Bernhard erlesen. Eine Annäherung an die Biografie zur Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion von Lebensentwürfen als Methode zur Persönlichkeitsbildung

What effect can narrated life stories have on the education of adults? Taking Thomas Bernhard’s autobiographical books as a starting point, the authors show how literature can be used in seminars for the development of personality to reflect on one's own story and to recognise other perspectives. The point of departure is that literary texts can be exploited via the reader's attribution of meaning. The stories of Thomas Bernhard offer ample material for discussion and opportunities for learning. The phenomena of individuation, socialisation, approach and rapprochement occur throughout them, and they provide an opportunity to discuss schooling, upbringing, education and habitus as well as illness, crisis, loss, death and opposition to authority. They also have the potential to trigger the most contrary images of experience and previously unconsidered backgrounds and fantasies in the readers. In this article, the authors describe transference phenomena in the form of a dialogue and provide the background to this personal approach with statements by Bernhard about himself and quotes from his books.