Karl Kraus and the Discourse of Modernity by Ari Linden

Abstract

Reviewed by: Karl Kraus and the Discourse of Modernity by Ari Linden William Mahan Karl Kraus and the Discourse of Modernity. By Ari Linden. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 202. Paper $39.95. ISBN 978-0810141629. Ari Linden's book meticulously inspects the Viennese writer Karl Kraus's relationship and response to public discourse, (re)positioning him as a key theorist of modernity. Linden combines close readings of texts in which he traces a development in Kraus's social and political stance over the course of his career as impacted by significant moments in Austrian history with an analysis of intertextual relationships between Kraus's writings and those of other intellectual figures. Linden connects Kraus's discourse with an investigation of the development of fascist and authoritarian movements. The acknowledgments note that the book's trajectory was fueled by discussions with a multitude of scholars. The product that emerges is a careful reflection of Linden's thought constellation surrounding Kraus, expressed in his own, inquisitive voice. The book engages with other recent scholarship on Kraus up to 2018. It is especially informed by Edward Timms's (2005) notion of Kraus as an "apocalyptic" satirist. Linden considers German idealism and postmodern philosophy as well as Frankfurt School criticism, offering interdisciplinary perspectives. He situates Kraus's oeuvre within an ongoing literary and philosophical reception to modernity. In part 1, Linden traces a trend of the modern subject desensitized to violence by looking at three successive, increasingly violent historical moments. In his three close [End Page 409] readings, he connects The Last Days of Mankind to World War I, Cloudcuckooland to interwar experimental social democracy, and The Third Walpurgis Night to the rise of fascism. In part 2, Linden argues that reading Kraus's discourse next to that of other socially engaged intellectuals signifies his position as a theorist of the self-destructive nature of European modernity and its fascist impulse. Linden justifies his choice to focus on Søren Kierkegaard, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno by comparing their similar theoretical approaches to the themes of media and public discourse. Linden previously published chapter 1 as an article entitled "Beyond Repetition: Karl Kraus's 'Absolute Satire'" in German Studies Review (2013). The book chapter provides further analysis of quotes previously cited and considers additional passages from Kraus and other sources. The chapter embarks from a connection between Kraus's discourse and Jan Mieskowski's book Watching War (2012), linking the themes of violence and apocalypse to satire, whereas the previously published article begins its discussion with Elias Canetti's 1974 lecture about Kraus. Linden's reading of The Last Days of Mankind presents Kraus's response to World War I as a satirical and cynical gaze toward humanity's collective, apocalyptic future. Linden explains how The Last Days—in essence, a curation of quotes in tension with one another—manifests the ruins of war linguistically while also revealing propaganda's mediating nature. In chapter 2, Linden connects Kraus's Cloudcuckooland to the detrimental effects of nostalgia on culture and politics. He notes a definitive tension between utopia and dystopia in Kraus's adaptation of Aristophanes's The Birds and finds that Kraus's characters both evince and contest his own political opinions. For Linden, Cloudcuckooland connects state-sanctioned violence with historical amnesia (54), while also showing its consequences. The following chapter revises a previously published article entitled "'Wo Ungesetz gesetzlich überwaltet': Karl Kraus's Reading of National Socialism" in Oxford German Studies (2017). Linden reorganizes the previous article to discuss Kraus's disenchantment with the Nazi party in more detail, where he previously gave precedence to Kraus's intertextuality with Goethe's Faust. In his reading of Kraus's Third Walpurgis Night, Linden repositions what was once seen as Kraus's controversial endorsement of Austro-Fascism as an attempt to make the aesthetic appeal of fascism linguistically legible and experientially understandable. He reveals how Kraus's satire uncovers the degradation of Nazi discourse. By reading Kraus in conjunction with Kierkegaard and Benjamin, Linden seeks in chapter 4 to expose a countercurrent against popular thought that precedes and supersedes Kraus's discourse. He indicates that Kierkegaardian motifs are present in...