Thomas Bernhard: Seeming Volatility, Innovation in Purity

Abstract

Why doesn't Rudolf manage to start his musicological work on Mendelssohn-Bertoldi? Who is Anna Hertel? What floating card game is the protagonist running throughout Concrete? And what is so revolutionary about the misanthropic-musical writing of Thomas Bernhard in this novel? The following article seeks to answer these questions while examining the act of art re the technical and content aspects, while examining Bernhard's unique use of the "System of Gaps", the "Showing" against "Telling", and the reliability of the protagonist. These and other means are used by the author to lay out the cards of human existence in front of the reader with courage and true honesty. Along with a comparison between prose and music and visual art, the article aims to discover the secret of the novella's musical, poetic, and ethical grand pause. Keywords. Thomas Bernhard, Concrete novella, Seeming Volatility-Innovation in Purity, System of Gaps, Showing-Telling, Grand Pause, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Ethics, Imperfection.