Introduction: Negotiating Modernity in the Austrian Context

Summary

The old order has passed away.

— Revelation 21:4

Narratives of Modernity

THIS STUDY EXAMINES THE CRISIS OF MODERNITY in Austria as reflected in fiction written by Austrian authors between 1920 and 1970. Although Karl Kraus called Austria a “Versuchsstation des Weltuntergangs,” it was only one of many such “laboratories” in which the old order disintegrated: the crisis was universal and the main themes of the fiction examined here are commonly found in other European literatures of the period. This study will, however, demonstrate that the arrival of modernity was experienced in Austria in a particular way. It will also show that the different interpretations of the dilemmas of modernity offered by each of the three writers are closely related to the changing historical conditions under which they wrote.

The central concept of modernity is notoriously hard — perhaps even impossible, to define or date. If modernity is taken to mean “the condition of living in the modern world,” then that definition raises several questions: experienced by whom, in what ways, and where? What are the essential criteria for considering a phenomenon modern and when did society become inescapably modern? That debate might lead to the conclusion that modernity is no more than a catchall term meaning “the totality of perceptions of the world in which we now live” — an idea too vague to be helpful. It is hardly surprising that there is no agreement among interpreters of modernity that it constitutes a single phenomenon or even a viable concept.