in his prose fiction, memoirs, poetry, and drama, thomas bernhard (1931-1989)-one of the twentieth century's most uniquely gifted writers-created a new and radical style, seemingly out of thin air. his books never "tell a story" in the received sense. instead, he rages on the page, he rants and spews vitriol about the moral failures of his homeland, austria, in the long amnesiac aftermath of the second world war.

yet this furious prose, seemingly shapeless but composed with unparalleled musicality, and taxing by conventional standards, has been powerfully echoed in many writers since bernhard's death in 1989. these explorers have found in bernhard's singular accomplishment new paths for the expression of life and truth.

thomas bernhard's afterlives examines the international mobilization of bernhard's style. writers in italian, german, spanish, hungarian, english, and french have succeeded in making bernhard's austrian vision an international vision. this book tells that story.

the spectators, also known as moral weeklies, were an important magazine genre which came into being in the early 18th century and which shaped european identity by developing the strategies of critical journalism and by popularizing the ideas and values of the age of enlightenment. investigating modes of storytelling in the spectators is an important starting point for a paradigmatic investigation of our historical, cultural and philosophical evolution since the enlightenment and the impact of these magazines on issues of identity in today's europe. in this collection on, we present a series of contributions which study english, french, spanish, italian, german, dutch, czech, polish and danish-norwegian periodicals.