Placeholder text

Go to cart

In the Shadow of Empire

By Malcolm Spencer

Product Image: In the Shadow of Empire

In the Shadow of Empire

By Malcolm Spencer

- Default Title
Description
Austria was not the only European country whose old order disintegrated in the early twentieth century, giving way to the crisis of modernity, nor the only country whose literature bears the marks of this crisis. But modernity's onset was experienced differently in Austria: in the words of Karl Kraus, it served as "laboratory for the fall of world civilization." This book examines the crisis as reflected in fiction written by Robert Musil, Joseph Roth, and Ingeborg Bachmann between 1920 and 1970. After examining the elusive concept of modernity, Malcolm Spencer looks at the responses of the three authors to the central themes of modernity: fragmentation, nationalism, the end of empire, and ambivalence. Chapters on Musil examine his understanding of the ancien régime in Austria and his analysis of the ideological stage of modernity. Spencer then considers Roth's more negative reaction, showing the post-imperial novel Radetzkymarsch to be a nostalgic response to the collapse of Habsburg Austria and the rise of fascism. The final chapter looks again at the end of empire, not in the work of writers who lived through it, but through that of one who experienced it as a historical and cultural legacy: Ingeborg Bachmann.
MALCOLM SPENCER is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. He teaches German and French at Walton High School, Stafford, UK.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
illustrated
Number of Pages:
266
Release Date:
2010-10-01
Publication Date:
2010-10-01
Publisher:
Camden House
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1571134743
ISBN13:
9781571134745
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
390 g
Height:
152 cm
Width:
229 cm
Thickness:
14 cm
Buy on Amazon
Currently sold out