7 - Stefan Zweig's Non-fictional Prose in Exile: Mastery of the European Genre of “Kunstprosa”

Summary

The term “Kunstprosa” has not been widely recognized as an established literary term in English and American literary criticism. A brief definition is thus necessary. The term comes very close to Stephen Minot's classification of “literary non-fiction” as the “fourth genre,” constituted by the following three criteria: (a) it refers to real events, persons, and places; (b) it reflects a specific interest in language; and (c) it manifests a tendency to be more informal and personal than other non-fictional forms. Minot derives these criteria from teaching creative writing courses. For that reason he excludes the historical and systematic aspects, as well as specific aesthetic constituents and the intended effect, which characterize “Kunstprosa.” Stefan Zweig's exile aphorism, “Who [really] knows ‘the’ truth-but we [as authors] have to invent it” may serve as an appropriate example to illustrate the multi-dimensionality of “Kunstprosa.” This aphorism demonstrates not only the author's dilemma of how to do justice to the experience of exile, but also points to the creative process of exile literature which constitutes itself by conveying the contrast between the reality of exile and the pursuit of timeless meaningfulness. As such, the aphorism addresses a general aesthetic demand which it shares with the other sub-genres of “Kunstprosa,” for example, the diary, letter, travel journal, autobiography, biography, dialogue, and essay. All the sub-genres of non-fictional prose represent the literary “trenches” in the struggle to survive persecution and exile—physically and intellectually. Correspondingly, in a letter to Klaus Mann, Zweig outlines as early as May 1933 his poetology of exile literature by stating the necessity to not counter the aggression of the Nazis with their own methods, “aber in unserem stillen, entschlossenen Beharren, in der künstlerischen Kundgabe liegt vielleicht die stärkere Kraft. Kämpfen können die andern auch, das haben sie bezeugt, so muss man sie auf dem andern Gebiet schlagen, wo sie inferior sind und … in künstlerisch unwidersprechlicher Form die Bildnisse unserer geistigen Helden aufzeigen” (but in our quiet, determined insistence, the more effective strength lies perhaps in the artistic message.