Reviewed by:

• Die drei Mäntel des Anton K./The Three Overcoats of Anton K by Ernst Krenek
• Vincent Kling

Not even seasoned readers and listeners are necessarily familiar with a novella Ernst Krenek wrote in German and later translated into English with the help of Brecht scholar Eric Bentley and literary agent Barthold Fles. Among other helpful features, this edition of Die drei Mäntel des Anton K./The Three Overcoats of Anton K., presented by the Ernst Krenek Institut, shows pictures of hotel stationery from cities all over Europe (80); Krenek used the reverse sides to compose the novella during his forced wanderings, his way of articulating the ordeal of confronting bureaucratic hurdles as an Austrian citizen holding an invalid passport after the Anschluss and so unable to produce legitimating documents. Krenek published the English version in a small literary journal in 1955, and the German version first appeared in the volume of Krenek's Prosa. Dramen. Verse of 1965, so it is no wonder that this admittedly peripheral—though noteworthy—achievement remains relatively unheralded.

The inherent quality of The Three Overcoats merits closer attention as a literary work on its own. The critical apparatus is in both languages as well, a sign that wide distribution is anticipated; Krenek is known throughout the world, after all. Matthias Henke edited the volume with great conscientiousness and precision, and he has prepared an informative foreword, editorial remarks establishing the text, reproductions of pages from Krenek's invalidated passport, and a map tracing Krenek's peregrinations through Europe from March through August 1938.

The Three Overcoats is unmistakably modeled on Kafka, who is referred to directly in Krenek's text (63), but to stop there is to do this many-layered story a disservice. The endless loop of bureaucratic frustration, the condescending dismissals, fake-sincere officials using mere legalities, the facelessness, the raising and dashing of false hopes: readers are well acquainted with these aspects of Kafka's art. But the differences are notable, and they exhibit Krenek's deft requisition of other sources. The plot is more sequential than is typical for Kafka; The Three Overcoats depends on a definite succession of events. The range of tones is also markedly more varied than in Kafka. Biting parody combines with the title to suggest another great narrative of inhuman [End Page 150] bureaucracy, Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat. Also, Anton K.'s despairing diagnosis of humankind after visiting the woman (49–50 German; 119–20 English) reads like a close paraphrase of Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov. Moreover, it is as if Krenek were anticipating the piquant irony of a later author like Albert Drach, who brilliantly intensified legalese and bureaucratese to almost surrealistic improbability. Readers of Drach's Das große Protokoll gegen Zwetschkenbaum will find Krenek equally skilled at this fusion of the everyday and the outrageous.

Aside from these characteristics of style, there is challenging ambiguity in the ending, the place at which Anton K.'s chosen fate departs most strongly from that of Krenek himself. K. chooses to remain where he is and destroys documents that would give him freedom of movement. He seems content, and perhaps he is indeed acting with wisdom and insight. But has he simply given up and embraced passivity like the Grand Inquisitor's dull human breed? The ambiguity raises K.'s plight to an active problem for the reader, who is left to ponder what the ending might mean. Nirvana, death wish, Stockholm Syndrome?

Because Krenek did not translate The Three Overcoats entirely on his own, it is not possible to make a definite judgment about that aspect of his achievement. He was already well versed in English at the time, but not so much that he didn't require help; he did become even more adept later. He wrote extensively in English; not many are aware, for instance, that his monumental autobiography, Im Atem...

审核人：

• Die drei Mäntel des Anton K./安东 K的三件大衣，恩斯特·克雷内克(Ernst Krenek)
• 文森特·克林

即使是经验丰富的读者和听众也不一定熟悉 Ernst Krenek 用德语写的中篇小说，后来在布莱希特学者 Eric Bentley 和文学经纪人 Barthold Fles 的帮助下翻译成英文。除其他有用的功能外，本版Die drei Mäntel des Anton K./The Three Overcoats of Anton K.，由 Ernst Krenek Institut 提供，展示了来自欧洲各城市的酒店文具图片 (80)；克雷内克在被迫流浪期间使用反面创作中篇小说，他表达了作为奥地利公民在 Anschluss 之后持有无效护照而无法出示合法文件而面临官僚障碍的严酷考验的方式。1955 年，克雷内克在一个小型文学期刊上发表了英文版，德文版首次出现在克雷内克的Prosa卷中。德拉门。1965 年的诗句，所以难怪这个公认的边缘——尽管值得注意——成就仍然相对默默无闻。

《三件大衣》的内在品质本身就值得作为文学作品给予更密切的关注。关键装置也有两种语言，这表明预计会广泛分发；毕竟，克雷内克在全世界都广为人知。马蒂亚斯·亨克 (Matthias Henke) 以极其认真和精确的态度编辑了该卷，他准备了内容丰富的前言、确定文本的社论评论、克雷内克失效护照页面的复制品以及描绘克雷内克 1938 年 3 月至 8 月在欧洲旅行的地图。

《三件大衣》无疑是以卡夫卡为蓝本的，在克雷内克的文本 (63) 中直接提到了卡夫卡，但如果止步于此，那么这个多层次的故事就是一种伤害。官僚沮丧的无休止循环、居高临下的解雇、仅仅使用合法性的虚假真诚的官员、不露面、虚假希望的升起和破灭：读者非常熟悉卡夫卡艺术的这些方面。但差异是显着的，它们显示了 Krenek 对其他来源的灵巧要求。情节比 Kafka 的典型情节更连续；三件大衣取决于一系列事件。音调的范围也明显比卡夫卡多。咬人的模仿与标题相结合，暗示了另一种非人道的伟大叙事[End Page 150]官僚主义，尼古拉果戈理的大衣。此外，安东 K. 在拜访了这位女士（德语 49-50 分；英语 119-20 分）后对人类的绝望诊断，读起来就像是陀思妥耶夫斯基在卡拉马佐夫兄弟中的大审判官的贴切释义。此外，就好像 Krenek 正在期待像 Albert Drach 这样的后期作家的辛辣讽刺，他出色地将法律术语和官僚主义强化到几乎超现实主义的不可能。Drach 的Das große Protokoll gegen Zwetschkenbaum 的读者会发现 Krenek 对这种日常与离谱的融合同样熟练。

除了这些风格特征之外，结尾处还存在具有挑战性的模糊性，即 Anton K. 选择的命运与 Krenek 本人的命运背道而驰的地方。K. 选择留在原地并销毁可以让他自由行动的文件。他似乎很满足，也许他的行为确实很有智慧和洞察力。但他是不是像大审判官那样沉闷的人类品种一样放弃并接受被动？歧义使 K. 的困境成为读者的一个活跃问题，让读者思考结局可能意味着什么。涅槃、求死、斯德哥尔摩综合症？

由于克雷内克并没有完全自己翻译《三件大衣》，因此无法对他在这方面的成就做出明确的判断。当时他已经精通英语，但还没有到不需要帮助的程度。后来他确实变得更加熟练了。他用英语写了大量文章；没有多少人知道，例如，他不朽的自传，Im Atem...