A researcher in Modern Languages has launched an international project, entitled Elias Canetti and the British in a European Context: Exile, Reception, Appropriation, to explore the British exile experiences of the renowned 20th-century writer, Elias Canetti (Nobel Laureate 1981).
A collaboration between Professor Julian Preece of Swansea University and Professor Sven Hanuschek of Ludwigs-Maximilian Universität in Munich, Elias Canetti and the British is supported by Dr. Jack Arscott as a shared Postdoctoral Research Assistant. Funded by the Co-operation Scheme between the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Council), the project will run for three years with a grant of £290,000 awarded to Swansea University.
The trio of Anglo-German researchers will produce a range of outputs including three versions of a travelling exhibition (in English, German, and Welsh), an international conference entitled Elias Canetti: A British European, an anthology in English translation of Canetti’s writings on British life and a co-authored scholarly monograph.
Born in Bulgaria in 1905 to a Sephardi Jewish family, Elias Canetti spent part of his childhood in Manchester before returning to the UK in 1939 as a stateless refugee. During his years of exile living mainly in the London borough of Hampstead, he wrote his magnum opus, Crowds and Power (1960).
Canetti, who held a PhD in Chemistry from Vienna University, dedicated his life to writing, supported financially by his family and wealthy patrons. His diaries and notebooks detail his impressions of British life, including his observations of the British class system, London’s multiculturalism, and the legacies of the British Empire. His close friends included Iris Murdoch, Kathleen Raine, Gavin Maxwell and Veronica Wedgewood. He recorded his encounters with many other figures from cultural and public life, such as the poets T.S. Eliot and Stevie Smith and composer Ralph Vaughn Williams .
The research project comes at a time when debates about migration and political asylum are central to discussions about national identities in Europe. Canetti's British exile experiences remain relatively unknown, particularly in the UK, due to the unpublished or untranslated nature of key sources, many of which were under embargo until recently.
Notably, the project highlights two direct Swansea connections: Canetti met Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and attended his memorial event, which is detailed in his newly released diaries. Additionally, his novel Auto-da-Fé was championed by Welsh cultural theorist Raymond Williams, whose papers are housed in the Richard Burton Archives at Swansea University. Welsh-Jewish writers Bernice Reubens and Dannie Abse, who knew Canetti in London, also recorded their impressions of him.
Professor Julian Preece expressed his excitement about the collaboration:
"I am delighted to be working with Sven Hanuschek, one of Germany's most respected literary biographers, to find out more about Canetti's interactions with British writers and intellectuals during his exile in London from 1939 to the late 1970s. As Canetti’s biographer, Sven knows the Zurich Archive, which houses Canetti's papers, better than any other scholar. Canetti's voluminous diaries became publicly available on 14 August 2024, thirty years after his death, which makes this an ideal time for this project. The exhibition will tour Wales. We are already involving MA Translation students in the preparation of the anthology."
This project promises to shed new light on the life of one of the most significant figures in 20th-century European literature, with a particular focus on his time in Britain and the impact of his exile on his literary output.