About
Elias Canetti was born in Ruse (then Rustschuk), Bulgaria, to a Sephardic Jewish family. After his father's death, he moved with his family to Vienna, where he studied chemistry and earned a doctorate in 1929. In 1927, he witnessed the burning of the Vienna Palace of Justice, an event that fueled his lifelong reflection on crowd psychology. His only novel, 'Die Blendung' (Auto-da-Fé), was published in 1935. Fleeing Nazism, he settled in London in 1938 and became a British citizen in 1952. His major work, 'Crowds and Power' (1960), explores the mechanisms of power and mass movements. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981. He died in Zurich in 1994.
* 1905-07-25 — † 1994-08-14
Major works
- Die Blendung (1935)novel
- Masse und Macht (1960)non-fiction
- Die Stimmen von Marrakesch (1968)travel writing
- Die gerettete Zunge (1977)autobiography
- Der Ohrenzeuge (1974)character sketches
Key milestones
- 1929Earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Vienna.
- 1938Fled Nazi-occupied Austria and settled in London.
- 1981Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Themes
crowd psychologypower and authorityidentity and exilememory and childhoodmadness and reason
Sources: nobelprize.org · nobelprize.org · britannica.com
