Global Bernhard

an interview

I was recently invited to respond to a set of questions about Thomas Bernhard and his influence on my work. This is for a forthcoming exhibition at the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library [Opening: April 29, 2026 | Duration: April 30, 2026 – February 21, 2027] and the accompanying volume in the Profile series [Zsolnay Publishing, Editors: Bernhard Fetz, Katharina Manojlovic, Juliane Werner]. It is part of the GlobalBernhard project, based at the University of Vienna.

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Interview Questions

1. Who is Thomas Bernhard to you, on a personal level?

Thomas Bernhard is a principle of refusal, or a mechanism for refusing, and certainly not a man I could have known, personally. Either way, as a principle, or a mechanism (by which I mean, as a function of his prose), Thomas Bernhard is to me a set of enticements to rebel against a stifling set of circumstances whilst remaining un-enlisted.

2. When, where and how did you first discover his writing? What impression did this encounter leave on you?

I cannot be sure, but it may have been through reading Walking (‘Gehen’). I probably didn’t know how to take (how to read) his arch-negativity when I first encountered it, although I would like to think that I immediately understood (as I probably did not) how negation, for Bernhard, might serve as a kind of release through progressive self-annulment from those kinds of opinionated idiocy which are all-too-commonplace.

3. How do you view Bernhard’s writing today? Have your responses to it changed over time?