THE SELF-CRITICAL TENDENCY found in the orientalist fictions of Hofmannsthal, Musil, and Kafka poses a significant challenge to the conventional notion of orientalism as formulated by Edward Said. For these texts manifest two basic modes of self-critique, both of which refute central premises of the Saidian conception of the discourse. First, in implying an analogous relationship between Occident and Orient these works subvert the fundamental orientalist notions of an East/West dichotomy and of European superiority. Second, in those texts with Eastern settings or figures, the use of orientalist tropes and topoi to allude to the “eastern empire” of Austria Hungary suggests a meta-textual subversion of the discourse itself. Thus, even as they exploit the orientalist inventory of images and received notions for suggestive meanings, these works challenge the basic conception of orientalism as a hegemonic discourse.

The question arises as to whether the self-critique undertaken by these Habsburg fictions constitutes an Austrian Sonderweg within the broader context of European orientalism. As we have seen, the liminal situation of the Dual Monarchy, its ethnic diversity, and its lack of overseas colonies all contributed to an orientalist discourse marked by self-reflection and self-critique. Yet the elucidation of these tendencies in canonical works of Austrian orientalist fiction encourages the recognition of other mutinous voices in other traditions of orientalist and colonialist literature. For example, let us consider Kafka's deconstruction of the opposition between civilization and barbarism in his Chinese stories, “Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer” and “Ein altes Blatt.”