Leopold von Andrian (1875–1951). Korrespondenzen, Notizen, Essays, Berichte. (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Österreichs 97) by Ursula Prutsch, Klaus Zeyringer

Abstract

262 Reviews homopostmodernicus,which necessarily reduces the historic specificity of the time and place depicted in the cycle. Anatol's character traits, such as inconstancy, resdessness and moral ambiguity, become, for Neun, further evidence of the affinities between the twomost recent turns of the century. Neun sees inAnatol, then, an ancestor of what he describes as the contemporary global citizen: 'dass die zu Schnitzlers Zeit exklusive soziale Position Anatols heute zu einer universellen geworden istund deshalb als exemplarisch f?r die postmoderne Situation aufgefasst werden kann' (p. 27). Neun concludes that other important motifs of the Anatol cycle, including ambivalence, decentralization of identity, the rejection of historicity and the cross-fertilization of genres, anticipate to a great degree such similar underpinnings of poststructuralist thought. One of the curiosities of Neun's text is that, given his almost exhaustive analysis of each scene, he mentions only in a passing footnote the recent production of Anatol at the Burgtheater under the direction of Luc Bondy, which premi?red in late Spring 2002 (and thus would have been available to the author). This is curious because Bondy's production ? with itsde-emphasis of the local Viennese colour and casting of the veryGermanic and cool Michael Maertens in the title role? would seem to buttress Neun's thesis about the universality and postmodernity of the character at every turn.Much of the initial critical discussion of Bondy's production praised its successful uncoupling of the text from the 'Schnitzlerismus', to borrow Franz Schuh 's term, that had often undermined the critical potential of earlier productions, so it seems curious for Neun tomiss this opportunity to illustrate his argument in an otherwise comprehensively documented study. I would also take issue with the volume's production values: the typographical and formatting errors are numerous, and the outline form (9, 9.1, 9.11, etc.) unnecessarily interrupts the flow of the narrative, as do the 1471 footnotes. Such distractions are a recipe for readerly frustration with what isotherwise a valuable contribution to the field. Utah State University Felix W. Tweraser Leopold von Andnan (1875-1951). Korrespondenzen, Notizen, Essays, Berichte. Ed. byUrsula Prutsch and Klaus Zeyringer. (Ver?ffentlichungen der Kom mission f?rNeuere Geschichte ?sterreichs 97). Vienna: B?hlau. 2003. 910 pp. 99,00. isbn 3-205-77110-9. Based on extensive and meticulous archival research, primarily in theDeutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach a. ., where Leopold von Andrian's Nachlass, consisting of more than 7000 documents, is housed, this impressive volume offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of Andrian's career as a writer and diplomat, and lays the foundations for further historical research and for the yet to be written biography of one of the key players in the Young Vienna movement, a prominent figure in the foreign service during the last eighteen years of the Habsburg Empire, and a proponent of the legitimist cause after the FirstWorld War. Although some of the documents included in this volume from Andrian's diaries, notebooks and correspondence have been previously AUSTRIAN STUDIES, I3, 2OO5 263 published by Ursula Renner (Leopold Andrians 'Garten der Erkenntnis', 1981), Ferruccio Delle Cave (Correspondenzen. Briefe an Leopold von Andrian, 1989), Walter H. Perl (Hugo von Hofmannsthal Leopold von Andrian, Briefwechsel, 1968) and in some ofmy own articles on Andrian (including Austrian Studies, 7: Gender and Politics inAustrian Fiction [1996], 61-78), Prutsch and Zeyringer are the first to attempt to document Andrian's entire life from his beginnings as a writer in 1888 until his death in 1955. In the process they uncovered a wealth of texts thatwere hitherto unknown, above all the letters, telegrams and reports thatAndrian wrote during his diplomatic career, as well as texts, among them unpublished manuscripts, that illuminate his many-faceted literary and political endeavours after the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy, during his years in exile in South America and after his return to Europe in 1945. What emerges, as the editors rightfully claim, isa 'mosaic' or 'm?lange' of heterogeneous texts that provides a comprehensive picture of Andrian's activities as a writer and political agent, and of historical and political developments in the first half of the twentieth century (p. 14). The volume offers the literary and...