October 11, 2007: Hofmannsthal's Chandos Letter + The Spiritual in Art + Musil's Toerless

Lecture: Hofmannsthal’s “Letter of Lord Chandos” (1901–02)

•     autobiographical

•      Previous State of Harmony = Praeexistenz

•      Present State/Fall from Grace:  void, abyss, despair

•      Mystical Union with Nature:

•      Revelation/New Vision (das neue Sehen): 

Cultural History:  The Religious/Mystical in Art & Music

In the previous class, we discussed the Crisis of Language in turn-of-the-century Vienna and its relationship with a form of mysticism without God + the need for silence in the face of the limitations/limits of language to express a mystical union with nature. This paradox: using language to express the limits of language, following the example of Wittgenstein rather than Mauthner’s silence, i.e., attempting to express the inexpressible, extends to the “grammar” and “syntax” of the other arts at the end of the 19^th century. In all of the arts, we find the artists questioning the “language” of their medium: musicians like Mahler and Richard Strauss questioning tonality and experimenting with chromaticism or polyphony (pre-Enlightenment modes of composition), artists experimenting with perspective, color complementarity and contrast, and non-representational figuration; architects flattening the surfaces of buildings and eliminating vertical articulation in favor of a more horizontal flow, and similar trends as we have discussed them in previous classes. Ultimately in all the arts, “the center cannot hold,” and there is a complete breakdown of their respective grammatical hierarchies. In many of the artists of the first generation of modernists: Otto Wagner, Klimt, Richard Strauss, Mahler, and the later generation of the more radical expressionists, there is a mystical dimension associated with the breakdown of form and the hegemony of logic. In many respects, this follows the patterns mentioned in the previous class: i.e., that there is a longing for a mystical union with nature that is ultimately secular, esthetic, or non-rational, a longing for redemption from the emptiness of a secular, rational world.

Slide Presentation: 

•     O. Wagner:  Steinhof Church (1902)

•      Olbrich:  Secession Building (1898)

•      Secessikon Building Interior:  Temple of Art

•      Klimt in garden of his Josephstädter Studio (1910)

•      Klimt: 2 Panels of the Beethoven Frieze, Secession Bldg. (1902)

•      Schiele: The Prophet—Double Self-Portrait

•      Schiele:  Hermits (1912)

•      Schiele:  Agony (1912)

•      Schiele:  Cardinal & Nun in Embrace (1912)

•      Schiele:  Self-Portrait as St. Sebastian (1914-15)

•     O. Kokoschka: “Pieta” (1909)

In-Class Writing Assignment: What is your nitial reaction to Musil’s Toerless? Explain/give examples

Literature & Psychology:Schnitzler’s Lt. Gustl,Schnitzler’ La Ronde, Musil’s Young Törleß

Lecture: Musil’s Young Törleß Location of School:

East & South Stereotypes in Turn-of-the-Century Austrian Literature: 

East/Slavs:

South/Italy: cf. Colonel Redl

School at W. as a Microcosm of Austro-Hungarian Society: