Aesthetic Dilemmas

Encounters with Art in Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Literary Modernism

Marlo Alexandra Burks

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780228016656
• eBook ISBN:
  9780228017967
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Modern Philosophy
• Index: Literature

Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929) is frequently portrayed in cultural histories as an aloof writer with a precious style, out of step with modern sensibilities. In Aesthetic Dilemmas Marlo Burks reassesses Hofmannsthal's oeuvre and its place in twentieth-century European modernist aesthetics.

Through an examination of a diverse range of Hofmannsthal's ekphrastic writings – including poetry, essays, opera libretti, fiction, and letters – Burks argues that Hofmannsthal's work aims to engage the consciousness and sensibility of readers, listeners, and viewers by way of dynamic encounters with works of art. Aesthetic Dilemmas thereby corrects a long-standing, flawed characterization of Hofmannsthal's work as escapist and demonstrates how his place in the Modernist movement has been misunderstood in most scholarship. The book is in dialogue with a broad range of critical voices and treats a variety of themes, from aestheticism to money, interpersonal relationships, suffering, poverty, labour, futurity, legacy, and hope.

Translating numerous passages into English for the first time, Aesthetic Dilemmas gives English-speaking readers the chance to evaluate Hofmannsthal's literary merit and his contributions to the enduring conversation about art's relation to ethics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• A Note on Language and Titles
• Acknowledgments
• INTRODUCTION Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Aestheticism
• 1 Aestheticism in “Das Märchen der 672. Nacht” (“The Tale of Night Six Hundred and Seventy-Two”) and the 1902 “Ansprache” (“Address”)
• 2 Art and Society in “Die Briefe des Zurückgekehrten” (“The Letters of the Man Who Returned”)
• 3 Art and History in “Augenblicke in Griechenland” (“Moments in Greece”)
• 4 Aesthetic Transfiguration in Die Frau ohne Schatten
• 5 Violence and Art in Andreas
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index