"Das Problem liegt im Wie": Reading Thomas Bernhard Writing

Thomas Bernhard is known for the musical, rhythmic features of his prose, which have received extensive scholarly attention. This article explores how these features emerged out of the media-specific, idiosyncratic, physical dimensions of his compositional process. Bernhard's work cannot be understood, I argue, without considering the material scene of its production, which shapes and manifests itself in published versions of his texts in various ways. Including analysis of textual production in literary interpretation does not limit the hermeneutic openness of texts, but instead radically expands the possibilities of textual interpretation.