Literature in Vienna at the Turn of the Centuries. Continuities and Discontinuities around 1900 and 2000 by Ernst Grabovszki, James Hardin

Abstract

258 Reviews inevitably, given its content) is so densely written that one wonders how many people, other than scholars who plan towrite on 'Ein Brier, will actually make their way through it, and thus how much of an impact itwill have on our collective understanding of this problematic text. Related to G?nther's focus on the philosophical subtexts of the letter, further problems emerge. Recent commentators on 'Ein Brief, including this reviewer, have insisted that the conventional reading of the letter as evidence of Hofmannsthal's Sprachknse needs to be qualified by the recognition that this crisis of language is inextricably bound up with a crisis of cognition that precedes it: to quote from 'Ein Brief, 'Es ist mir v?llig die F?higkeit abhanden gekommen, ?ber irgend etwas zusammenh?ngend zu denken oder zu sprechen' [emphasis added]. If anything, G?nther goes too far in the opposite direction; though he does consider 'Sprache' as one among many categories discussed, he does not (inmy view) pay sufficient heed to the fact that this fictional letter iswritten by an artist whose medium is language, whose writings bear witness to his intensive and ongoing meditations on language, and who insists (among other places, inhis 1896 lecture 'Poesie und Leben') that thematerial of poetry is words, and that a poem (and, by extension, other literary texts) cannot be understood without attention to this concrete element. Further, there is the overall paradox that G?nther's abstract philosophical prose represents precisely the kind of discourse against which Chandos rebels, in favour of a highly metaphorical speech. G?nther iswell aware of the key role played bymetaphor, as displayed by his subtle analysis of themetaphor of the 'Taubenschlag' and others, but this does not resolve the paradox by any means. In sum, Timo G?nther has presented the scholarly world with a substantive and mostly original analysis of this much-discussed text, one that makes a significant contribution by demonstrating the subtexts thathave eluded previous commentators. But themanner of his presentation, and to some degree even the nature of his argument, place significant limitations on itsusefulness for our collective understanding of 'Ein Brief. University of Arizona Thomas A. Kovach Literature in Vienna at theTurn of theCenturies. Continuities and Discontinuities around igoo and 2000. Ed. by Ernst Grabovszki and James Hardin. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2003. + 232 pp. $75.00; ?50.00. isbn 1-57113-233-3? Despite its title, this collection of essays is not confined to literature, but also offers contributions on the cultural fields most associated with the Viennese Jahrhundertwende of 1900, namely psychoanalysis and architecture. The book isa mixture of essays with a defined focus and contributions that attempt overviews of a century of Austrian women's writing, architecture and cinema. Temporal markers are habitually welcome as a framework for conferences and other cultural events, so how could a fin de si?cle in combination with a AUSTRIAN STUDIES, I3, 2OO5 259 turn of a millennium not be used to inaugurate a publication? However, as one reads through this collection, the feeling that it is an accidental assemblage rather than a compelling cultural enquiry into a century prevails somewhat; and the ambitious claim of Ernst Grabovszki's introduction that 'the articles in this book aim to explore the contrasts and similarities of both turns of the centuries around 1900 and 2000 and to show how the aesthetics of literature and itshistorical background have influenced each other and how they changed during a century' (p. 1) seems too tall an order. By asserting that any great poem 'represents a turning point in language' (p. 52), R?diger G?rner frees himself up for a vivid discussion of selected poems by Hofmannsthal, Werfel, Jandl and Ransmayr, and their possible relevance to the socio-cultural situation in 1900 and 2000 respectively. A sensible way to explore temporal markers is to ask why, ifand how artists and intellectuals have attached meaning to them. Famously, Freud postdated the first edition of his Traumdeutung by one year, so as to announce confidently a momentous change in the ways inwhich we name, perceive and analyse our disowned and disenchanted selves. In his contribution on psychoanalysis and literature Thomas...