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9781501330964

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Kolkenbrock's elegant and original study discovers 'destiny' as a term for the missing substance of subjectivity in Schnitzler's prose works. By defining the different relations between an individual character's encounter with a sense of destiny, on one hand, and the operation of social stereotyping, on the other, she constructs a supple theoretical tool. The resulting analysis gives a beautifully lucid, but also subtly differentiated, account of how Schnitzler's work embodies the impossible challenge confronting personhood not only in fin-de-siecle Austro-Hungarian reality, but arguably in modernity in general: how to be normal and special at the same time. * Michael Minden, Former Reader in Modern German Literature and Culture and Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK *

Kolkenbrock's book provides a compelling analysis of the much-studied crises of subjectivity in fin-de-siecle Vienna by focusing with laser-like precision on the interplay between stereotypes and destiny in Schnitzler's prose fiction. It earns its place alongside previous studies of Schnitzler and the crisis of identity and should serve to inspire further work in this area. * The German Quarterly * Kolkenbrock's original reading of Arthur Schnitzler's narrative prose both identifies the hidden normative agenda dominating Viennese society around 1900 and attends to Schnitzler's complex view of the human psyche. As Kolkenbrock lucidly shows, Schnitzler's protagonists seek individual autonomy in a society in which stereotypes about sex, race, and culture delimit the parameters of their actions. Kolkenbrock reveals that this futile search for autonomy inevitably leads Schnitzler's protagonists to the figure of the 'other'-one in conflict with the normative order-yet these encounters ultimately do not provide a sustained escape from societal restraints. * Carl Niekerk, Professor of German, Comparative and World Literature, and Jewish Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and editor of German Quarterly and Lessing Yearbook * Kolkenbrock's elegant and original study discovers 'destiny' as a term for the missing substance of subjectivity in Schnitzler's prose works. By defining the different relations between an individual character's encounter with a sense of destiny, on one hand, and the operation of social stereotyping, on the other, she constructs a supple theoretical tool. The resulting analysis gives a beautifully lucid, but also subtly differentiated, account of how Schnitzler's work embodies the impossible challenge confronting personhood not only in fin-de-siecle Austro-Hungarian reality, but arguably in modernity in general: how to be normal and special at the same time. * Michael Minden, Former Reader in Modern German Literature and Culture and Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK *

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Marie Kolkenbrock is a Branco Weiss Fellow at King's College London, UK.

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