Eros and Inwardness in Vienna
Weininger, Musil, Doderer
9780226496474
9780226496481
Eros and Inwardness in Vienna
Weininger, Musil, Doderer
Although we usually think of the intellectual legacy of twentieth-century Vienna as synonymous with Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalytic theories, other prominent writers from Vienna were also radically reconceiving sexuality and gender. In this probing new study, David Luft recovers the work of three such writers: Otto Weininger, Robert Musil, and Heimito von Doderer. His account emphasizes the distinctive intellectual world of liberal Vienna, especially the impact of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in this highly scientific intellectual world.
According to Luft, Otto Weininger viewed human beings as bisexual and applied this theme to issues of creativity and morality. Robert Musil developed a creative ethics that was closely related to his open, flexible view of sexuality and gender. And Heimito von Doderer portrayed his own sexual obsessions as a way of understanding the power of total ideologies, including his own attraction to National Socialism. For Luft, the significance of these three writers lies in their understandings of eros and inwardness and in the roles that both play in ethical experience and the formation of meaningful relations to the world-a process that continues to engage artists, writers, and thinkers today.
Eros and Inwardness in Vienna will profoundly reshape our understanding of Vienna’s intellectual history. It will be important for anyone interested in Austrian or German history, literature, or philosophy.
According to Luft, Otto Weininger viewed human beings as bisexual and applied this theme to issues of creativity and morality. Robert Musil developed a creative ethics that was closely related to his open, flexible view of sexuality and gender. And Heimito von Doderer portrayed his own sexual obsessions as a way of understanding the power of total ideologies, including his own attraction to National Socialism. For Luft, the significance of these three writers lies in their understandings of eros and inwardness and in the roles that both play in ethical experience and the formation of meaningful relations to the world-a process that continues to engage artists, writers, and thinkers today.
Eros and Inwardness in Vienna will profoundly reshape our understanding of Vienna’s intellectual history. It will be important for anyone interested in Austrian or German history, literature, or philosophy.
271 pages | 8 halftones, 2 maps | 6 x 9 | © 2003
History: European History, History of Ideas
Literature and Literary Criticism: Germanic Languages
Philosophy: History and Classic Works
Reviews
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One:Science and Irrationalism in Vienna, 1848-1900
Liberal Vienna
Scientific Materialism
Philosophic Irrationalism
Thinking about Sexuality and Gender
Chapter Two:Otto Weininger’s Vision of Gender and Modern Culture
Gender and Character
Gender and Method
Gender and Ethics
Gender and Modernity
Chapter Three:Love and Human Knowledge
Science and the Writer
Sexuality and Ethics
Ideology and Soul
Gender and the Other Condition
Chapter Four:Sexuality and the Politics of the Fascist Era
The War and the Writer
The Novel and National Socialism
Eros and Apperception, 1938-1955
Ideology and the Novel
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One:Science and Irrationalism in Vienna, 1848-1900
Liberal Vienna
Scientific Materialism
Philosophic Irrationalism
Thinking about Sexuality and Gender
Chapter Two:Otto Weininger’s Vision of Gender and Modern Culture
Gender and Character
Gender and Method
Gender and Ethics
Gender and Modernity
Chapter Three:Love and Human Knowledge
Science and the Writer
Sexuality and Ethics
Ideology and Soul
Gender and the Other Condition
Chapter Four:Sexuality and the Politics of the Fascist Era
The War and the Writer
The Novel and National Socialism
Eros and Apperception, 1938-1955
Ideology and the Novel
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
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