Denken erzählen. Repräsentationen des Intellekts bei Robert Musil und Paul Valéry (review)

In this dense, ambitious, and well-researched study, Olav Krämer sets forth to explore how Robert Musil and Paul Valéry conceived of, and represented in literary form, thinking in their work. Starting with the observation that this aspect has not been systematically investigated, Krämer seeks to fill this lacuna through a meticulous reconstruction of their understanding and depiction of thought processes in light of the scientific and philosophical context of the time.

After an introductory first chapter in which he specifies his goals and approach, Krämer devotes the second chapter to a survey of relevant scientific and philosophical theories of thinking in France and Germany between 1890 and 1940. In particular, he traces the shift from the mechanical and physics-based association theory to dynamic and biological models grounded in the notions of "reflex" or "Gestalt." He also examines the rise of evolutionist interpretations as well as the growing interest in the role played by drives and intuition in thought processes. Musil's and Valéry's work echoes—while also significantly departing from—contemporary scientific and philosophical developments. If their views resonate with naturalist theories of thinking, both authors reject the idea that thought processes merely obey the evolutionary principles of self-conservation and adaptation.

The third chapter focuses on Musil's analysis and literary depiction of thought processes. Krämer relates Musil's distinctions between das Ratioïde and das Nicht-Ratioïde to the duality of violence and love which he posits as key tenets of Musil's anthropology. Whereas the "ratioid" mindset involves violence and proves unable to fulfill spiritual needs, the "non-ratioid" is linked with the sphere of love and appears as a privileged path to a meaningful and authentic life. In this chapter, Krämer provides an illuminating and innovative analysis of actual thought processes in The Man without Qualities. With various degrees of denial, rationalization, (self-)delusion, or lucidity, all characters try to make sense of their life. Their quest for self-understanding follows a pattern which Krämer describes as a quest for equilibrium in gestalt theoretical terms. In this regard, Ulrich's case is particularly telling. Krämer convincingly demonstrates how Ulrich evolves from an aggressive and dissatisfied intellectual hero into a character gradually accepting his emotional and mystical side. Krämer's in-depth analysis uncovers a dynamics of mental processes—the quest for equilibrium—which Musil did not elaborate as such in his essays. It also offers a persuasive reassessment of the link between essay and narrative in Musil's novel: against the common depiction of Ulrich as a detached thought-experimenter, Krämer shows how Ulrich's essayistic reflections are narratively motivated by his quest for self-understanding.

The fourth chapter investigates Valéry's analysis and shifting assessment of thought processes through a close reading of representative texts: L'Introduction à la méthode de Léonard de Vinci, La Soirée avec Monsieur Teste, L'Homme et la coquille, and a selection of prose poems. After the crisis that led him to renounce literature in 1892, Valéry devoted himself to the study of mental phenomena with a special focus on attention, automatisms, and demand-response mechanisms. To counter what he viewed as the natural dissipation and disorganization of ideas, Valéry initially embraced the ideal of a pure and all-controlling mind. Later, however, he rejected the "supreme poverty" of the pure mind and turned his attention to the "drama" and the "sensibility" of the intellect through an investigation of thought processes as mental acts and lived experiences. A striking feature of Valéry's approach is its abstracting and discriminating quality: Valéry explores mental processes from separate perspectives without allowing any overlap.

The last chapter compares Musil's and Valéry's representations of thinking and contrasts their anthropological assumptions. Krämer opposes Musil's holistic and evaluative approach to Val...