Elias Canetti

British thinker and man of letters. Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, to a family of Spanish Jews. Spent his childhood in various parts of Europe, graduated in chemistry at the University of Vienna, and began his career as a writer. In 1939 he fled to Britain, where he lived in London and Zurich, Switzerland, and published his works entirely in German. In 1981 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

At the age of 25, he wrote the full-length novel Vertigo (1935). This masterpiece, which depicts in a powerful style the powerlessness of intellectuals and the desire for power hidden among the petty bourgeoisie, with a protagonist who is buried in thousands of volumes of books and isolated from reality, ended up going largely unnoticed by the trends of the time. However, after World War II, it was widely read in the UK, the US, and France, and was re-imported to Germany, where it is considered a masterpiece of 20th century German literature. His life's work, Crowds and Power (1960), which was conceived in 1925 prior to Vertigo, makes use of a vast amount of literature on mythology, religion, history, anthropology, biography, psychiatry, and more. Moreover, with original insight that does not rely on any specialized scientific method, this large work elucidates the mechanism of interaction between crowds and power that takes place in the "field of force" of death in the context of the whole of human history. In 1971, he also began writing his autobiography. Part 1, The Tongue Saved (1977), Part 2, The Torch in the Ear (1980), and Part 3, The Play of the Eyes (1985) are clear prose works supported by his passion to revive through language the many deceased people involved in his formation. They are his representative works as examples of how an autobiography can assert its value as a work of art. Other works include Plays (1964), a Moroccan travelogue, The Voice of Marrakesh (1968), a theory on Kafka, Another Judgement (1969), a collection of fragments, The Province of Man (1973), and a collection of character sketches, Ear Witness (1974).

[Yoshikazu Iwata, February 17, 2015]

"The Crowd and Power, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Iwata Yukikazu (1971/New edition, 2010, Hosei University Press)" ▽ "Vertigo, translated by Ikeuchi Ki (1972/New edition, 2004, Hosei University Press)" ▽ "The Saved Tongue, translated by Iwata Yukikazu (1981, Hosei University Press)" ▽ "Ear Witness: A New Variety of People, translated by Iwata Yukikazu (1982, Hosei University Press)" ▽ "The Torch in the Ear, translated by Iwata Yukikazu (1985, Hosei University Press)" ▽ "Play of the Eyes, translated by Iwata Yukikazu (1999, Hosei University Press)" ▽ "Elias Canetti: Metamorphosis and Identity, by Yousef Ishaghpour, translated by Kawamata Akira (1996, Hosei University Press)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イギリスの思想家、文学者。ブルガリアのルセでスペイン系ユダヤ人の家に生まれる。少年時代をヨーロッパ各地で送り、ウィーン大学で化学を修め、文筆生活に入る。1939年イギリスに亡命、以来ロンドンとスイスのチューリヒに居を構え、一貫してドイツ語で著作を発表した。1981年ノーベル文学賞受賞。

　25歳で長編小説『眩暈(めまい)』（1935）を執筆。万巻の書に埋もれ、現実から孤立する中国学者を主人公に、知識人の無力と小市民層に潜む権力欲を雄勁(ゆうけい)な筆法で描いたこの大作は、時代の趨勢(すうせい)からほとんど注目されずに終わったが、第二次世界大戦後、英米仏で広く読まれてドイツに逆輸入され、20世紀ドイツ語文学の代表作と目される。『眩暈』に先だつ1925年に想を得たライフワーク『群衆と権力』（1960）は、神話、宗教、歴史、人類学、伝記、精神病学などに関する膨大な文献を駆使する。しかもいかなる専門科学の方法にも依拠せぬ独創的洞察によって、死という「力の場」で演じられる群衆と権力の相互作用のメカニズムを人類史の総体のなかで解明した大著。また1971年に自伝の執筆に着手。第1部『救われた舌』（1977）、第2部『耳の中の炬火(きょか)』（1980）、第3部『眼の戯れ』（1985）は、自己形成にかかわる多くの故人を言語によって再生しようとする情熱に支えられた明晰(めいせき)な散文である。自伝が芸術作品の価値を主張できる例証として彼の代表作となっている。ほかに『戯曲集』（1964）、モロッコ紀行『マラケシュの声』（1968）、カフカ論『もう一つの審判』（1969）、断想集『人間の地方』（1973）、性格スケッチ集『耳証人』（1974）など。

［岩田行一　2015年2月17日］

『岩田行一訳『群衆と権力』上下（1971／新装版・2010・法政大学出版局）』▽『池内紀訳『眩暈』（1972／新装版・2004・法政大学出版局）』▽『岩田行一訳『救われた舌』（1981・法政大学出版局）』▽『岩田行一訳『耳証人――新・人さまざま』（1982・法政大学出版局）』▽『岩田行一訳『耳の中の炬火』（1985・法政大学出版局）』▽『岩田行一訳『眼の戯れ』（1999・法政大学出版局）』▽『ユセフ・イシャグプール著、川俣晃自訳『エリアス・カネッティ――変身と同一』（1996・法政大学出版局）』

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