A Farewell to Art: Poetic Reflection in Broch's Der Tod des Vergil

Summary

POET: CREATE, DON'T TALK!” reads a much cited appeal to writers to remain silent about the conditions and intent of their actions. This ban has never been binding. Authors of all times have voiced their poetic view of themselves, commented on the writing process or discussed poetic methods, frequently allowing such reflections to influence the literary work itself.

A poeta doctus such as Hermann Broch, having migrated from philosophy, represents naturally no exception to this. Not only did he write many essays on literary theory connecting the philosophy of history, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics, but he also provided numerous comprehensive explanations of his novels and dramas. Whether by means of articles or in letters, it was an obsession with self-commentary that Broch occasionally drove to the point of becoming a vice. His novel Der Tod des Vergil, which was published in 1945 while Broch was in American exile — next to Die Schlafwandler the second opus magnum of the Austrian author — is an extensive lyrical and philosophical meditation on the duties and limitations of writing. It is not an exaggeration to maintain that throughout the eight years of its composition this book gained the relevance of a summa for Broch: it became a balance of his own existence, his own thought and literary work.

More radically than in any other of Broch's works, the story in Der Tod des Vergil is reduced to a minimum. The dangerously ill Virgil lands in the harbor of Brundisium and looks back upon his life and work with a lucidity heightened by febrile delirium.