BAHR, HERMANN. - Austrian writer and critic, b. in Linz on 19 July 1863 and d. on 15 Jan. 1934. A subtle novelist and lively playwright, he linked his name to all the literary movements of his time, having himself proclaimed at one moment and in his homeland a severe critic: a fervent supporter of naturalism, he was later the first to turn his back on it (cf.
Die Überwindung des Naturalismus, 1891) in order to announce the new impressionist theories and Maeterlinckian symbolism at first, and expressionism thereafter (cf. Expressionismus, 1916). Having declared himself outside of any religious confession in 1895, at the time of his first marriage, he then arrived, through a long spiritual crisis, of which he tells us in the Tagebuch (1917-25) and in Selbstbildnis (1923), at the full assurance of the Catholic faith: of the conversion, which probably occurred in 1912, he gives explicit notice only in 1917. While his work as a critic has European value and is a continual overcoming of established positions, his literary work, typically Austrian, offers a fairly unified character. The manner of confronting the problems of Austrian civilization in his last works (Himmelfahrt, 1916; Die Rotte Noah, 1920; Der imvendige Garten, 1917) is influenced by his new Catholic attitude.
Bibliography
Alda Manghi