The Crack-Up

The Crack -Up, published in German under the title The Knacks, is an autobiographical essay by the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who appeared from February to April in three installments in 1936 in the magazine Esquire. It represents the most important document of the Fitzgeralds life crisis, which eventually led to his alcohol-related death at the age of 44 years.

At the same time The Crack - Up is the title of a 1945 first published anthology, which Edmund Wilson put together after Fitzgerald's death in 1940. It includes other late essays such as Echoes of the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald alphabetical list of notebook, in which he collected Aperçus, short Chrakterstudien and other observations in order to use them later in his works, further assessments of Fitzgerald's life's work written by Glenway Wescott, John Dos Passos, John Peale Bishop and others.

Content

The essay first appeared in the spring of 1936 in three installments in the magazine Esquire:

  • The Crack - Up ( February 1936 )
  • Handle with Care (German: " Handle with care "; March 1936 )
  • Pasting It Together (German: "It cobble together ", April 1936 )

The eponymous essay begins with the words " Of course all life is a process of breaking down" (German: "Of course all life is a process of collapse [ ... ] " ), which already refer to the issue of the collection. Fitzgerald developed below his idea of ​​" emotional bankruptcy " (see also burnout ). Early as 1931 he had published a short story entitled " Emotional Bankruptcy ".

Effect

The essays were sharply criticized after their appearance, especially due to the private revelations. Ernest Hemingway threw Fitzgerald concrete "public whining " before. Later, the collection was a bit more positively and appreciated as insight into the low point in Fitzgerald's life.

The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze took over the term crack -up of Fitzgerald as a name for his interpretation of the death instinct.

Quotes

  • In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning. ( " In a real dark night of the soul it is always have three clock in the morning. " )
  • The true test of a first- rate intelligence is the ability to hold two Opposed ideas in the mind, and continue to function. ( "The true test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to keep two opposing ideas in mind and continue to work " )

Expenditure

  • F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Crack -Up. New Directions, New York, 1945.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Knacks. From the American Walter Schürenberg. Merve, Berlin 1984.

Secondary literature

  • Kirk Curnutt: Making a 'clean break': Confession Celebrity Journalism, Image Management and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Crack -Up. In: Genre 32:4, 1999, pp. 297-328. .
  • Scott Donaldson: The Crisis of Fitzgerald's 'Crack - up'. In: Twentieth - Century Literature 26, 1980, pp. 171-88. .
  • Edward Gillin: Telling Truth Slant in the Crack -Up essays. In: F. Scott Fitzgerald Review 1, 2002, pp. 158-76. .
  • Bruce L. Grenberg: Fitzgerald's Crack -Up Essays Revisited: Fictions of the Self, mirrors of a Nation. In: Jackson R. Bryer et al. (Ed.): F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Perspectives. Georgia University Press, Athens GA and London, 2000. Pp. 203-15. ISBN 0820321877
  • Patricia Hampl: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Essays from the Edge. In: The American Scholar ( online edition ), Spring, 2012.
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