Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 377 g
Reihe: Clarendon Paperbacks
Ornament and Aestheticism in the Habsburg Fin de Siecle
Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 377 g
Reihe: Clarendon Paperbacks
ISBN: 978-0-19-815907-0
Verlag: OUP Oxford
In this highly acclaimed, original historical study, Mark Anderson explores Kafka's early dandyism, his interest in fashion, literary decadence, and the 'superficial' spectacle of modern urban life as well as his subsequent repudiation of these phenomena in forging a literary identity as the isolated, otherworldly 'poet' of modern alienation. Rather than posit a break between these two personae, Anderson charts the historical continuities between the young Kafka and the author of The
Metamorphosis and The Trial. The book demonstrates how clothing functions as a semi-private code of meaning in his literary works and the extent to which the aestheticist notion of becoming the work of art haunts Kafka's conception of writing throughout his life.
The result is a startlingly unconventional portrait of Kafka and Prague at the turn of the century, involving such issues as Jugendstil aesthetics, Otto Weininger's 'egoless' woman, the Viennese critique of architectural ornament, the clothing-reform movement, anti-Semitism, and the questions of Jewish-German writing.
From reviews of the hardback:
'This rich and subtle study sets new standards for historical and textual interpretation of Kafka.'
Ritchie Robertson, The Modern Language Review
'by far the most important Kafka book to appear since the early work of Klaus Wagenbach in the 1960s'
Monatshefte