Vom Geschlechter- zum Weltkrieg. Männlichkeitskrise und Revirilisierungsdiskurs in Robert Musils "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften"

Boss, Ulrich (2019). Vom Geschlechter- zum Weltkrieg. Männlichkeitskrise und Revirilisierungsdiskurs in Robert Musils "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften". Monatshefte für deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur, 111(2), pp. 232-248. Univ. of Wisconsin Press 10.3368/m.111.2.232

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Robert Musil understood the war euphoria of 1914 as a form of escape from an outlived order that was no longer able to satisfy elementary ‘spiritual’ needs. In The Man Without Qualities, this disintegration of the old order manifests itself not least in a fundamental crisis of masculinity, for which the numerous body deficits of the novel’s male characters are symptomatic. The attempts of these largely deplorable male figures to regain their masculinity lead straight to war. Yet Musil’s novel also questions the pre-war discourse of revirilisation by the fact that ironically, the male-muscular title hero—his body image corresponds in almost every detail to Ernst Kretschmer’s constitutional type of the athlete—does not take part in it and instead searches for an alternative way out of social-moral stagnation.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Germanic Languages

UniBE Contributor:

Boss, Ulrich

Subjects:

400 Language > 430 German & related languages
800 Literature, rhetoric & criticism > 830 German & related literatures

ISSN:

0026-9271

Publisher:

Univ. of Wisconsin Press

Language:

German

Submitter:

Ulrich Boss

Date Deposited:

17 Oct 2019 09:08

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:31

Publisher DOI:

10.3368/m.111.2.232

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.133939

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/133939

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