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Die Blendung as a Negative Poetics: Positivism, Nihilism, Fascism
Author(s) -
Mack Michael
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1999.tb01945.x
Subject(s) - poetics , positivism , nihilism , scholarship , philosophy , representation (politics) , literature , sociology , epistemology , art , poetry , politics , law , political science
In his representation of a fragmented society and his critique of the positivist scholar Peter Kien, Canetti develops a negative poetics: he shows what the poet should not be and what he should work against. This paves the way for a better understanding of Masse und Macht. Canetti's poetics in many respects resembles the image of the poet as advanced by his friend, the Oxford anthropologist Franz Baermann Steiner. Steiner did not separate his scholarly pursuits from social issues and his literary work. This connection between scholarship and a literary mode of writing constitutes the style and methodology of Masse und Macht and offers a striking contrast to Kien's positivism.