In 1935, Herta's parents moved with Thomas to Seekirchen, near Salzburg. In 1936, Herta married Emil Fabjan and the following year moved with him and Thomas to Traunstein, Bavaria, in Nazi Germany. Fabjan never adopted Thomas, and Bernhard always referred to him as his guardian rather than his stepfather. Herta's parents moved to the nearby village of Ettendorf in 1939. Bernhard was closest to his grandfather and later called him "an anarchist, if only in spirit." Freumbichler introduced Bernhard to literature and philosophy and was a major influence on his life.
Bernhard was miserable in the Nazi school system where he was required to join the Deutsches Jungvolk, a branch of the Hitler Youth, which he hated. At age eight, he was sent to a home for maladjusted children and at age 12 to a boarding school in Salzburg where he experienced allied bombing raids. After the war, the Fabjan and Freumbichler families moved to Salzburg where Bernhard continued his schooling. In 1947, Bernhard left school to start an apprenticeship with a grocer.
Bernhard took private singing lessons and aspired to become an opera singer. In early 1949, he developed pleurisy and was eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis. He stayed in various hospitals and sanatoriums until January 1951. Bernhard's grandfather died in 1949 and his mother died of cancer the following year.
From 1951 to 1955, Bernhard worked as a court reporter and cultural journalist for the Salzburg newspaper Demokratisches Volksblatt. He continued his private singing lessons and had poems and short stories published in the Volksblatt and other publications. In late 1955, he published a scathing critique of the Salzburger Landestheater and the ensuing controversy ended his journalistic career. From autumn 1955 to 1957, with the financial support of Stavianicek, he studied acting and singing at the Salzburg Mozarteum. There he met a music student Ingrid Bülau. They became lifelong friends and at one point considered marriage.
From 1956 to 1960, Bernhard was associated with the literary and cultural groups centred on the magazine Stimmen der Gegenwart (Voices of the Present) and the composer Gerhard Lampersberg and his wife, the singer Maja Lampersberg. At this time, Bernhard's first volumes of poetry were published: Auf der Erde und in der Hölle (On Earth and in Hell, 1957), In hora mortis (at the hour of death, 1958), and Unter dem Eisen des Mondes (Under the Steely Moon, 1958). His libretto for Gerhard Lampersberg's Die Rosen der Einöde (Roses of the Wasteland) was also published in 1958.
From 1960 to 1963 Bernhard travelled extensively in Austria, England and mainland Europe. In 1962, he wrote a novel Frost, which was revised and published in 1963.
Bernhard continued his prolific output in the 1980s. Eight new full-length plays were premiered and he wrote a series of novels comprising long monologues by ageing and ill protagonists who Honegger compares to Bernhard in their "race against death." His 1984 novel Woodcutters was controversial for its attack on Austrian culture and cultural figures. Gerhard Lampersberg sued him for defamation but later withdrew his suit. The novel was Bernhard's most commercially successful, selling 60,000 copies within six weeks of publication.
Bernhard frequently engaged in public controversies, writing letters, opinion pieces and satirical sketches for newspapers and magazines in which he attacked politicians, public figures and European culture. He was often criticised as a Nestbeschmutzer (one who fouls his own nest; that is, Austria) but preferred to call himself a troublemaker. His final play Heldenplatz (1988), commissioned by Vienna's Burgtheater for the celebrations of its centenary, sparked another controversy when the press revealed that it would include attacks on Austria for antisemitism and denial of its Nazi past. Numerous politicians and public figures called for a ban on the production, Bernhard received death threats, and the Burgtheater was guarded by 200 police officers on the opening night of the play in November 1988.
I emphasize expressly that I do not want to have anything to do with the Austrian state and that I reject in perpetuity not only all interference but any overtures in this regard by this Austrian state concerning my person or my work. After my death, not a word shall be published from my papers, wherever such may exist, including letters and scraps of paper.
— Thomas Bernhard, Last will and testament
Most of Bernhard's work has autobiographical elements, although fact and fiction are freely mixed. According to Honegger: "Bernhard's life and work are inextricably intertwined with Austria's convulsive history in the twentieth century."
Bernhard's work presents a pessimistic view of the human condition in which death is an inescapable presence. Critic Mark Anderson states, "death in his writing comes as a random, unjustifiable, but unavoidable cut in existence that cancels all previous hope and striving". Literary critic Stephen Dowden states that in Berhard's fiction there is no redemption for man in religion, politics, art or history.
The typical Bernhard protagonist is a middle-aged male who, according to Dowden, is "self-absorbed, histrionically pessimistic, and motivated by a deep loathing of culture and self," but who is nevertheless "strangely charismatic because of the powerful musical language with which he expresses his inner life." His protagonists must "learn to live without recourse to metaphysical lies or utopian deceptions."
Bernhard depicts a postwar Austria steeped in cultural pretensions, antisemitism, denial of its Nazi past and devotion to a morally bankrupt Catholicism. Dowden argues that Austria is often used as a metaphor for the human condition. Just as Austrian history is a story of decline into insignificance, so human beings struggle pointlessly against death; just as Austria engages in self-deception regarding its past and its place in the world, so human beings engage in self-deceptions about the redemptive power of religion, family and culture.
Recurring motifs in Bernhard's work include isolation, incest, madness, chronic illness and suicide. Many of Bernhard's characters suffer from mental and physical illness which Dowden sees as metaphors for Bernhard's moral pessimism and the decline of European society and culture. His protagonists are often engaged in failed intellectual and artistic projects in a futile and destructive attempt to achieve perfection and thus transcend death.
In the face of inevitable death, Bernhard's characters often demonstrate a will to survive. Honegger states, "The Überlebenskünstler is Bernhard's central archetype: the survival artist as a virtuoso performance artist." Dowden argues that Bernhard's works also attest to a will to rebel against conformity and to develop an independent self-identity: "His entire oeuvre amounts to one unswerving experiment in thinking against the grain, in forcing the imagination to explore the parts of life it resists the most."
Bernhard developed a distinctive prose style which is often described as musical, emphasising the rhythms of Austrian German, repetition of key phrases, and variations on recognisable themes. Anderson states that his prose works "all spring, or appear to spring, from the obsessive monologue going on inside Bernhard’s head, a continuous text uttered by a single droning voice that is endlessly reformulated, corrected, and filtered through a hundred different registers." Honegger distinguishes between Bernhard's early prose which was characterised by multiple perspectives and stylistic experimentation and the late works beginning with Yes (1978) which she calls "concerts for a solo mind."
Bernhard's works are known for their distinctive punctuation and vocabulary. Many comprise a stream of long sentences, unbroken by any paragraph or chapter markings. Honegger states: "His verbal inventions have entered the German vocabulary. His constructions of interminably interlocked clauses and sub-clauses stretch the German language to its limit."
The tone of Bernhard's work is often described as satirical, ironic, polemical and unsentimental. Dowden argues that the extreme and often contradictory views of his protagonists invite the reader to detect ironies and read them as satires. Readers are not expected to accept or reject the opinions of Bernhard's protagonists but to engage with their "verbal struggle against death".
Bernhard's pessimism is often undercut by comedy and black humour. According to Anderson: "The death narrative is always also the record of survival, a survival through a grotesquely jubilant, at times comic writing." Dowden states that "comedy arises when people attempt to create meaning or convince themselves that the world holds something for them....[It is] an austere comedy of catastrophe, despair and mockery."
Bernhard is widely considered one of the most important German-language writers of the second half of the 20th century. Critics generally consider his major prose works to be Correction (1975), Extinction (1986) and his five volumes of memoirs (1975-82) (collected in English translation as Gathering Evidence.)
Bernhard wrote 18 full-length plays, many of which premiered at leading German-language venues including the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna Burgtheater. His plays polarised audiences and critics and often caused media and political controversy for their pessimism and polemics against Austrian and European culture and institutions. According to Dowden: "His public was eager to see what powerful figure he would insult next, what enraged outcry he would elicit, who would try to sue him, and how he would respond."
Honegger states that Bernhard's prose style has influenced the German language: "his performative grammar and incendiary vocabulary have been appropriated by politicians of all persuasions, exploited by the media, and imitated by lesser writers." Bernhard has influenced younger Austrian writers including Elfriede Jelinek, Lilian Faschinger, Robert Menasse and Josef Haslinger. His works have been translated into over 20 languages, and Dagmar Lorenz states that he is one of the few Austrian authors that have won international acclaim.
In 1999, Bernhard's literary executor lifted the ban on the performance of his plays in Austria. Although Bernhard stipulated in his will that none of his unpublished writings should be published, this has sometimes been circumvented. Notably, a memoir My Prizes appeared in 2009 and his correspondence with his publisher Siegfried Unseld from 1961 to 1989 – about 500 letters – was published in December 2009. Bernhard's collected works were published in 22 volumes from 2003 to 2015.
Bernhard's half-brother and literary executor, Peter Fabjan, is honorary secretary of the International Thomas Bernhard Society. The Thomas Bernhard house in Ohlsdorf/Obernathal is open to the public.
Bernhard received numerous awards in recognition of his work. These include:
This partial bibliography lists works by Bernhard by the date of their first publication in separate volumes in commercial editions. Plays are listed by the date of first publication or performance. English translations are listed by date of publication. Unless otherwise stated, the sources are Honegger, Dowden, the International Thomas Bernhard Society, and the individual works listed.
Steiner, George (2009). "Black Danube". George Steiner at the New Yorker. New Directions. p. 123. ISBN 9780811217040. 9780811217040
Honegger (2001), pp. 23–24, 309 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. 8 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. 309 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 17–18 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Mittermayer (2015), p. 52 - Mittermayer, Manfred (2015). Thomas Bernhard: Eine Biografie (in German). Vienna and Salzburg: Residenz Verlag. ISBN 978-3701733644.
Dowden (1991), p. 49 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. xii, 9, 18 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Franklin, Ruth (18 December 2006). "The Art of Extinction". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 8 October 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/12/25/the-art-of-extinction
Honegger (2001), pp. 309–10 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 309–10 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 25, 58–59 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 42–44, 66–67, 108-09. - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 42–44, 66–67, 108-09. - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 55, 58, 60–61, 67-68. - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 68–69. (The title is the same in German and English.) - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), pp. 14–15 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. 69 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 58–60, 69–70 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 4, 105–06 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 107–08, 111–12, 311 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. 45 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), pp. 86–87 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. 39 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Franklin, Ruth (18 December 2006). "The Art of Extinction". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 8 October 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/12/25/the-art-of-extinction
Honegger (2001), p. xiii-xiv - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. 15-16, 29 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Hoare, Liam (23 March 2021). "Thomas Bernhard was a 'demon', half-brother reveals in bestseller". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/23/thomas-bernhard-was-a-demon-half-brother-reveals-in-bestseller
Dowden (1991), p. 45-46 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. 217-18, 245-46 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. 242 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), pp. 2–3 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), pp. 2003–09 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. xi - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. xi - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. 83 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), pp. 282–304 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Hoare, Liam (23 March 2021). "Thomas Bernhard was a 'demon', half-brother reveals in bestseller". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/23/thomas-bernhard-was-a-demon-half-brother-reveals-in-bestseller
Honegger (2001), p. 305 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 305–06 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. x, xiii, 75 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. 4 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. xii - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Mark M. Anderson "Fragments of a Deluge: The Theater of Thomas Bernhard’s Prose". in Konzett (2002), p. 121 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Dowden (1991), p. xii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), pp. xii, 16 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), pp. ix–xi - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. xii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. 2 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. 320 note 2 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), pp. 65–66 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), pp. 61–63 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), pp. 4, 53–54 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. 2 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Mark M. Anderson, "Fragments of a Deluge: The Theater of Thomas Bernhard's Prose. In Konzett (2002), p. 120 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Honegger (2001), pp. 189, 222, 227 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Mark M. Anderson, "Fragments of a Deluge: The Theater of Thomas Bernhard's Prose. In Konzett (2002), p. 120 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Honegger, Gitta. "Language Speaks. Anglo-Bernhard: Thomas Bernhard in Translation." In Konzett (2002), p. 173 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Dowden (1991), pp. vii, 8, 41 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), pp. 22, 248 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Mark M. Anderson, "Fragments of a Deluge: The Theater of Thomas Bernhard's Prose." In Konzett (2002), pp. 131–33 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Dowden (1991), pp. 17–18, 20 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Mark M. Anderson, "Fragments of a Deluge: The Theater of Thomas Bernhard's Prose." In Konzett (2002), p. 122 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Dowden (1991), pp. 4–5 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Konzett, Matthias. "Introduction. National Iconoclasm: Thomas Bernhard and the Austrian Avant-garde." In Konzett (2002), p. 1 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Dowden (1991), p. 1 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. xi - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. 39 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Franklin, Ruth (18 December 2006). "The Art of Extinction". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 8 October 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/12/25/the-art-of-extinction
Honegger (2001), p. 175 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. xiii-xiv - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), pp. 71–83 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), pp. 71–83 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Lorenz, Dagmar. "The Established Outsider: Thomas Bernhard." In Konzett (2002), pp. 29–32 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Dowden (1991), p. 73 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. xii - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Anderson, Mark M. "Fragments of a Deluge: The Theater of Thomas Bernhard's Prose." In Konzett (2002), p. 133 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Honegger (2001), p. xi - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Lorenz, Dagmar. "The Established Outsider: Thomas Bernhard." In Konzett (2002), p. 29 - Konzett, Matthies, ed. (2002). A Companion to the Works of Thomas Bernhard. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132163.
Honegger (2001), pp. 306–07 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. 15 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Bernhard, Thomas (2009). Meine Preise [My Prizes] (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Surhkamp Verlag. ISBN 9783518420553. 9783518420553
Der Briefwechsel Thomas Bernhard/Siegfried Unseld Archived 6 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Suhrkamp Verlag, 7 December 2009 http://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/der_briefwechsel_thomas_bernhard_siegfried_unseld-thomas_bernhard_41970.html
"Thomas Bernhard Werke". Suhrkamp Verlag. Retrieved 28 April 2024. https://www.suhrkamp.de/werkausgabe/thomas-bernhard-werke-w-13
"Internationale Thomas Bernhard Gesellschaft". Internationale Thomas Bernhard Gesellschaft. Retrieved 28 April 2024. https://thomasbernhard.at/internationale-thomas-bernhard-gesellschaft/
"The Bernhard House". Internationale Thomas Bernhard Gesellschaft. https://thomasbernhard.at/die-haeuser/das-bernhard-haus/
Honegger (2001), pp. 69, 311 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), pp. 69, 311 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. xvii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), pp. 105, 311 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. 106 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Honegger (2001), p. 111 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. xvii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. xvii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), p. 112 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), p. xvii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. xvii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. xviii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. xviii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Dowden (1991), p. xviii - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
Honegger (2001), pp. 310–13 - Honegger, Gitta (2001). Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300089996.
Dowden (1991), pp. 85–88 - Dowden, Stephen D. (1991). Understanding Thomas Bernhard. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872497593.
"Das Werk". Internationale Thomas Bernhard Gesellschaft (in German). Retrieved 24 April 2024. https://thomasbernhard.at/das-werk/
"The Cheap-Eaters by Thomas Bernhard". Spurl Editions. Retrieved 26 March 2021. https://spurleditions.com/cheap-eaters
"The Voice Imitator by Thomas Bernhard – five stories excerpted". Press.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 24 August 2011. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/044017.html
Goethe Dies. The German List. Seagull Books. Retrieved 6 March 2019 – via www.press.uchicago.edu. https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/G/bo23193573.html
Bernhard, Thomas; Honegger, Gitta (1980). "The Hunting Party". Performing Arts Journal. 5 (1): 101–131. doi:10.2307/3245132. ISSN 0735-8393. JSTOR 3245132. S2CID 193988878. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3245132
Bernhard, Thomas; Honegger, Gitta (1 March 2000). "Minetti". Theater. 30 (1): 57–87. doi:10.1215/01610775-30-1-57. ISSN 1527-196X. S2CID 246279103. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/34070
Bernhard, Thomas; Honegger, Gitta (1982). "The German Lunch Table: A Tragedy to be performed by the Vienna State Theatre when Touring Germany". Performing Arts Journal. 6 (1): 26–29. ISSN 1537-9477. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/655659/summary
Bernhard, Thomas; Honeger, Gitta (1 February 1983). "Appearances Are Deceiving". Theater. 15 (1): 31–51. doi:10.1215/01610775-15-1-31. ISSN 0161-0775. https://read.dukeupress.edu/theater/article-abstract/15/1/31/23056/Appearances-Are-Deceiving
Honegger, Claudia; Hradil, Stefan; Traxler, Franz, eds. (1999). Grenzenlose Gesellschaft?. doi:10.1007/978-3-322-93332-4. ISBN 978-3-322-93333-1. 978-3-322-93333-1
n+1; Frederick Seidel; Ceridwen Dovey; Thomas Bernhard; Roberto Bolano; Benjamin Kunkel; DJ/Rupture; David Harvey; A.S. Hamrah (25 November 2008). n+1, Number Seven: Correction. Internet Archive. n+1 Foundation. ISBN 9780976050360.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) 9780976050360
Bernhard, Thomas; Honegger, Gitta (1998). "Claus Peymann and Hermann Beil on Sulzwiese". Conjunctions (31): 232–250. ISSN 0278-2324. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24515880
Bernhard, Thomas; Reidel, James (2009). "Ave Virgil". Conjunctions (53): 35–57. ISSN 0278-2324. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24517785
Bernhard, Thomas (2001). "The Lunatics / The Inmates". Conjunctions. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100109233313fw_/http://www.conjunctions.com/webcon/bern1.htm
Histrionics: Three Plays, Thomas Bernhard (University of Chicago Press, 1990). University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 6 March 2019. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo3635629.html