Lingua Tertii Imperii and Autobiography

Subtitle:Victor Klemperer‘s Third Reich Diaries as Epitext

This article focuses on the Third Reich diaries of the German-Jewish professor of French literature Victor Klemperer. As an epitext (cf. Genette 1992), the diaries show the different production stages of his language-critical study LTI and a commentary of his autobiography Curriculum Vitae. Gérard Genette (1992: 369) understands the diary in general as a „private epitext“, a hermeneutical comment that may offer insightful information and interpretations of the professional – literary or academic – activities of the author. Klemperer’s diaristic epitext is intimately connected to his other writing practices. This contribution shows how the context of the Holocaust directly changes Klemperer’s views on his own life in Curriculum Vitae as well as on his scientific discipline in LTI. The diary represents a preliminary stage of both works and comments on them.

Keywords:Victor Klemperer, Lingua Tertii Imperii, Autobiography, Epitext, Diary, testimony