SOURCE: Burt, Raymond L. “Autobiography as Reconciliation: The Literary Function of Elias Canetti's Die gerettete Zunge.” In Modern Austrian Prose Interpretations and Insights, edited by Paul F. Dvorak, pp. 129-49. Riverside, Calif.: Ariadne Press, 2001.

In the following essay, Burt identifies ways in which Die gerettete Zunge differs from later volumes of Canetti's autobiography—namely, the book's narrative and literary construct closely resembles the novel genre.

In 1977 Elias Canetti published Die gerettete Zunge: Geschichte einer Jugend. Usually this work is viewed as the first installment of his autobiographical trilogy, but there are compelling reasons to examine this work separately from the later volumes. Die gerettete Zunge reads like a well-constructed fictional work, not in that it resolves various plot entanglements, but in its narrative stance, its use of motifs, the poetic power of its descriptions and the development of a thematic plot. While obviously a chronological continuation of the...