"Ist auch dein Herbst gekommen, Europa?": Constellations of Time and Space in the Novels of Felix Dörmann

In the final years of his life, Felix Dörmann wrote his only two novels: Jazz (1925) and Machen Sie mich zu Ihrer Geliebten! (1928). These Zeitromane depict the political, economic, and cultural turbulence of the interwar years in Europe and, more specifically, Austria. Dörmann portrays the dissolution of traditional sources of authority as wealth increasingly becomes the sole guarantor of power. The two novels expose the dangers of this situation to individuals and society by interrogating the categories of time and space. Jazz depicts an Austrian modernity in which heritage and present desires struggle, with fatal consequences, against a future- oriented economic order characterized by relentless change. Machen Sie mich zu Ihrer Geliebten! details the existential threat posed to Austrian sovereignty by the burgeoning globalization of private capital and the concomitant rise of an international elite. Dörmann's novels offer no solutions to these dangers, which consequently seem to herald Austria's impending downfall.