"I have challenged death with my books" - Modern classic Elias Canetti - laureate of the Nobel Prize for literature

Abstract

Elias Canetti, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, constitutes, in the opinion of critics, a very interesting phenomenon in the history of world literature. He delivered, without stopping, different genres: a novel, a sociological-philosophical work, a volume of sociological-literary essays, a collection of aphorisms, plays, a travel book, an autobiographical trilogy and several volumes of notes. As a sui generis writer, a cosmopolitan with a very broad culture, Canetti is described as a complex author in 20th century European literature. Convinced that an intellectual must do his duty to remove the mask of death everywhere, the writer, Canetti writes, must become “the dog of his own time”, and adds: “The writer must express his opposition out loud; he must use the scalpel to cut, analyze and extract the excretion.” One thought prevailed over all his other thoughts: the thought of death. He wanted to eradicate death from the face of the earth; he wanted no one to die anymore. He did not accept death, while everyone else accepted it. Regarding this, Canetti writes: “The boldest thing in life is to hate death. Death must be hated, you must hate everyone’s death as you hate your own death, you can agree with everything, but never with death.”