Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo von Hofmannsthal was an influential Austrian writer born into an aristocratic family with Jewish, German, and Italian heritage. His upbringing in the vibrant cultural milieu of turn-of-the-century Vienna, a hub for intellectual thought led by figures such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, significantly shaped his literary voice. Recognized as a wunderkind during his school years, Hofmannsthal began his literary career under the pen name Loris, quickly gaining respect among the Viennese coffeehouse elite. He studied law, following his father's profession, but ultimately devoted himself to writing, traveling extensively throughout Europe and North Africa.
Hofmannsthal experienced a profound personal crisis, articulated in his autobiographical "Chandos Letter," where he grappled with the challenges of balancing analytical thought with creative expression. This struggle compelled him to shift from lyric poetry to dramatic verse, leading to a successful collaboration with composer Richard Strauss. Their partnership produced several notable operas, including "The Cavalier of the Rose" and "The Woman Without a Shadow," showcasing his ability to merge poetic language with musical expression. Hofmannsthal's work continues to be recognized for its depth and reflection on the complexities of human experience.
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Subject Terms
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Austrian poet and playwright
- Born: February 1, 1874
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Austria)
- Died: July 15, 1929
- Place of death: Rodaun, Austria
Biography
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (HOHF-mahn-stahl) was subject to a multitude of influences. His aristocratic parentage included Jewish, German, and Italian elements. In addition, he was exposed to the stimulating, multifaceted Viennese culture, which was showing signs of an era on the wane. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Alfred Adler made Vienna a center of revolutionary discoveries about human motivations. Vienna coffeehouses were crowded with intellectuals from Munich, Berlin, Prague, and Rome. Hofmannsthal absorbed much from the continuous stream of new ideas, but his aristocratic and Roman Catholic heritage prevented him from becoming a mere innovator.
As a student he was regarded as a wunderkind. Because school regulations prohibited students from publishing, he started his literary career writing under the pen name of Loris. A Viennese publisher who printed some of these early works was speechless when he learned that Loris was a sixteen-year-old boy. When Arthur Schnitzler heard Hofmannsthal recite one of his verse plays, the older, established writer recognized his talent and confided to his friend Stefan Zweig: “Someone who starts like this at sixteen, must become a brother of Goethe and Shakespeare.”
Soon Hofmannsthal was a well-respected writer of the coffeehouse elite. There he met the poet Stefan George, who published the important “Blätter für die Kunst.” Hofmannsthal admired George’s priestly ideas about poetry, for George demanded from his followers a strict “art for art’s sake” concept, but Hofmannsthal was preoccupied with the problems of his environment and with his efforts to translate the heritage of the nineteenth century for the twentieth. He studied law to follow the profession of his father, and in 1892 he received his law degree. During the next year he completed his obligatory military service in the Austrian army. Upon his return he resumed study at the university in the field of philology. Married, he never accepted a position but devoted himself exclusively to writing and to travels in Italy, France, Greece, and North Africa.
His attempt to absorb all available knowledge without abandoning his conservative ideas led to the most pronounced crisis in his life: the publication of the autobiographical Chandos letter, in which he reveals that he is afraid his analytical mind will paralyze his creative abilities. He claims that a minute examination of all things makes it impossible to express with certitude an opinion on anything, and that certain words like “spirit, ” “soul, ” or “body” cause him physical discomfort. He also expresses the fear that he can no longer speak coherently. However, Hofmannsthal overcame his spiritual crisis, and after that he turned from lyric poetry to dramatic verse plays, large parts of which contain passages of lyrical quality. When Richard Strauss asked Hofmannsthal to write librettos, a fruitful collaboration began between a musician who was trying to find transitional musical expressions and a poet who was attempting to do the same in literature. A number of operas resulted, among them The Cavalier of the Rose and The Woman Without a Shadow.
Bibliography
Bangerter, Lowell A. Hugo von Hofmannsthal. New York: F. Ungar, 1977. A critical analysis of selected works by Hofmannsthal. Includes an index and a bibliography.
Beniston, Judith. Welttheater: Hofmannsthal, Richard von Kralik, and the Revival of Catholic Drama in Austria, 1890-1934. Leeds, England: W. S. Maney, 1998. This study of Catholic drama in Austria compares and contrasts the works of Hofmannsthal and Richard von Kralik. Bibliography and index.
Bennett, Benjamin. Hugo von Hofmannsthal: The Theaters of Consciousness. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. A critical analysis and interpretation of Hofmannsthal’s literary works. Bibliography and index.
Broch, Hermann and Michael P. Steinberg, trans. Hugo von Hofmannsthal and His Time: The European Imagination, 1860-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Del Caro, Adrian. Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Poets and the Language of Life. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993. Del Caro argues that Hofmannsthal was an early opponent of aestheticism and was an heir of Friedrich Nietzsche in his search for a legitimate source for values. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Hammelmann, Hanns A. Hugo von Hofmannsthal. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1957. A short introductory biography of Hofmannsthal. Includes bibliographic references.
Hofmannsthal, Hugo von. The Whole Difference: Selected Writings of Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Edited by J. D. McClatchy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, 2008. This selection contains his most significant works and includes essays, poems, short fiction, and plays. The range of works presented gives readers a sense of Hofmannsthal’s diversity. Includes a useful introduction.
Joyce, Douglas A. Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s “Der Schwierige”: A Fifty-Year Theater History. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1993. This study examines the stage history of Hofmannsthal’s The Difficult Man. Bibliography.
Kovach, Thomas A. Hofmannsthal and Symbolism: Art and Life in the Work of a Modern Poet. New York: P. Lang, 1985. A biographical and critical study of Hofmannsthal’s life and work. Includes bibliographic references and an index.
Michael, Nancy C. Elektra and Her Sisters: Three Female Characters in Schnitzler, Freud, and Hofmannsthal. New York: Peter Lang, 2001. This study examines the role of Elektra and other women characters in Hofmannsthal’s Electra and in the writings of Arthur Schnitzler and Sigmund Freud. Bibliography and index.
Vilain, Robert. The Poetry of Hugo von Hofmannsthal and French Symbolism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Vilain suggests that Hofmannsthal’s early interest in the works of the French Symbolists had an inhibiting effect on his own poetry. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Yates, W. E. Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, and the Austrian Theatre. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992. An examination of the Austrian theater in the early twentieth century, with emphasis on Hofmannsthal and Arthur Schnitzler.