Austrian literature and its phantasmagorical faces

For Austrian literature, the period of modernity and modernism is a special one. Modernity brought innovation to the arts, affecting architecture, painting and music in the period before the First World War. The term ’modernism’ refers primarily to the novel and innovations in its structure and content. The founders of modernism in literature were Franz Kafka, Stefan Zweig, Gustav Meyrink, Rainer Maria Rilke, Musil, Kraus, and Broch. When talking about these authors, one often refers to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, to the ideas of stylistic innovation, irrationality, the infinite, the role of the the artist. 

Following Schopenhauer’s philosophy, the heroes of Austrian modernity served spiritual ideals, their passions were directed towards self-discovery, towards wandering in the shimmering worlds. Art serves as a link between romanticism and modernity, as is the focus of Schopenhauer’s "The World as Will and Representation".

References to Freud were a particular feature of Austrian literature at the time. Freud, with his emphasis on dreams and their interpretation, introduces an interest in the psyche and even illness itself. His ideas were in line with a growing sexual liberation and a desire for freedom not only for the spirit but also for the body. Freud’s followers insisted on looking to childhood experiences for the causes of ailments and placed the emphasis on the subject, personal characteristics, desires and needs. The complexity of the human psyche was given considerable prominence and became a major theme in the study of human nature. A certain fluctuation and instability were also characteristic of Kafka’s characters, oscillating between life and death, hesitating to make the right choice. 

In this way, stylistic innovation, personal freedom, the subconscious, madness as the artist’s ability to create, instinct and its role in cognition would become important colours in an author’s palette when creating a character. 

Lecturer 

Nina Shcherbak, Associate Professor in the Department of English Philology and Cultural Linguistics at St Petersburg University, Master of Arts (the United Kingdom), a writer and screenwriter. She is also a scriptwriter for science television shows, author of fifteen monographs, and books on linguistics, literature, language philosophy, and English literature. 

The lecture will be held as part of the events to mark the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University, the oldest university in Russia. The meeting will be held online in Russian with simultaneous interpreting into Spanish.

Registration