Ornament Und Mode in Kafka's "Der Verschollene" (1911-1914), Broch's "Die Schlafwandler" (1930) Und Musil's "Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften" (1930)

Abstract

This dissertation presents a literary-historical and cultural-historical study on ornamentation and fashion in the literature of fin de siècle Vienna and Prague, taking Franz Kafka’s Der Verschollene, Hermann Broch’s Die Schlafwandler, and Robert Musil’s Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften as the main texts for analysis. This study traces the origin of ornament not just to architecture but also to textiles. The link between ornamentation and fashion, originating in classical antiquity, is renewed in the ornamental asceticism of the early 20th century. Engaging with a series of critical essays by theorists Vitruvius, Ruskin, Jones, Schaukal, Semper, Riegl, Wörringer, and Loos, a connection is drawn between ornamentation and fashion. This connection in turn is brought into dialogue with Kracauer’s theory on Das Ornament der Masse. Set against the biographical backgrounds of Kafka, Broch, and Musil, all of whom had a connection to the textile industry, an overview of the economic history of the textile industry and predominantly Jewish shmate trade seeks to illuminate how textiles and ornament come to interact with each other. The Latin verb textere indicates not only the weaving of fabrics but also the weaving together of words, highlighting the relationship between text and textile in fin de siècle Vienna as one directing the narrative conceptions of authors such as Kafka, Broch, and Musil.