Premium
Fantasies of White Masculinity in Arthur Schnitzler's Andreas Thameyers letzter Brief (1900)
Author(s) -
Boehringer Michael
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the german quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.11
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1756-1183
pISSN - 0016-8831
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1183.2011.00105.x
Subject(s) - masculinity , novella , gender studies , colonialism , literature , bourgeoisie , sociology , history , art , politics , political science , law , archaeology
While the notion of masculinity in crisis has become a commonplace in fin‐de‐siècle literary studies, Schnitzler's novella Andreas Thameyers letzter Brief has thus far been investigated primarily with respect to the (pathological) psychology of its protagonist and the contemporary medical discourses surrounding the theme of “maternal impression.” This essay seeks to reframe the text, placing it within historical discourses on masculinity, the body, and heterosexuality, and their intersections with colonial discourses on race and whiteness. Such a reading illuminates the complex construction of and multiple threats to urban bourgeois masculinity, masculine hegemony and the control of women, and the influence of colonial discourses on this empire without colonies. Re‐contextualized within its historical discourses, the essay proposes that the novella needs to be understood as a damning indictment of white western masculinity in fin‐de‐siècle Austria.