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Hermann Broch and Mass Hysteria
Theory and Representation in the Age of Extremes
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Brett E. Sterling
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2022
About this book
The first English-language monograph on Hermann Broch's literary and theoretical work on mass hysteria.
Winner of the 2023 Radomír Luža Prize for the Best Manuscript in Austrian/Czechoslovak Studies in the World War II Era
Austrian Jewish author Hermann Broch (1886-1951), a leading figure of European Modernism, spent decades attempting to understand the phenomenon of mass hysteria. With his work, he hoped to help protect society from the allure of mass hysteria, embodied in the fanatical appeal of National Socialism. He was torn between two approaches to the problem: using literature to diagnose and expose the irrational knowledge that underpins mass hysteria, and employing theory as a more precise and effective means of doing the same.
In this first English-language monograph on the topic, Brett E. Sterling traces the development of Broch's understanding of the mass from an initial confrontation in 1918 to a recurring theme in his fiction and ultimately to the monumental but incomplete Massenwahntheorie (Theory of Mass Hysteria, 1939-48). In thorough readings of Broch's major fictional and theoretical works, the analysis centers on the question of how his literature and theory provide distinct but complementary approaches to conceiving and representing the elusive figure of the mass and the attendant experience of mass hysteria. With political extremism and conspiratorial thinking on the rise, Sterling makes the case that Broch's insights into mass hysteria - literary as well as theoretical - are of renewed relevance to a contemporary audience.
Winner of the 2023 Radomír Luža Prize for the Best Manuscript in Austrian/Czechoslovak Studies in the World War II Era
Austrian Jewish author Hermann Broch (1886-1951), a leading figure of European Modernism, spent decades attempting to understand the phenomenon of mass hysteria. With his work, he hoped to help protect society from the allure of mass hysteria, embodied in the fanatical appeal of National Socialism. He was torn between two approaches to the problem: using literature to diagnose and expose the irrational knowledge that underpins mass hysteria, and employing theory as a more precise and effective means of doing the same.
In this first English-language monograph on the topic, Brett E. Sterling traces the development of Broch's understanding of the mass from an initial confrontation in 1918 to a recurring theme in his fiction and ultimately to the monumental but incomplete Massenwahntheorie (Theory of Mass Hysteria, 1939-48). In thorough readings of Broch's major fictional and theoretical works, the analysis centers on the question of how his literature and theory provide distinct but complementary approaches to conceiving and representing the elusive figure of the mass and the attendant experience of mass hysteria. With political extremism and conspiratorial thinking on the rise, Sterling makes the case that Broch's insights into mass hysteria - literary as well as theoretical - are of renewed relevance to a contemporary audience.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Brett E. Sterling
BRETT E. STERLING is Associate Professor of German at the University of Arkansas.
Reviews
Sterling weaves together the traces of the masses across Broch's career as a published thinker and author and shows how such an approach offers a unique study of the masses as both an elusive literary figure and a political, social, and psychological formation.
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Notoriously, Hermann Broch never makes it easy for his readers, be it in the tortuous style or the challenging subjects of his writing. Yet as Sterling shows throughout this lucid and thought-inducing study, everything that so exercised Broch during the 'age of extremes' has, alas, become current again today.
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This is one of the best and clearest investigations of Hermann Broch's work that has appeared in recent years. . . . It is the first monograph devoted to the representation and analysis of the modern mass in Broch's narrative and essayistic works.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix -
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List of Abbreviations
xi -
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Introduction
1 -
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1: First Encounters, 1918–1929
15 -
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2: The Power of Literature
44 -
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3: The Mass Takes Shape: Literary Representations
75 -
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4: Theory and Its Discontents: The Massenwahntheorie
106 -
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5: The Threshold of Experience: Die Verzauberung
158 -
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Conclusion
209 -
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Bibliography
215 -
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Index
225
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 4, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781787448247
Original publisher:
Camden House
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781787448247
Keywords for this book
Hermann Broch; Mass hysteria; Literature; Theory; National Socialism; Literary monograph; Literary works; Theoretical work; Age of Extremes; Fanatical appeal; Contemporary audience
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
