This innovative study of the works of Robert Musil opens a new
window on the history of modern identity in western culture. Stefan
Jonsson argues that Musil's Austria was the first postimperial
state in modern Europe. Prior to its destruction in 1918, the
Austro-Hungarian Empire had ruled over a vast array of
nationalities and, in the course of its demise as well as after,
Austria was beset by nationalism, racism, and other forms of
identity politics that ultimately led to the triumph of
Nazism.
It was to this society that Musil responded in his great work "The
Man Without Qualities." Exploring the nooks and crannies of this
modernist classic, Jonsson shows that Musil's narrative evolves
along two axes that must be considered in tandem: Whereas the
central plot portrays a Viennese elite that in 1913 attempts to
restore social cohesion by gathering popular support for the
cultural essence of the empire, the protagonist discovers that he
lacks essence altogether and finds himself attracted by monsters,
criminals, and revolutionary figures that reject the social order.
In this way, Musil's novel traces the disappearance of what Jonsson
calls the expressivist paradigm--the conviction that identities
such as gender, nationality, class, and social character are
expressions of permanent intrinsic dispositions. This, Jonsson
argues, is Musil's great legacy. For not only did the Austrian
author seek to liquidate prevailing conceptions of personal and
cultural identity; he also projected "a new human being," one who
would resist assimilation into imperialist, nationalist, or fascist
communities.
"Subject Without Nation" presents a new interpretation of Viennese
modernity and uncovers the historical foundations of poststructural
and postcolonial reconceptualizations of human subjectivity.
Illuminating links between Musil's oeuvre as a whole and post-war
developments in critical thought, this book locates an important
crossroads between literary criticism, intellectual history, and
cultural theory.
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