Author: Rider, Jacques Le
Brand: Polity Press
Edition: 1
Number Of Pages: 388
Release Date: 01-11-1993
Details: Product Description This remarkable and engaging book examines the intellectual and cultural life of turn-of-the-century Vienna, one of the most important centres of creativity in Europe. Review 'A masterpiece of erudition and imagination, Le Rider's magnum opus is now the work of choice for anyone interested in turn-of-the-century thought.' American Historical Review 'It is impossible to convey in a few words the richness of this book.' Modern Language Review 'Elegant, challenging and perceptive.' Times Literary Supplement From the Inside Flap This remarkable and engaging book examines the intellectual and cultural life of turn-of-the-century Vienna, one of the most important centres of creativity in Europe. Le Rider uses the notion of identity to bring together diverse aspects of the Viennese fin de siecle in a new and illuminating way. Focusing on the work of Weininger, Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Gross and Beer-Hofmann, he examines the various intellectual and artistic crises of identity at the heart of Viennese society. He argues that Viennese thinkers articulated at least three different crises of identity: they unseated the concept of personhood; they redistributed gender roles; and they reassessed supposed differences between Jews and non-Jews. Le Rider goes beyond literary history to survey the mentalities, imaginative experiences and structures of feeling which are peculiar to turn of the century Vienna, arguing that Austrians lacked the images of heroic virility on offer in Germany. Viennese intellectuals saw themselves as threatened by loss of identity in a chaotic world where masculine authority was being challenged, liberal political values overthrown, and aesthetic values subverted. In these and other respects, the culture of fin-de-siecle Vienna prefigured later developments which we have now come to describe under the term 'postmodernism'.
EAN: 9780745609706
Languages: English
Binding: Hardcover
Item Condition: UsedVeryGood