Mcgill-queen's University Press
Aesthetic Dilemmas
About this book
Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929) is frequently portrayed in cultural histories as an aloof writer with a precious style, out of step with modern sensibilities. In Aesthetic Dilemmas Marlo Burks reassesses Hofmannsthal’s oeuvre and its place in twentieth-century European modernist aesthetics.
Through an examination of a diverse range of Hofmannsthal’s ekphrastic writings – including poetry, essays, opera libretti, fiction, and letters – Burks argues that Hofmannsthal’s work aims to engage the consciousness and sensibility of readers, listeners, and viewers by way of dynamic encounters with works of art. Aesthetic Dilemmas thereby corrects a long-standing, flawed characterization of Hofmannsthal’s work as escapist and demonstrates how his place in the Modernist movement has been misunderstood in most scholarship. The book is in dialogue with a broad range of critical voices and treats a variety of themes, from aestheticism to money, interpersonal relationships, suffering, poverty, labour, futurity, legacy, and hope.
Translating numerous passages into English for the first time, Aesthetic Dilemmas gives English-speaking readers the chance to evaluate Hofmannsthal’s literary merit and his contributions to the enduring conversation about art’s relation to ethics.
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Front Matter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Figures
ix -
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A Note on Language and Titles
xi -
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Acknowledgments
xiii -
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Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Aestheticism
3 -
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Aestheticism in “Das Märchen der 672. Nacht” (“The Tale of Night Six Hundred and Seventy-Two”) and the 1902 “Ansprache” (“Address”)
13 -
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Art and Society in “Die Briefe des Zurückgekehrten” (“The Letters of the Man Who Returned”)
43 -
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Art and History in “Augenblicke in Griechenland” (“Moments in Greece”)
72 -
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Aesthetic Transfiguration in Die Frau ohne Schatten
112 -
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Violence and Art in Andreas
151 -
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Notes
171 -
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Bibliography
255 -
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Index
279
