Illustration and the Book as Cultural Object: Arthur Schnitzler’s Works in German and English Editions

Abstract

Norbert Bachleitner addresses illustration as an important feature of book design in twentieth-century treadmill publications adapting to the cultural demands and expectations of various audiences. Focussing on Germanophone and Anglophone editions of Arthur Schnitzler’s works, he compares how illustrators underlined or repressed the inherent eroticism of Anatol, Lieutenant Gustl, A Dream Novel, Fraulein Else, Reigen, and Casanova’s Homecoming. Viewed from this new perspective, illustrations, influenced by numerous contemporary artistic movements and styles, such as Romanticism, Realism, Art Nouveau, Cubism, Pop Art, and comics, show that images accommodate and afford a broad variety of textual readings. Details characteristic of the original may be lost in translation, but the illustrated works host meaningful cultural reinterpretation.