カール・クラウスの諷刺劇『無敵の人びと』に見る言葉のパフォーマンス

――ポスト真実の時代におけるそのアクチュアリティ――

抄録

Karl Kraus' satirical drama The Invincible (1928) was his reaction to two crises with which the Austrian First Republic confronted in the 1920s. The first being corruption in the field of journalism by the revolver press (Die Stunde) by Imre Békessy, and the second being the political regression demonstrated by Johann Schober, the police chief. It was Schober who was responsible for the police massacre of demonstrating workers on July 15,1927, and this resulted in Kraus writing this drama.

In this drama, Békessy and Schober appear as pseudonyms, Barkassy and Wacker, respectively. Their lines, mostly in self-defense of their actions, are founded on quotations from their own utterances, which Kraus documented in his polemic with them in his magazine Die Fackel (here Der Pfeil with the publisher Arkus). Based on the fact that Békessy was expelled from Vienna as a result of the criticism from Kraus, this caricatural semi-fiction shows the process in which Wacker becomes an apprentice to Barkassy. In this way, the criminal fact became more obscured with the police and journalistic powers, and the two became conclusively “invincible”. In the drama, the black humor culminates in the operetta song that Wacker sings.

The quintessence of this drama, however, exists in the scene where Hinsichtl and Rücksichtl, Wacker's subordinates who are personifying the language as “the most reliable traitor”, cite the report concerning the objective fact of the massacre, thus exposing their unpunished and unrepentant boss. In the context of this drama, these quoted words appeal to the conscience of the recipient as an incomparable accusation, even though they were not actually written as an accusation in and of itself. This effect is due to a performance of the language, which avenges itself here for its abuse. Thus, one can get a clue to the conservatism of Kraus as a language admirer and a reading solo performer. From this perspective this drama provides an actual redemption for the theater-arts to potentially fight against post-truth situations.