In most contemporary historical writing the picture of modern life in Habsburg Central Europe is a gloomy story of the failure of rationalism and the rise of protofascist movements. This book tells a different story, focusing on the Czech writers and artists distinguished by their optimistic view of the world in the years before WWI.

In contrast to the gloomy picture often given of the twilight years of the AustroHungarian Empire, this book reveals a vibrant, optimistic strain of central European modernism Ort looks not only at the celebrated playwright and author Karel Capek but also such luminaries as Thomas Mann and Robert Musili Ort has a gift for breaking down complex theoretical developments in European intellectual history and clearly explicating them

Autorentext

Thomas Ort is Associate Professor of History at Queens College-City University of New York, USA.

Klappentext
In most histories of Europe before the First World War, modern life in Habsburg Mitteleuropa takes on a decidedly gloomy cast. Centering on Vienna in the twilight years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, such accounts describe the failure of rationalism and the rise of a dangerous politics of fantasy. This book tells a different story, highlighting a generation of Czech writers and artists distinguished by their affirmative encounter with the modern world in the first decades of the twentieth century. Novelist and playwright Karel ?apek, along with other members of his cohort, embraced the possibilities of the post-Habsburg era. Tracing the roots of ?apek's generation to cubist art and turn-of-the-century philosophy, author Thomas Ort shows that the form of modernism they championed led not into the thickets of fascism or communism but in fact closer to liberal political ideals.

Inhalt

1. Prague 1911: The Cubist City
2. Between Life and Form: Karel ?apek and the Prewar Modernist Generation
3. The Lessons of Life: Karel ?apek and the First World War
4. Art ? Life: The '?apek Generation' and Dev?tsil in Interwar Czechoslovakia
5. The Self as Empty Space and Crowd: Karel ?apek and the Czechoslovak Condition