Verdrängte Moderne—vergessene Avantgarde: Diskurskonstellationen zwischen Literatur, Theater, Kunst und Musik in Ősterreich 1918–1938 ed. by Primus-Heinz Kucher (review)

Primus-Heinz Kucher's collection of articles explores the Austrian interwar avant-garde, including its origins and legacy in the Second Republic. The scholarly debates on the German avant-garde in Berlin have traditionally overshadowed the influence of fin-de-siècle Vienna modernism and the role of the avant-garde in the cultural production of the First Republic. In his introduction Kucher takes note of this situation, which persisted until recently, as is evident from Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler's assessments of the literary spectrum of that time. The contributors to the volume Verdrängte Moderne—vergessene Avantgarde represent a variety of disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, literary history, theater and art history, and women's literature. Contemporary international methodologies inform the articles, whose authors are affiliated with Austrian and German, French, Polish, and Italian institutes. The majority of articles are historically and socially contextualized, addressing economic issues and the political power balance. This is the case in Zoltan Peter's exploration of a moderate avant-garde as a third path between the extremes of anti-modernism and formalist experimentalism. Such a third path was envisioned by Vienna intellectuals such as architect Josef Frank, who, as Zoltan reveals, ascribed to the Austrian mentality a sense of realism that resisted the experimentalism practiced in the Weimar Republic. Barbara Lesák examines the rather short-lived Austrian avant-gardist stage projects with a focus on Visionaries and Utopists. Included in her discussion are Jakob Moreno Levy's project of the Theater ohne Zuschauer as well as Adolf Loos and Lajos Kassák. Anke Bosse explores technological innovations in stage theory and architecture since 1900 and the increasingly "unliterary" character of theater. She problematizes Karel Čapek's stage humanoids-robots and Kiesler's electro-mechanical stage, raising the question if kinetic art is still theater, or if the abstract and de-personalized presentations under discussion constitute different genres altogether. Jürgen Doll discusses Vienna's Social Democratic theater as a mass spectacle typified by choral declamatory works representing power relations and the class struggle that also serves as a counter initiative the more intimate political cabaret that preempted Jura Soyfer's proletarian art. Arturo Larcati discusses the reception of Italian Futurism in interwar Vienna and its key event, the inclusion of Futurists in the Vienna theater exhibit of 1924 that drew the engagement of intellectuals such as Friedrich Kiesler, whose impact on film Larcati notes as well. On the 1930s, political dimensions increasingly enter the discussion, and Larcati addresses possible concessions to Fascism by representatives of the Futurist movement.

The second part of the anthology deals with the interplay of progressive and moderate initiatives. The opening article by Evelyne Polt-Heinzl examines Oskar Strnad as a pioneer of modernism, his significance for generations of Viennese architects and artists, his influence on the architecture of "Red Vienna," his stage innovations and connections to modernists like Schnitzler, Krenek, and Reinhardt, and, finally, the difficulties he faced during the rise of fascism. Rebecca Unterberger discusses Ernst Krenek's position between progress and reaction in light of Adorno's theories on the avant-garde and Brecht's theatrical practice. Julia Bertschik's article contributes to the discussion by showing the difficulty of positioning specific journals vis-à-vis intellectual trends since market conditions, distribution, and the desideratum of mass appeal are not to be underestimated. Bertschik highlights Querschnitt, a venue used by authors such as Franz Blei, Ernst Schaukal, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, and Sigmund Freud, and reviews publications of Karl Kraus, Roda Roda, Emil Kuh, even Billy Wilder. Bertschik's survey of Querschnitt reveals skillful marketing strategies and makes explicit the coexistence of disparate trends. Primus-Heinz Kucher investigates the debates in the journal Musikblätt er im Anbruch with attention to conceptual links involving music theory, architecture, and sculpture. He emphasizes the ambivalence of...