Arthur Schnitzler and Scofield Thayer: A Literary Encounter between Viennese Modernism and America

Abstract

Already in his lifetime, Arthur Schnitzler enjoyed international popularity. Especially in the United States, Schnitzler was translated, often staged and even filmed, and, as a representative of the European avant-garde, he also influenced American modernism. The determinants of this transatlantic cultural transfer are elucidated in a case study examining Schnitzler's contact with Scofield Thayer, the influential publisher of a periodical that was central for American modernism, The Dial. A review of their hitherto unedited correspondence reveals the roles that Thayer and Schnitzler played in the intercultural exchange between two important centres of modernism, Vienna and New York, in the period between the two World Wars. The article thus highlights the importance of Schnitzler as an intercultural mediator as well as a transferred authorial persona.