TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT"
[Because of their interest in’ relation with the case of Dr. Neville Alexander and ten other nonwhite South Africans, most of whom are now suffering indescribable indignities and abuse in Rob= ben Island, South Africa's version of a Nazi concentration camp, we are publishing in full a book review which appeared in the December 31 issue of The Times: Literary Supplement (London) and a letter concerning the review that appeared in the issue of January 14,
[Gerhart Hauptmann, the subject of the review, is the German dramatist, most famous for his revolutionary play The Weavers which at one time was familiar to nearly all socialists, particularly in Europe. —
(c.L.R. James, the author of the letter, is a literary critic and educator, well known in Jamaica, Trinidad and England. He is the author of a number of books, including The Black Jacobins. ]
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DRAMATIC POET Hauptmann: Centenary Lectures. - ‘Edited by K.G.Knight and F. Norman. |
167 pp. University of London Institute of Germanic Studies.
50s. NEVILLE E. ALEXANDER: Studien zum Stilwandel im dramatischen Werk
Gerhart Hauptmanns. 150 pp. Stuttgart: J.B.Metzler. DM.19.80.
aos.
Despite his uncommonly consistent box office appeal in German theatres, Gerhart Hauptmann as a dramatic poet remains a problematic figure even in his native country. In England, though.he had Edwin Muir among his translators, he met, on the whole, with indifference which has if anything increased as time goes on, * notwithstanding sustained efforts by some of his English admirers to create an audi-~. ence for him. It is therefore no wonder that Professor Mainland, in the introductory lecture held at London University on the occasion of the centenary two years ago (which now, together with three other lectures, makes a somewhat belated appearance in print), should have felt forced to strike a somewhat apologetic note. This stands in rather odd contrast to the other Centenary Lectures, which seem to place him on a level with Ibsen and even Chekhov and contain, in an otherwise welcome discussion of Hauptmann's little regarded. (and not yet fully published ) epic poetry ‘purple passages of the greatest fervour; ~~
The trouble with Gerhart Hauptmann is that he upsets his readers by his apparent rapid changes of front and even style just when they feel they understand his aim and have him well classified as a naturalist dramatist, as a romantic or as a neo-classicist. Mr. Neville E. Alexander, whose study was written at Ttibingen before he returned to his native South Africa where he is said to be in trouble with the authorities, has produced much the most intelligent piece of criticism for some time with the avowed aim of solving, or at... least explaining, these apparent contradictions. He sees in fact the essence of Hauptmann's work for the theatre throughout his long creative period rightly in a series of sharp and almost irreconcilable antitheses which correspond, to some extent, to the odd mixture . of Silesian pietism in his personality with a positivist belief in progress. The creation of characters divided into two opposing camps between which there can be no contact makes for highly dramatic situations, but it carries within it from the outset a fundamental weak- . ness == namely, that no development or any final solution is possible within their determinist world and that the figures must justify their actions and reveal themselves in a succession of monologues rather than in true conversation.
It may well be that it was this sense of inherent lack of communication which stultified to a large extent what looks today like one of the. most. interesting aspects of Hauptmann's work: his effort to replace. the stilted language of the nineteenth-century stage by the use of speech rhythms derived from the living tongue. Hauptmann employed realistic speech, and even occasionally dialect with considerable craftsmanship and was, as Mr, Alexander points out, able to ring the. changes so that each one of his characters has his distinct idiom based. on everyday speech. What mars the result is not merely that (as the’ poet himself gradually realized) the use of his local Silesian dialect did not escape the risk of almost all dialect on the German stage, of sounding condescending and even ludicrous, A far graver handicap for Hauptmann as a dramatist was his ultimate distrust of the power of ordinary language to bridge the gap between
the characters of his plays, which led him into the habit of abandoning the prose idiom at certain crucial stages, so that his characters are made to burst into lyrical verse utterance, always uncharacteristic and often downright bombastic. It may well be this aspect of | his style which is particularly disconcerting to English readers and audiences even where they find most to admire in Hauptmann's early | naturalistic dramas.
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HAUPTMANN. AND DR. ALEXANDER
Sir, -- In your reviewer's incisive but not unsympathetic | comment on Neville E. Alexander's Studien zum Stilwandel im dramatis-~ chen Werk Gerhart Hauptmanns (TLS, December 31, 1964), he remarks — incidentally that Alexander nwhose study was written at Tuebingen
~ . « returned to his native South Africa, where he is said to be in trouble with the authorities."
The known facts are these. Dr. Alexander was sentenced to ten years! imprisonment after one of the Verwoerd government's "sabotage" trials in Capetown last spring. The sentence is now under appeal while he is serving his term, under the usual severe conditions, .
Dr. Alexander wrote this work while in Tuebingen on an Alexander Humboldt fellowship, of which he was the first non-white recipient in South Africa. His successor as recipient of this fel-. lowship was a son of Dr. Verwoerd.
It is of interest to record that the Alexander case aroused _ considerable protest and substantial aid in German academic circles, where his work is highly regarded. A committee of students and faculty members covering most of the universities in the Federal Republic raised the bulk of the funds to meet the costs of the original trial and are now engaged in a similar effort on behalf of the appeal,
Recently an “Alexander Defence Committee was formed in England, which is cooperating with the "Defence and Aid" organization in support of victims of apartheid. The committee's secretary is Mrs. C. Kirkby, 27 Thursley House, Holmewood Gardens, London, S.W.2.
C.L.R.JAMES
20 Staverton Road
London, N.W.e2
= Jam.
AHIDJO TO THE