Journal archive

Abstract: Arthur Schnitzler became famous as a dramatist and he was a member of the group of young Viennese writers «Jung Wien». This group of young authors was influenced by the period of social identity crisis and radical change in the direction of a new fast-moving time, but also of a focus on intrinsic values of individuals. To treat this in their work, they developed also new literary forms like Interior Monologue and Free Indirect Discourse. Also members of the group were other contemporary literary figures like Hermann Bahr, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Felix Salten, Leopold von Andrian and Richard Beer-Hofmann. They usually met in the typical Viennese Cafés, and one of them, the Café «Griensteidl» became their favorite meeting place and developed to a literary center of the Viennese Modernism. In this environment, the literary form of the Viennese Feuilleton was resurrected, which focused on the sensitivities and emotional state of the protagonists instead of some action. The period bore also a new close relationship between literature and sciences like philosophy and psychology, which was reflected by the treated themes like dream, gender identification and sexuality. Arthur Schnitzler and Sigmund Freud for example attended at lectures of the same professors. They shared an intense interest in dreams, but they had fundamental differences in the findings concerning this issue. Schnitzler took an exceptional position within the group «Jung Wien», because his scenarios and protagonists were often sited outside the higher bourgeoisie and his characters spoke an informal language near the Viennese dialect.