This comparatist study is the first to address failure, a historically recent figure of thought. By looking at selected literary works and scholarly discourses, it examines the origins and implications of the genuinely modern concept of the non-functioning subject, which began taking shape around 1850. It investigates texts by authors like Gustave Flaubert, Italo Svevo, Franz Kafka, and Sigmund Freud.

Autorentext
Nora Weinelt, University of Augsburg, Germany.