1

Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Germany's best-known literary critic, gave a damning judgment of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. He wrote of Musil's “Unanschaulichkeit der Sprache” (lack of plasticity in language). He cited Musil's “Ideenfülle” (proliferation of ideas) as evidence of failure of “mimesis.” Musil had faced this kind of criticism during his lifetime. He was turned down for membership of the Deutsche Dichter-Akademie on the grounds that he was “zu intelligent für einen wahren Dichter” (T, 921: too intelligent to be a true creative writer; Diaries, 444)! Others since have expressed the view that Musil's work lacks life, or as J. P. Stern put it, Musil “peel[s] the onion” to the point where the reader is left with no substance — only a tear. Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften offers too much thought, then, and too little life. Let us examine these charges against Musil by stepping back from the vast novel, viewing it from a new perspective — that of Kulturwissenschaft, literally, “the science of culture.”

We must ask, accordingly: what is the function of Germanistik, German studies, in the field of “Kulturwissenschaft?” Germanistik inquires into those avenues of learning and discourse that offer insight into aspects of culture; it investigates the meaning of literature as a medium of anthropological reflection, analyzes standards of cultural behavior and forms of consciousness, and examines cultural codes and norms. One of the aspects of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften with which Kulturwissenschaft is naturally concerned is Musil's “utopias” — his systematic investigations of contemporary civilization, his probings for the possibilities of change. Investigating these will be central to this chapter.

In book 2, chapter 12 of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften with the title “Heilige Gespräche. Wechselvoller Fortgang” (Holy Discourse. Erratic Progress), Ulrich puts forward a fundamental critique of “bürgerliche[n] Kultur” (766: bourgeois culture; MwQ, 832). This critique had, in his view, “jenen anderen Zustand auf den Hund gebracht, der Erkenntnisse apportiert” (766: bourgeois culture has reduced this other condition to the status of a dog fetching intuitions; MwQ, 832).