw, however, explicitly magnifies a larger and more dramatically justifiable one. In contemporary terminology, Alvaro's usurpation of royal perogatives abuses the sanctity of degree, priority, and place, advancing him to a position that is, as he notes to the King, "des- proporcionado." Alvaro, in other words, on both the human and divine levels forgets his creatureliness, which is the consumate sin of pride, and blindly acts as if he were the arbiter of his and others' destinies. It is foremost a sill against God the Creator; and this is what the favorite understands in his peroration when he states: "Asombre / vuestra gran piedad, mi dios, / que ofenderos pude a vos / sin hacer ofensa al hombre."

Clearly, The Tragic Fall will not be the final word on tragedias de privanza. The book nevertheless serves a valid purpose in effectively putting to rest the senseless argument that there is no seventeenth-century Spanish tragedy. It does exist, and in multiple forms of content and sophistication. MacCurdy's book admirably demonstrates this for the particular sub-genre he has studied. As he states in his conclusion: "Probably no Aristotelian critic, no formalist, would quarrcl with the concept of tragedy within which the fallen-favorite tragedies were written, a concept which, in the words of Chaucer, involves the story 'Of hym that stood in great prosperitee, / And is yfallen out of heigh degree / Into myserie, and endeth wrecchedly' " (p. 233).

David H. Darst, Florida State University

ANTI-NAZI WRITERS IN EXILE. By Egbert Krispyn. Athens: The Uni- versity of Georgia Press, 1978. xiv+ 200 pp. $12.00.

Increasing attention has been devoted in recent years to the mass exodus of intellectuals, among them many writers, from Hitler's totalitarian Third Reich. Regrettably, most results of research in the area of exile literature tend to be written in German even if a distinctly "American" perspective pre- vails. Thus, the volume Deutsche Exilliteratur seit 1933, edited by John M. Spalek and Joseph Strelka (1976), explores the fortunes of German exiled writers in California in contributions penned by scholars hailing from U.S. institutions-but this comprehensive work was published in German. It is clear then that the book under discussion, which provides an "overview" of exile literature from 1933 to 1947, helps fill a gap-even if, as the author modestly states, the work is "largely derivative" (p. xii) and hence does not seek to advance new hypotheses or bring to light new results of research.

The term "anti-Nazi," which is used as the common denominator for all those expelled by or fleeing from the Nazis tends, perhaps, to obscure the fact that opposition to Nazism sometimes originated only after exile had become inevitable, particularly for those who were persecuted for racial reasons. Further, anbi-Nazism is not necessarily synonymous with pronounced political activism, especially at the beginning of the exile period. To be sure, Krispyn endeavors to do justice to the complex and difficult process of adjustment to exile conditions which most writers had to undergo by, for example, accounting for Thomas Mann's initial hesitance in speaking out against the Nazi regime.

On the whole, the book is eminently readable. Appropriately, the author dis- cusses exile literature not in predominantly intrinsic terms; rather, the political events which led to the exile situation in the first place and thereafter vitally affected the lives of many writers are briefly explored. Hence the shifting of

MacCurdy rightly sees that don Alvaro's hamartia in the second part is "his unrelenting urge to play God," in particular by creating hechuras who later will turn against him. This flaw, however, explicitly magnifies a larger and more dramatically justifiable one. In contemporary terminology, Alvaro's usurpation of royal perogatives abuses the sanctity of degree, priority, and place, advancing him to a position that is, as he notes to the King, "des- proporcionado." Alvaro, in other words, on both the human and divine levels forgets his creatureliness, which is the consumate sin of pride, and blindly acts as if he were the arbiter of his and others' destinies. It is foremost a sill against God the Creator; and this is what the favorite understands in his peroration when he states: "Asombre / vuestra gran piedad, mi dios, / que ofenderos pude a vos / sin hacer ofensa al hombre."

Clearly, The Tragic Fall will not be the final word on tragedias de privanza. The book nevertheless serves a valid purpose in effectively putting to rest the senseless argument that there is no seventeenth-century Spanish tragedy. It does exist, and in multiple forms of content and sophistication. MacCurdy's book admirably demonstrates this for the particular sub-genre he has studied. As he states in his conclusion: "Probably no Aristotelian critic, no formalist, would quarrcl with the concept of tragedy within which the fallen-favorite tragedies were written, a concept which, in the words of Chaucer, involves the story 'Of hym that stood in great prosperitee, / And is yfallen out of heigh degree / Into myserie, and endeth wrecchedly' " (p. 233).

David H. Darst, Florida State University

ANTI-NAZI WRITERS IN EXILE. By Egbert Krispyn. Athens: The Uni- versity of Georgia Press, 1978. xiv+ 200 pp. $12.00.

Increasing attention has been devoted in recent years to the mass exodus of intellectuals, among them many writers, from Hitler's totalitarian Third Reich. Regrettably, most results of research in the area of exile literature tend to be written in German even if a distinctly "American" perspective pre- vails. Thus, the volume Deutsche Exilliteratur seit 1933, edited by John M. Spalek and Joseph Strelka (1976), explores the fortunes of German exiled writers in California in contributions penned by scholars hailing from U.S. institutions-but this comprehensive work was published in German. It is clear then that the book under discussion, which provides an "overview" of exile literature from 1933 to 1947, helps fill a gap-even if, as the author modestly states, the work is "largely derivative" (p. xii) and hence does not seek to advance new hypotheses or bring to light new results of research.

The term "anti-Nazi," which is used as the common denominator for all those expelled by or fleeing from the Nazis tends, perhaps, to obscure the fact that opposition to Nazism sometimes originated only after exile had become inevitable, particularly for those who were persecuted for racial reasons. Further, anbi-Nazism is not necessarily synonymous with pronounced political activism, especially at the beginning of the exile period. To be sure, Krispyn endeavors to do justice to the complex and difficult process of adjustment to exile conditions which most writers had to undergo by, for example, accounting for Thomas Mann's initial hesitance in speaking out against the Nazi regime.

On the whole, the book is eminently readable. Appropriately, the author dis- cusses exile literature not in predominantly intrinsic terms; rather, the political events which led to the exile situation in the first place and thereafter vitally affected the lives of many writers are briefly explored. Hence the shifting of

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.214 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 00:38:12 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

70 Book Review 70 Book Review

the geographic focus from Europe to the U.S. after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 is fully justified. After all, America provided a haven for the refugees driven out of many countries by Hitler's advancing armies. As to the literary activities of the exiles, the author does not only concentrate on the famous or successful (e.g., Thomas Mann, Feuchtwanger, Werfel) but also on the unsuccessful (e.g., D6blin, Heinrich Mann), and those occupying peripheral positions in the realm of belles lettres (e.g., the journalist William S. Schlainm). In this fashion individual personal histories elucidate the fate of an entire generation of writers. The specific context in which literary production took place under the exceedingly difficult conditions of exile is discussed in brief accounts of important journals available to emigrated writers such as the New York Aufbau or publishers such as Bermann Fischer. The "derivative" nature of the book does not, by any means, preclude a critical stance on the author's part; particularly in the cases of Gerhart Hauptmann (who, inci- dentally, died in 1946, i.e., before the "foundation of the German Democratic Republic" in 1949; p. 102) and Bertolt Brecht, whose "cunning" before the House Un-American Activities Committee Krispyn finds less than awe-inspiring (pp. 131-133), conventional opinion is challenged.

The chapters devoted to the exile in the U.S. would presumably have bene- fitted from taking into account the previously mentioned volume of Deutsche Exilliteratur seit 1933 to which the author apparently did not have access. One might conceive, for instance, of a modification of the rather wholesale condemnation of autobiographies as "unreliable sources of information" (p. 180) and a more extensive discussion of the famed controversy in which Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht became engulfed. This controversy was fueled by personal animosity but, more importantly, by diverging opinions concerning the postwar future of Germany. The serious disagreement is thus an indication of the wide spectrum of political views held by the exiled writers. In fact, if we consider Mann and Brecht as two of the most prominent "anti- Nazi writers in exile" (regardless of the degree of public recognition and commercial success they achieved in their host country, the U.S.), then one may not fully subscribe to the author's conclusion that the literary emigration "had ultimately failed to inspire and fertilize postwar writing with the faith- fully and conscientiously preserved traditions of pre-Nazi Germany" (p. 158). Max Frisch's dictum about Brecht, the ineffectual classic, notwithstanding, the influence of Brecht's dramas and poems after his return to Berlin cannot be ignored altogether. And, to continue this line of reasoning, the author's ex- ceedingly bleak view of exile literature "as a political and aesthetic fiasco" (p. 172) should be taken with a grain of salt-as the notable achievements of Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Nelly Sachs (mentioned on p. 171) indicate. Despite these and other reservations it should be reiterated that the present book will, indeed, serve a useful function as a lucidly written and factually accurate English-language overview of an important phase in German literary history.

Siegfried Mews, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE CHILD FIGURE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. By Robert Pattison. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1978. 190 pp.

Robert Pattison in The Child Figure in English Literature has investigated the theological-philosophical assumptions which writers about children reveal and finds in the conflict between the Augustinian and Pelagian view of manl a unifying force for his discussion of children in literature. "Augustine's

the geographic focus from Europe to the U.S. after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 is fully justified. After all, America provided a haven for the refugees driven out of many countries by Hitler's advancing armies. As to the literary activities of the exiles, the author does not only concentrate on the famous or successful (e.g., Thomas Mann, Feuchtwanger, Werfel) but also on the unsuccessful (e.g., D6blin, Heinrich Mann), and those occupying peripheral positions in the realm of belles lettres (e.g., the journalist William S. Schlainm). In this fashion individual personal histories elucidate the fate of an entire generation of writers. The specific context in which literary production took place under the exceedingly difficult conditions of exile is discussed in brief accounts of important journals available to emigrated writers such as the New York Aufbau or publishers such as Bermann Fischer. The "derivative" nature of the book does not, by any means, preclude a critical stance on the author's part; particularly in the cases of Gerhart Hauptmann (who, inci- dentally, died in 1946, i.e., before the "foundation of the German Democratic Republic" in 1949; p. 102) and Bertolt Brecht, whose "cunning" before the House Un-American Activities Committee Krispyn finds less than awe-inspiring (pp. 131-133), conventional opinion is challenged.

The chapters devoted to the exile in the U.S. would presumably have bene- fitted from taking into account the previously mentioned volume of Deutsche Exilliteratur seit 1933 to which the author apparently did not have access. One might conceive, for instance, of a modification of the rather wholesale condemnation of autobiographies as "unreliable sources of information" (p. 180) and a more extensive discussion of the famed controversy in which Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht became engulfed. This controversy was fueled by personal animosity but, more importantly, by diverging opinions concerning the postwar future of Germany. The serious disagreement is thus an indication of the wide spectrum of political views held by the exiled writers. In fact, if we consider Mann and Brecht as two of the most prominent "anti- Nazi writers in exile" (regardless of the degree of public recognition and commercial success they achieved in their host country, the U.S.), then one may not fully subscribe to the author's conclusion that the literary emigration "had ultimately failed to inspire and fertilize postwar writing with the faith- fully and conscientiously preserved traditions of pre-Nazi Germany" (p. 158). Max Frisch's dictum about Brecht, the ineffectual classic, notwithstanding, the influence of Brecht's dramas and poems after his return to Berlin cannot be ignored altogether. And, to continue this line of reasoning, the author's ex- ceedingly bleak view of exile literature "as a political and aesthetic fiasco" (p. 172) should be taken with a grain of salt-as the notable achievements of Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Nelly Sachs (mentioned on p. 171) indicate. Despite these and other reservations it should be reiterated that the present book will, indeed, serve a useful function as a lucidly written and factually accurate English-language overview of an important phase in German literary history.

Siegfried Mews, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE CHILD FIGURE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. By Robert Pattison. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1978. 190 pp.

Robert Pattison in The Child Figure in English Literature has investigated the theological-philosophical assumptions which writers about children reveal and finds in the conflict between the Augustinian and Pelagian view of manl a unifying force for his discussion of children in literature. "Augustine's

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.214 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 00:38:12 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions