The focus of this study is French literature from Rabelais to Camus as a model and inspiration for the writing of Thomas Bernhard. Based on the intertextuality models of Gérard Genette and Annick Bouillaguet, the author examines the prompts for related readings and, for the first time, offers an organic overview of thematic connections.

By comparing French works with Bernhard's work, motives and methods of literary reference are identified and interpreted. Pascal, Montaigne, and Voltaire are revealed as the most significant central figures in Bernhard's character universe. Previously neglected connections, such as those with Descartes and Rousseau, Valéry, Artaud, and Ionesco, are also examined in depth and decoded within their context.

Overall, this provides a new perspective on Bernhard's role as a mediator of French literature in Austria.