Feminism and Jewishness in Viennese Literary Modernism

Viennese modernism ( die Wiener Moderne ) commonly refers to the intellectual atmosphere in Vienna between 1890 and 1910 and to the experimental cultural products and theories that emerged in fields as diverse as literature, art, music, architecture, philosophy, linguistics, and the sciences, including new emerging medical sub-disciplines such as psychology and sexology. In the field of literature, the term literary modernism is often used interchangeably with the concept Jung-Wien (Young Vienna). This term seems to have come into being quite circuitously during a visit by Henrik Ibsen to Vienna in 1891. Piecing together excerpts from Hugo von Hofmannthal’s diary with reflections made by Hermann Bahr several decades later, the modernist scholar Gotthart Wunberg relates that the seventeen-year-old Hofmannsthal referred to “uns Jungen in Wien” (us young ones in Vienna) when he visited Ibsen in his hotel. This choice of words, according to Hofmannsthal, led to a perceived misunderstanding with Ibsen. Whereas Hofmannsthal used the words to express his admiration for Ibsen and his belief that a new generation of artists revered Ibsen and saw him as a leader in the quest for the emancipation of (and from) the self ( Selbstbefreiung ), Ibsen assumed that Hofmannsthal was referring to an association of young artists whose only concern was creating and producing works of art. According to Wunberg, this exchange was most likely relayed to the writer and literary critic Hermann Bahr, whom Hofmannsthal met for the first time the following week. Bahr’s reflections on Ibsen’s visit written several decades later imply that this was not only the beginning of a new literary term, but also a new consciousness that united various diverse Viennese authors: “Damit war Jungösterreich öffentlich erschienen. Aus den Händen Ibsens übernahm ich es” (With that Young-Austria was publicly coined. I accepted it from the hands of Ibsen). The idea that the origin of the term Jung-Wien stems from Ibsen’s visit to Vienna is both noteworthy and ironic. First, Ibsen was not only an iconic symbol of modernism, but his writing represented a literary style that many Viennese modernists were attempting to challenge and move beyond. Second, the term, as used by Hofmannsthal, connotes that it was a male movement (“uns Jungen” in the sense of “us boys”), as well as a youthful and innovative one.

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