MARGARETE JOHANNA LANDWEHR

West Chester University

Modernist Aesthetics in Joseph Roths

Radetzkymarsch: The Crisis of Meaning
and the Role of the Reader

Joseph Roths narrative of fin-de-sicle

Austro-Hungary depicts an aesthetic transition from realism to a modernist subversion
of realist conventions.1 Although the novel
contains such realistic devices as a fictional
world anchored in a specific time and place, a
plot with a credible ending, plausible characters, and an omniscient narrator, Roth subverts the thematics of destiny and the strategies of illusionhallmark traits of late realism.2
In particular, Roth punctures the realist
illusion of the wholeness of the text with a
self-reflexiveness ubiquitous in German Romantic works which not only exposes the
machinations that produce mimesis, but also
subverts the basis of realism, the tacit assumption that fictional reality contains an
intrinsic order. This use of Romantic irony
addressed to the reader challenges the presupposition that an irreversible cause-andeffect sequence of events shapes the protagonists inevitable destinies and draws attention to the process of narration. This selfreflexiveness creates a self-consciousness of
the text as artistic artifact in which the authors aesthetic shaping of the narrative
through linguistic devices, not an intrinsic
cosmic or historical force, creates order among
disparate events and alerts readers to their
own role in the aesthetic enterprise of producing meaning. This self-conscious depiction
of the texts order and meaning as products
of increasingly obsolete linguistic stratagems
of the nineteenth-century novel exposes the
precarious role of language in transforming
The German Quarterly 76.4 (Fall 2003)

a chaotic reality into a meaningful narrative

and demands the readers participation in
discovering/constructing the texts meaning.
Although the fictional works of Roths
contemporary, Carl Einstein, an anti-realist
novelist and art critic, differ from Roths, his
aesthetic theories reveal the debates concerning the novel of Roths generation and
shed light on modernist aspects of Roths
work. Einstein distinguishes between a selfconscious, artistic order imposed upon fictional reality and one that appears inherent
in the world of mimetic novels. In an essay
ber den Roman (1914) Einstein notes
that the plot of a psychological novel is based
upon the logical development of cause and
effect, a psychologically motivated chain of
events.3 He proposes an alternative novelistic form ruled not by psychological motivation, but by the randomness of auctorial caprice: Also das Kunstwerk ist Sache der Willkr (Einstein 127). As Neil Donahue notes:
Einsteins notion of arbitrariness undermines the logical connectedness required for
naturalistic depiction in visual or verbal art
[] .4 In this alternative art form, laws of
formal composition as an aesthetic order replace the order of logical causality in mimetic
art. Einstein perceived causality and artistic
form as opposites and believed that a chronological ordering of events as a linear sequence of causes and effects destroyed the
autonomous, closed form of the total work of
art.5
Roths work is transitional because it
consists of a balancing act between Ein-

398

LANDWEHR: Roth
steins two paradigms for the novel. At first
reading, the decline of the empire appears to
be the result of an inevitable historical destiny, the teleological design of a realist novel
that consists of a linear cause-and-effect sequence of events. The narrators intrusive
commentary, however, calls attention to authorial manipulation of the narrative that is
so pervasive in German Romantic, modernist, and postmodernist prose. The narrator
subverts the illusion of an inherent order, often depicted as fate in nineteenth-century
fiction, through self-reflexive commentary
on the storytelling process that fictionalizes
events through the techniques of mimesis
and verisimilitude, which create meaning.
Both this questioning of an intrinsic order
and the allusions to an arbitrary aesthetic
one in Roths novel underscore arts dubious
role in imposing order onto a chaotic world.
Specifically, cyclical, repetitive aesthetic
patterns and the leitmotif, a prevalent technique in music, subvert the novels linear
plot and mimetic function. The ritual of performing the Radetzkymarsch, an obvious
reference to the novel itself, and the parodic
repetitions of the initial rescue scene at Solverino together with additional leitmotifs
call attention to the works aesthetic structure, yet simultaneously expose the precariousness of the entire fictional enterprise of
creating order and meaning through language. The emptiness of von Trottas formulaic letters to his father, for example, calls
into question languages ability to convey/
create meaning and implicitly shifts the burden of producing meaning onto the reader.

I. Mimesis vs. Verisimilitude

Radetzkymarsch initially appears as a realistic novel par excellence that combines mimesis, the imitation of social reality, and verisimilitude, the narrated semblance of truth
with internal consistency and plausibility of
characterization and plot.6 Yet, although Radetzkymarsch appears at first glance to be a
realistic historical novel, this realist para-

399

digm is undermined.7 First, the initial chapter depicts the aesthetic retelling of the Kaisers (fictional) rescue and questions the reliability of historical narrative. Second, irony
and the narrators commentary refer to the
difficulty of depicting plausible heroes in a
world that no longer allows for heroism, and
this draws attention to the issue of verisimilitude in creating a realist effect. Both elements
stress the inadequacy of an anachronistic novelistic form for depicting twentieth-century reality, a central theme in the novel.
The embellished schoolbook version of
Franz Josephs rescue serves as a paradigm
for the novel itself. The hero, the Ritter der
Wahrheit, protests to a government bureaucrat that the heroic narrative distorts
the truth. The notary responds by stating
that historical events must be presented in
such a way that children understand them:
Alle historischen Taten, sagte der Notar,
werden fr den Schulgebrauch anders dargestellt. [] Die Kinder brauchen Beispiele,
die sie begreifen, die sich ihnen einprgen.8
This transformation, a fictonalization of an
impulsive gesture into a colorful, heroic deed
makes the event more accessible and meaningful to readers. The metamorphosis of historical fact into fiction emphasizes the
texts fictional nature. The schoolbook episode exposes the illusion of truthfulness by
serving as a self-reflexive commentary on
the novel. The childrens version distorts the
facts to fashion a historical hero out of a
simple man and serves as a microcosm of the
novel by calling attention to the process of
fictionalization. The episode underscores a
conflict between mimesis and verisimilitude
inherent in realist works. If mimesis concerns itself with accurately portraying the
past, then verisimilitude deals with the present as readers decide what is plausible. As
Lilian Furst has observed in All is True: The
Claims and Strategies of Realist Fiction, the
appearance of truth resides in the response
it evokes and reading a realist narrative is a
submission to an act of persuasion, the aim
of which is to convert readers to the belief
that all is true.9 Marshall Brown argues

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THE GERMAN QUARTERLY

that realism cannot be localized in any single element common to realistic novels, but
rather is the novels impact on readers.10
Although Roths work presents a credible, seemingly realistic portrait of the waning years of the Hapsburg empire through
vivid detail, gestures, and dialogue, his narrator calls attention to this persuasive act,
and to the transformation of that reality into
a plausible plot for skeptical 1930s European
readers. Thus, he discusses the plausibility
of characters behavior and explains the mores of the times. These intrusions underscore
the works fictionality, which entails a balancing act between an accurate portrayal of
the past (mimesis) and the transmutation of
the past into a credible, relevant and engaging plot (verisimilitude). The initial chapter
also questions its very medium, language, to
capture the past. If the storybook version
manages to portray the heroic rescue, albeit through exaggeration and distortion of
detail, then everyday language is unable to
depict the heroic moment.11 The hero cannot
explain to his father in an ordinary letter the
extraordinary circumstances of the rescue:
Wie aber sollte man jetzt, [] die gesetzmssige, fr ein ganzes Soldatenleben berechnete Form der Briefe ndern und zwischen die normierten Stze ungewhnliche Mitteilungen von ungewhnlich
gewordenen Verhltnissen rcken, die
man selbst kaum begriffen hatte? (R 9)

The heros difficulty in conveying the truth

to his father becomes a self-reflexive leitmotif: his grandson cannot describe his crises in his letters to his father. This motif
points to the difficulty of depicting a vanished past to future generations (verisimilitude). Colloquial speech appears equally
inappropriate to the narration of heroic
acts. When addressing the hero, the father
uses High German instead of a Slovenian
dialect out of respect for the unusual circumstances. The use of German marks the
distance between the mundane world of
the father and the heroic deed of the son (R
1011).

Fall 2003

The heros homecoming calls attention

to the intrusion of the heroic, the novelistic,
into the mundane world. He appears
wie ein militrischer Gott, mit glitzernder Feldbinde, lackiertem Helm, der eine
Art eigenen, schwarzen Sonnenscheins
verbreitete, in glatten, feurig gewichsten
Zugstiefeln, mit schimmerden Sporen,
mit zwei Reihen glnzender, beinahe flackernder Knpfe am Rock und von der
berirdischen Macht des Maria-Theresien-Ordens gesegnet. (R 10)

The description of the sons entrance with

its sun and fire metaphors resembles the
depictions of heroes such as Achilles in
Kleists Penthesilea. Only poetic language
can depict the heroic. Underneath these
metaphors, however, lurks irony. Beinahe before flackernder reminds us that
this is not a traditional novel with largerthan-life heroes, and the other-wordly
power of the Maria Theresia medal borders on sarcasm. Thus the irony goes beyond merely poking fun at the characters
to a self-reflexive commentary on the novelistic creation of heroes through poetic
language that may appear antiquated to
the reader. The privileged perspective the
reader gains through the narrators ironic
stance anticipates the characters disillusionment when they eventually recognize
the meaninglessness of their legends and
rituals.
Roth emphasizes the impossibility of depicting a convincing, valiant character in a
modern novel by contrasting failed attempts
at heroism with the initial heroic act. Thus
the myopic Demants lucidity during the
duel (R 13334) mirrors the heros clarity in
battle, but Demants death is portrayed as
senseless. Trotta, like his grandfather, receives an injury to the collar-bone during the
strike which ends disastrously because of his
lack of resolve (R 256). While trying to gain
access to the Emperor, the elder Trotta demonstrates the rescue of Solferino (R 335), but
this reenactment seems ludicrous. Carl Josephs sudden clarity of vision (R 364) and

LANDWEHR: Roth
attempt to save his men in battle calls to
mind the Emperors rescue, but ends in dismal failure. The narrator himself remarks
that his death is inappropriate for a childrens reader, that it is not the stuff of legends:
So einfach und zur Behandlung in Lesebchern fr die kaiser-und kniglichen
sterreichischen Volks-und Brgerschulen ungeeignet war das Ende des Enkels
des Helden von Solferino. Der Leutnant
Trotta starb nicht mit der Waffe, sondern
mit zwei Wassereimern in der Hand.
(R 391)

These failed attempts at heroism not only

portray the characters in an ironic light,
but also serve as self-reflexive statements
on the difficulty of depicting heroism in a
world in which it is obsolete.12 Heroism can
only be expressed metonymically in the
saving of a name instead of a life. Trotta redeems the family honor, but loses power
over his constituents; his sons rescue of
the Kaisers portrait from a brothel is a
symbolic, not a real rescue.
The narrator acknowledges how difficult
it is to achieve verisimilitude when he comments on the challenge of depicting a stock
character of bourgeois realism, the loyal servant. Trotta has refused Onufrijs offer to
pay his debts and recalls tales of the devoted
orderly. As the narrator notes, although second-rate books contain implausible characters, the latter do exist in reality:
Er war nicht erfahren genug, der Leutnant Trotta, um zu wissen, da es auch in
der Wirklichkeit ungeschlachtete Bauernburschen mit edlen Herzen gab und
da viel Wahres aus der lebendigen Welt
in schlechten Bchern abgeschrieben
wurde []. (R 32223)

Roths novel contains a metafictional

level that refers to the text as an aesthetic artifact created by a narrator who intrudes into
the text and is conscious of the readers reaction to the narrative. The subversion of the
texts illusionary wholeness is intensified by

401

two parallel processes in the novel that came

to the fore, as Furst observes, in the Age of
Romanticism: the break from the [Enlightenment] belief in the orderliness and coherency of reality (37) and the hazards of language as an unreliable mediator of meaning
(42).13
II. Causality vs. Contingency
Marshall Browns claim that a reality
effect results from its welter of contradictory characteristics (232), including the
clash of causality and contingency (237), is
relevant to this discussion. The readers wavering between perceptions of order and
randomness (232) typical of realist novels
results from the ambiguous portrayal of reality as based, from one perspective, on causality and, from another, on contingency.
Late nineteenth-century works favor fate
over contingency: from Balzac and Zola and
beyond, the typical realist was [] strongly
drawn toward darkly fatalistic plot mechanisms (Brown 236). Russell Berman also
observes that the bourgeois realist novel in
its late phase depicts the victory of an immutable order and ineluctable fate (152).
Fatalistic plots that portray an inescapable
destiny distinguish many novellas of German poetic realism such as those of Conrad
Ferdinand Meyer.
In Radetzkymarsch, Roth both focuses
upon and undermines the concept of fate as a
cosmic or historical force by depicting apparently inevitable, tragic events as caused
by fortuitous, alterable circumstances: that
which the characters view as causality, the
readers and the omniscient narrator perceive as chance. The implied privileging of
contingency over causality fractures the
nineteenth-century realist worldview and
draws the readers attention to the aesthetic
order imposed upon fictional events that fills
the void left by the lack of an intrinsic order.
In his foreword to Der Radetzky-Marsch
(sic), Roth provides this dual perspective of
the downfall of the Danube Monarchy as the

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THE GERMAN QUARTERLY

machinations of an inexorable, historical

force, but also as the result of human deficiencies and avoidable mistakes.14 His other
novels portray this ambiguous view of fate. If
Hiob depicts a Biblical character almost
crushed by the blows of fate, then the narrator in Hotel Savoy notes that the protagonists create their own destiny, a description
that fits Carl Joseph as well:
Das Schicksal bereiteten sie sich selbst
und glaubten, es kme von Gott. Sie waren gefangen in berlieferungen, ihr
Herz hing an tausend Fden, und ihre
Hnde spannen sich selbst die Fden.
(Bronson 252)

Roth borrows the ancient Greek concept of

the Fates as three women who spin humans destiny and inverts it by claiming
that the protagonists themselves take on
this role.
In Radetzkymarsch, Roth places the leitmotif of fate in the foreground in order to
question the relevance and plausibility of
this literary tradition with its concepts of an
intrinsic order, an inescapable destiny, and
ultimate justice. Although his characters
perceive the tragic demise of the Trottas and
Hapsburgs as inevitable, the narrator undermines this fatalistic view in the initial
scene. Fate, we are told, determines the Emperors rescue: Zu einer besondern Tat
hatte ihn (Trotta) das Schicksal ausersehn
(R 5). The exaggerated depiction of the rescue, however, assumes legendary dimensions verging on parody and undermines the
image of Trotta as a hero guided by fate:
Niemals schoss er, ohne zu zielen, und jeder
seine Schsse traf (R 5). The circumstances
of the rescue suggest that chance saved the
Emperor. Yet Trottas grabbing the Kaisers
shoulders too forcefully causes his fall. If a
bullet had not arrived at that precise moment, the act might have been regarded as
reproachable: In diesem Augenblick durchbohrte ein Schuss die linke Schulter des Leutnants, jener Schuss eben, der dem Herzen
des Kaisers gegolten htte (R 6). In diesem
Augenblick suggests the fortuitous nature

Fall 2003

of the rescue: a second can save a life and produce a hero. His peers regard Trotta as a
hero; a modern reader may view him as
merely lucky. As Friedrich Drrenmatt
notes in his study of ancient Greek tragedy
and modern drama, the difference between
causality and contingency, fate and chance,
is one of perspective.15
The ironic portrayal of Carl Josephs belief that a malevolent force, not his own mistakes, causes his demise also undermines a
fatalistic interpretation of the events. The
weak anti-hero blames fate rather than poor
judgment for his crises. He denies any involvement with Demants wife and responsibility for his death in a duel defending his
wifes honor (R 120). He regards his confrontation with the moneylender Kapturak as resulting from the insidious machinations of
fate rather than his imprudent accumulation of debt.16 The brushworkers strike
graphically depicts the gulf between his interpretation of events and reality. He initially believes that destiny, not social injustice, triggers these demonstrations:
Fr ihn hatte das Schicksal diese politischen Demonstrationen vorbereitet. []
Er glaubte jetzt genau zu wissen, dass ein
tckisch berechnendes Schicksal besonderer Art ihm zuerst den Urlaub beschert
hatte, um ihn hierauf zu vernichten. (R
248)

In contrast, the more enlightened Dr.

Demant views his death as senseless, as determined by a ridiculous social lawthe
code of honorthat subverts the idea of destiny: Ein nichtswrdiges, infames, dummes, eisernes, gewaltiges Gesetz fesselte ihn,
schickte ihn gefesselt in einen dummen Tod
(R 130). The ironic contrast between other
characters fatalistic assessment of Demants death and readers perception of it as
caused by human pettiness further undermines the concept of fate. Although he is
aware of his daughters affairs with officers,
Demants father-in-law Knopfmacher refuses to lend Demant money so he might
leave the army (R 102). Knopfmacher and

LANDWEHR: Roth
Trottas claim after Demants burial that
nothing could have been done (Nein, es war
nichts zu machen! [R 149]) reveals the
characters blindness and depicts Demants
tragic end as avoidable and absurd.
Northrop Frye argues that by stressing
its heros humanity, irony
minimizes the sense of ritual inevitability
in tragedy, supplies social and psychological explanations for catastrophe, and makes as much as possible of human misery
seem in Thoreaus phrase, superfluous
and evitable. (237)

Roth furnishes psychological and social

reasons for individual, regional, and national crises. Carl Josephs strict upbringing nurtures an unquestioning obedience
to authority, creates an impotent young
man easily influenced by others, and leads
him from one disaster to another. Demants denial of his wifes infidelity, his
passivity, and Knopfmachers inaction
contribute to his tragic end. On a larger
scale, social inequity and a governments
blindness to workers unrest embodied in
the elder Trottas denial of revolutionaries in his district trigger protests (R 171).
Appalling working conditions that spawn
illness reveal that the strike was provoked
by mundane and changeable causes, the
factory owners avarice and politicians incompetence (R 212).
Roths work also challenges the view of
the Danube monarchys demise as a collective historical destiny. Roth creates a sense of
inevitable doom through the repetitive use of
the rain motif as a metaphor for disaster that
accompanies most tragic events and culminates in a storm at a party at which Franz
Ferdinands assassination is announced.17
The sense of inevitability is subverted when
a servant interprets the storm as a supernatural sign:
Der Diener brachte den Zufall des Gewitters mit der schrecklichen Kunde in einen
bernatrlichen Zusammenhang. Er bedachte, dass die Stunde endlich gekommen sei, in der sich bernatrliche Ge-

403

walten der Welt deutlich und grausam

kundgeben wollten. (R 357)

His superstitious perception of a chance

event as a supernatural omen exposes the
concept of fate as a human construct and
an absurd one at that.
The leitmotif of the Radetzky March exposes the sense of fatalism as something that
humans impose on reality. Ironic references
to the march, dubbed by Roth the Marseillaise of Conservatism, (Bronson 399) which
inspires patriotism depicts the avoidability
of war. This motif refers to the psychological
reasons for the impending war, such as the
unquestioning loyalty of the Emperors subjects to an aging monarch and a moribund
social order. The march conjures up the euphoria of Austrias power in 1848 that has
become obsolete. (Count Radetzky von Radetz crushed an Italian revolt and helped reestablish the monarchys authority [Roth
39899].)
Despite the decline of the old social order,
characters maintain a sense of meaning and
order through ritual. The repetitive performance of the march, the Tafelspitz and
Kirschkndel that the elder Trotta eats on
Sundays, the egg and rolls he consumes for
breakfast, as well as the formulaic letters
that sons write fathers all contribute to a
cyclical movement by habits which impose
order on an increasingly chaotic world. In a
society that has lost the appearance of a
natural order as a result of social conflicts
meaning can be guaranteed only by an external imposition of symbolic order (Berman 146). The habitual, however, can entrap: the more engrained the habits, the less
likely it is that the established order will be
recognized as a construct.
The disruption of these rituals subverts
the illusion of order. The elder Trotta does
not receive his mail at breakfast because
Jacques, the loyal servant, who embodies the
old social order, is dying. The workers Internationale replaces the Radetzky March during the strike and heralds the empires disintegration. Carl Joseph rejects paternal au-

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THE GERMAN QUARTERLY

thority when he discontinues writing letters

to his father. His break with ritual and the
breakdown of the old order precipitate a crisis of meaning. The fathers loss of faith (R
29596) and his sons disillusionment with
the army (R 243) provoke a sense of meaninglessness described by Skowronnek, who
notes that the Kaiser is no longer responsible
for his monarchy just as God is no longer responsible for the world:
Ja, es scheint, dass Gott selbst die Verantwortung fr die Welt nicht mehr tragen
will. Es war damals leichter! Alles war gesichert. Jeder Stein lag auf seinem Platz.
[] Aber heute [] liegen die Steine auf
den Strassen quer und verworren und in
gefhrlichen Haufen, und die Dcher haben Lcher, und in die Huser regnet es,
und jeder muss selber wissen, welche
Strasse er geht und in was fr ein Haus er
zieht. (R 297)

Russell Bermans study of the crisis of

meaning in The Rise of the Modern German
Novel sheds light on Roths work. Berman
points out that the presumption in realist
literature [is] of a legible reality, the world as
text (105). Yet, this thesis of a fundamentally meaningful world was already questioned in mid-century works such as Stifters
Der Nachsommer that depicts modernity as
a process that plunges culture, the social
structure of meaning into a profound crisis
(Berman 115). According to Berman capitalist modernization caused this crisis (151).
Roth also portrays historical progress,
conceived as modernization in the guise of
technology, as the cause of cultural decline
and loss of meaning. Roth felt ambivalent towards technology. He believed humans could
master their destiny with the help of technology, but perceived it as potentially destructive.18 Roth depicts technology, represented
by trains, the Morse keyboard, and electricity as a corrupting influence.19 Moreover, the
factory disturbs the idyllic peasant life by
bringing disease and death to workers and
introducing dangerous democratic ideas that
destroy the old order: the strike precipitates
Carl Josephs demise, reveals the armys in-

Fall 2003

eptitude, and foreshadows the empires

downfall. Technology makes modernization
as threatening force in a world ruled not by
fate, but by chance, its latter-day successor.
The accidents, malfunctions, and breakdowns of technology and the rise of an insurance industry suggest the fortuitousness of
modern life.
A need to impose meaning through language accompanies the dissolution of meaning in the fictional reality of German novels.
Writing is depicted in Der Nachsommer, for
example, as an effort to resist this crisis [of
meaning] by imposing order (Berman 115).
Language can master the semiotic chaos
engendered by capitalist modernization. It is
only through such speech that meaning or
the illusion of meaning in an otherwise meaningless world is possible (Berman 151). In a
similar vein, Roland Barthes has observed
that myth transforms meaning into form.20
Roth thematizes myth-making, the imposition of an aesthetic order onto chaos in the
Solferino episode and the leitmotif of the
Radetzky March as musical piece and novel:
Jeden Sonntag spielte der Kapelle Herrn
Nechwals den Radetzkymarsch. Einmal in
der Woche, am Samstag, war sterreich (R
399400). 21 Daily rituals and art represent
attempts to create meaning. The performance of the march and the reading of the
novel evoke the illusion of order for the fictional characters and the actual readers.
Yet, if Jacquess death disrupts his masters daily rituals and jolts him into an
awareness of encroaching chaos, then Roth
himself questions by way of a character arts
ability to impose meaning onto a chaotic reality. Chojnicki, who has Roths facial features (Bronson 399) and voices his views,
discusses this break with obsolete artistic
forms that no longer depict modern reality.22
The count is an artist of sorts: as an alchemist who attempts to transform base metals
into gold, he mirrors the artists attempts to
transfigure everyday reality into a higher
truth. Yet the artistic metamorphosis of the
mundane into meaning has become obsolete. The count notes:

LANDWEHR: Roth
Verloren sind wir []. Wir sind, sage ich,
die Letzten einer Welt, in der Gott noch
die Majestten begnadet und Verrckte
wie ich Gold machen. [] dies ist die Zeit
der Elektrizitt, nicht der Alchimie. []
Nicht mehr Gold! [] Durch Nitroglyzerin und Elektrizitt werden wir zugrunde
gehen! (R197)

The harsh glare of electricity, an achievement of technology, exposes the illusion of

a unified empire by revealing its disintegration. Similarly, irony and the narrators
intrusive comments undermine the illusion of meaning, of languages ability to
communicate as exemplified in Carl Josephs formulaic letters that constitute a
meaningless ritual. Since realistic literary speech is about the search for meaning (Berman 148), then the impossibility
of linguistic communication signals the
self-destruction of the realist novel (Berman 159).
The grandfathers portrait represents
arts and the narratives loss of its mimetic,
communicative role. Virtually all theorists
have explained literary realism and its mimetic function in terms of the visual, especially painting.23 As Ursula Reidel-Schrewe
observes, Carl Josephs failure to discover a
message in the portrait refers to arts inability to depict reality mimetically and serves as
a mise-en-abime that reflects the fin-de-sicle
consciousness, a Darstellungsgegenstand
der Zersetzungsprozesse eines Gegewartsbewusstseins (70).24 To Carl Joseph the
painting appears as mere fragments:
Es zerfiel in zahlreiche tiefe Schatten und
helle Lichtflecke, in Pinselstriche und
Tupfen, in ein tausendfaltiges Gewebe
der bemalten Leinwand, in ein hartes
Farbenspiel getrockneten ls. (R 42)

He gains no insights into his grandfathers

true being: all that confronts him is a chaotic jumble of shadows and patches of
light. Farther away, the brushstrokes form
an impenetrable physiognomy.25
The portraits disintegration into fragments mirrors the empires deterioration

405

into separate nations. As the prophetic Chojnicki observes: Sie [die Monarchie] zerfllt,
sie ist schon verfallen (R 195)! Bermans
claim that the confusion of the social order is
the implicit corollary to the meaninglessness
of speech in Fontanes Irrungen, Wirrungen
applies equally to Roths work (149). The
portraits loss of its communicative role mirrors the loss of meaning provoked by social
upheaval. This Sprachkrise or crisis of language pervasive in the works of Roths contemporaries such as Hugo von Hofmannsthals Der Schwierige evokes the meaningless void left after the empires collapse.

III. An Aesthetic Order and the

Role of the Reader
Carl Einstein, writer of experimental fiction and a friend of Picasso and Braque, reacted to the crisis of meaning by proposing
an amimetic theory of aesthetics in which he
applies to literature the principles of formal
composition he deduced from abstract painting. He responded to the disintegration of a
reality no longer grounded in moral or religious dogma by absolutizing subjectivity: the
laws of the imagination would create a new
artistic reality free of the laws of logic and
causality (Oehm 3435). Like the Romantics, he endowed the artwork with a quasi-religious role: art as aesthetic transcendence
replaces the role of God as religious transcendence. He modifies Schlegels concept of
art as myth by stating that autonomous art,
freed from its mimetic role and causality
and, thus freed from its mythical and religious origins, offers a mythology based on total subjectivity (Oehm 5257). The creation
of such subjective reality serves as a protest
against alienation in an industrial society.26
The autonomous language that creates its
own meaning constitutes a hallmark of modernist prose.27 In the essay Vathek (1910)
Einstein denounces rules of logic, causality,
and mimesis, and views the artwork as construction, as based on the laws of formal
composition.28 Einstein puts his theory into

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THE GERMAN QUARTERLY

practice in his novel Bebuquin oder die Dilettanten des Wunders. Among the various
avant-garde techniques he employs is the
spatial construction of compositional elements in the work through the logical selfreflexion of leitmotifs (Donahue 428).
The creation of an aesthetic order
through leitmotifs, a modernist trait ubiquitous in Thomas Manns novels, plays a central role in Roths work as well. Pivotal
events such as Demants duel, Carl Josephs
confrontation with the striking workers, and
his death on the battlefield comprise ironic
references to or parodic repetitions of the initial heroic act. These variations of the original event create a self-referential aesthetic
design that counters the linear, teleological
one of realist writing and endows the fictional events with an artistic order. Repetitive use of the Radetzkymarsch and the rain
leitmotif, among others, reflects the circular
structure of Einsteins new literary form
that is subordinate to musical law.29 Moreover, rituals that bestow meaning onto the
characters lives such as Trottas habitual
walks and meals, and the letter writing mirror this circular aesthetic design. However,
just as the characters eventually discover the
emptiness of the rituals, so, too, do the readers detect the void behind the aesthetic stratagems and are forced to confront their own
role in the production of meaning.
Further analysis of references to the portrait reveal the readers central role in the
creation of meaning. Although art has lost its
mimetic function, some scenes suggest that
the crisis of meaning may result from the
viewers own subjective reaction to art. Ones
frame of reference appears to determine the
success or failure in discovering truth. The
elder Trottas perception of the portrait as a
chaotic mass of dabs of paint reflects his belief that his life has lost meaning. He has just
written his son a letter in which he has relinquished his paternal authority: Da er nun
aber mit diesem Brief die Befehlsgewalt ber
seinen Sohn niederlegte, schien es ihm, dass
sein ganzes Leben wenig Sinn mehr htte
[] (R 294). Immediately afterwards, he

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views the portrait that zerfiel in hundert

kleine, lige Lichtflecke und Tupfen []( R
294). In contrast, the hero, who harbors no
such doubts, discovers the truth about himself in the portrait (R 23). Not coincidentally,
perceptions of the portrait reflect the viewers experience of life. As Schrewe-Reidel observes, Carl Josephs (and his fathers) view
of the painting mirrors a fin-de-sicle view of
a disintegrating world order void of meaning, a common motif in modernist works
such as Buddenbrooks and Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, as well as of an
unstable self typical of works of Viennese
Modernism such as Musils Die Verwirrungen des Zglings Trless or Der Mann ohne
Eigenschaften (70). By contrast, clarity of vision and a sense of purpose distinguish the
heroic grandfather from the blind, irresolute
grandson. The heros sharp eye enables
him to break through the fog of the battlefield; young Trottas lack of clear vision, his
Blick ohne Ziel (R 203) reveals an inability
to control his unit during the strike or his
life. Strikingly similar depictions of his perceptions of the portrait and of Kapturak suggest that his failure to find meaning in art results from his incapacity to find meaning in
life. His nebulous vision of the usurer in a
confrontation over his debts also consists of a
jumble of incoherent images:
Fr ein paar Augenblicke, schien es dem
Leutnant, da sein Gast zerfliee und
sich aus undeutlichen, grauen Flecken
wiederzusammensetze. (R 308)

The characters experiences of the portrait mirror the readers subjective relationship to Roths work. If a characters worldview influences his perception of the portrait, the readers preconceptions direct their
reading of the text. Roths narrator discusses
the readers role as an interpreter of the narrative, when he states that a change in perspective, whether one views a figure with
modern eyes or not, creates a noble or ridiculous character. A contemporary reader might
find Trottas obsession with honor absurd:

LANDWEHR: Roth
Heutzutage sind die Begriffe von Standesehre und Familienehre und persnlicher Ehre, in denen der Herr von Trotta
lebte, berreste unglaubwrdiger und
kindischer Legenden, wie es uns manchmal scheint. (R 324)

Heroism or absurdity, tragedy or irony, meaning or meaninglessness are in the eyes of the
reader.
The leitmotif of blindness, both literal and
symbolic, suggests the subjective nature of
meaning. The pervasive references to and
toying with the notions of blindness and clarity suggest that meaning is imposed upon reality by the viewer. Carl Joseph and his peers,
especially Dr. Demant, are blind to their circumstances. Literally and metaphorically
nearsighted, Demant refuses to confront his
wifes infidelity: he removes his glasses to
clean them and is enveloped in einen wohltuenden Nebel through which he sees the
bearer of bad news in a blur (R 99). Yet, when
faced with death in the duel, Demant acquires sudden clarity, both literally and symbolically. Although he is not wearing his
glasses, the familiar fog does not arrive
and he inexplicably kills his opponent: Aber
alles blieb deutlich, als ob der Regimentsarzt
nie kurzsichtig gewesen wre (R 134). Near
death, he gains insight into the absurdity of
the honor code and his army career. Meaning
or lack of it depends on ones perception of reality.
Similarly, the narrator invites the reader
to be a partner in the aesthetic enterprise of
creating meaning. Sharing observations and
opinions with the reader encourages him/her
to engage actively in creating meaning according to Einsteins paradigm for modern
art which entails a new relationship between
artwork and recipient. In Totalitt (1914)
Einstein asserts that art is not concerned
with objects (mimesis) but with shaping perceptions: Gegenstand der Kunst sind nicht
Objekte, sondern das gestaltete Sehen.30 He
links art with cognition (Kunsterkenntnis) and states that the act of cognition involves reconstructing ones worldview: Der
Erkenntnisakt, die Umbildung der Weltvor-

407

stellung, geschieht [] durch das Kunstwerk

selbst (224). Einsteins aesthetic enterprise
was to deconstruct established patterns of
perception just as cubism deconstructed
mimetic conventions of painting (SchulteSasse 43).
Although Roths novel retains the trappings of realism, it concerns itself in form
and content with questioning obsolete perceptions of narrative and of the world. The
belief in an intrinsic order grounded in the
faith in God and the Kaiser is shattered. The
change in perspective corresponds to the undermining of readers expectations of a realist novel involving mimesis, causality, and
the belief in a meaning conveyed through a
language mutually understood by narrator
and reader. Here, all three pillars of realist
fiction seem to be on the verge of collapse.
The subversion of the realist features that
would create a predictable order results in a
revolutionary transformation demanding a
shift in the readers stance towards the text
from passive recipients to creators of meaning. Roth seems to have anticipated this shift
in the narrators numerous appeals to the
reader to participate in the interpretation/
creation of the text. Barthes describes this
radical change in The Death of the Author:
[] literature [] by refusing to assign a
secret, an ultimate meaning to the text
(and to the world as text), liberates what
may be called an anti-theological activity,
an activity that is truly revolutionary since to refuse to fix meaning is, in the end,
to refuse God and his hypostasesreason, science, law. [] a text is made of
multiple writings, [ ] but there is one
place where this multiplicity is focused
and that place is the reader, not, as was
hitherto said, the author. [ ] the birth of
the reader must be at the cost of the death
of the Author.31

Roth sought meaning through art, yet he

expressed ambivalence with regard to the
role of art in transmuting reality into higher
truth. He regarded literature as the only true
expression of life: [Die Literatur] ist der einzige wahre Ausdruck des Lebens (Bronson

408

THE GERMAN QUARTERLY

447). In a notebook, however, he equates the

writer with the swindler: Ich log sehr viel
[] und lernte in jener Zeit erst das eigentliche Handwerk des Schriftstellers und des
Hochstaplers: Die Formulierung. [] Ich war
ein Hochstapler (Bronson 13899). While
writing Radetzkymarsch Roth was often
overcome with doubt in his ability as a writer
and the worth of his novel (Bronson 395).
Yet, the lies of literature were for Roth superior to mundane truths. Verisimilitude,
the alchemical transmutation of reality into
art, might have been his sole source of meaning. Writing constituted the only home that
Roth as an expatriate had and it served as a
bulwark against painful reality (Bronson
349). In a feuilleton article Roth describes
language as Heimatersatz: Das Land Staatenlos. Dort sind wir zu Hause. Dort und in
der deutschen Sprache, unserer einzigen
Heimat, seit sie heimatlos in Deutschland
geworden ist(Beug 59). Could doubt about
the security of his only refuge from reality
have contributed to Roths tragic end? As his
alter ego predicts, those who see the truth
are destroyed by it. Chojnicki who predicted
the empires downfall goes insane; his demise foreshadows his creators lonely death.
Perhaps the hope that future readers in a
more stable era would discover/create meaning out of his texts sustained Roth and enabled him to be such a prolific writer.
Notes
1In

Radetzkymarsch, Kulturpessimismus
und Erzhlform: Studien zu Joseph Roths Leben und Werk, ed. Fritz Hackert (Bern: Herbert
Lang, 1967) 148; Georg Lukcs defines Roth as
a Schriftsteller-Realist who accurately depicts the social decay of Hapsburg culture.
Claudio Magris also notes that Roth questions
the form of the 19th-century novel: Bereits in
Radetzkymarsch hatte Roth brigens das anachronistische Paradoxon eines Romans des 19.
Jahrhunderts geschaffen, der die Absurdheit
und die Unwirklichkeit derselben Formen darstellt, auf denen er beruht (7576). Die Verschollenen Annalen. Historische Regression
und epische Totalitt in der Erzhlkunst Jo-

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seph Roths, Vierteljahresschrift fr vergleichende Literaturforschung 3 (1971). Ursula

Reidel-Schrewe also explores some modernist
aspects in Roths work in Im Niemandsland
zwischen Indikativ und Konjunktiv: Joseph
Roths Radetzkymarsch, Modern Austrian
Literature 24 (1991): 5978.
2 See Russell Berman, The Rise of the Modern
German Novel: Crisis and Charisma. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1986.
3 Einstein writes: Der psychologische Roman
beruht auf causaler Schlussweise und gibt keine Form, da nicht abzusehen ist, wohin das
Schliessen zurckfhrt und wo es endigt. Dies
ist zumeist an die Anekdote gebundenalso
induktive Wissenschaft. ber den Roman,
Carl Einstein: Werke, vol. I (190818). (Berlin:
Medusa, 1980) 127.
4 Neil Donahue, Analysis and Construction:
The Aesthetics of Carl Einstein, German
Quarterly 61 (1988): 41936, see esp. 426.
5 Einstein [] wendet sich gegen die kausale Ordnung zeitlichen Geschehens, weil fr
ihn mit der Einfhrung der Kausalitt, die er
als das zentrale Element der traditionellen
[] Romankonzeption ansieht, die Totalitt
des Kunstwerks zerstrt wird (1516). Matias Martnez-Seekamp, Ferien von der Kausalitt?: Zum Gegensatz von Kausalitt und
Form bei Carl Einstein, Text und Kritik 95
(1987): 1322. Martnez-Seekamp cites the essays Totalitt and ber den Roman. See
also: Heidemarie Oehm, Die Kunsttheorie Carl
Einsteins (Mnchen: Wilhelm Fink, 1976).
6 Gregory Lucente distinguishes between
Platonic mimesis and Aristotelian verisimilitude. He defines mimesis as the faithful reflection of the worlds surface and verisimilitude as the narratives obedience to deeply
ingrained cultural modes for character motivation and plotting. The Narrative of Realism
and Myth: Verga, Lawrence, Faulkner, Pavese
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1981) 1.
7 Fritz Hackert notes that Roth did not regard his work as a historical novel (187). Joseph Roth: Radetzkymarsch (1932), Deutsche
Romane des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Paul M.
Ltzeler (Knigstein: Athenum, 1983) 183
99. Hartmut Scheible, Radetzkymarsch: Fiktion und Historie, Joseph Roth (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1971) 14655. David Dollenmayer,
History and Fiction: The Kaiser in Joseph
Roths Radetzkymarsch, Modern Language

LANDWEHR: Roth
Studies 16 (1986): 30210. Georg Lukcs, The
Historical Novel, trans. Hannah and Stanley
Mitchell (New York: Humanities Press, 1965).
8 Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch (Mnchen:
Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1995) 16. Subsequent
references will be provided parenthetically and
abbreviated R.
9 All is True: The Claims and Strategies of Realist Fiction (Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1995) 26.
See also Robert C. Holub, Reflections of Realism: Paradox, Norm, and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century German Prose (Detroit: Wayne
State UP, 1991).
10 Marshall Brown, The Logic of Realism: A
Hegelian Approach, PMLA 96 (1981): 22441.
11 Eric Santner also notes that the heros entry
into the realm of history and his loss of a sense
of roots is accompanied by a loss of contact to
ones mother tongue. Geschlossenheit, Geschichte und Welt in Joseph Roths Radetzkymarsch, Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 36 (1982): 4559;
here 5051.
12 Northrop Frye claims that as the ironic element increases, the heroic decreases (221)
and as a rule, the dingier the hero, the sharper
the irony (210). Anatomy of Criticism: Four
Essays (1973; Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1957) 221. For an analysis of irony in
Roths works see Celine Mathew, Ambivalence
and Irony in the Works of Joseph Roth, European University Studies 686 (Frankfurt/M.:
Peter Lang, 1984). See esp. 13550.
13 Fictions of Romantic Irony (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard UP, 1984).
14 Ein grausamer Wille der Geschichte hat
mein altes Vaterland, die sterreichisch-ungarische Monarchie, zertrmmert. [] Ich habe
die Tugenden und die Vorzge dieses Vaterlands geliebt, und ich liebe heute, da es verstorben und verloren ist, auch noch seine Fehler und Schwchen. Deren hatte es viele. Es hat
sie durch seinen Tod gebsst. David Bronson,
Joseph Roth: Eine Biographie (Cologne: Kiepenheuer und Witsch, 1974) 400. Further references to this work will be cited parenthetically as Roth.
15 Friedrich Drrenmatt, Theaterprobleme (Zrich: Arche, 1955) 37.
16 Er glaubte, die tckische Schliche einer
finsteren Macht zu erkennen, [] und allmhlich sah er auch alle dsteren Ereignisse seines
Lebens in einen dsteren Zusammenhang gefgt

409

und abhngig von irgendeinem gewaltigen, gehssigen, unsichtbaren Drahtzieher, dessen Ziel
es war, den Leutnant zu vernichten (R 313).
17 Magris explores the rains function as a leitmotif of impending disaster in Eine Welt von
GesternEin Mythos von Heute, Der Habsburgische Mythos in der sterreichschen Literatur (Salzburg: Otto Mller, 1966) 23965;
here, 260.
18 Bronson notes: Nach Roths Auffassung
fhlt sich der Mensch mit Hilfe der Technik
Meister der Dinge, aber immer gibt es etwas
Hintergrndiges, das sich nicht nach Menschenregeln richtet und alle Menschenplne zunichte
macht (Roth 21617).
19 Philip Manger, The Radetzky March: Joseph Roth and the Habsburg Myth, The Viennese Enlightenment, ed. Mark Francis. (New
York: St. Martins Press, 1985) 4062. See esp.
5861.
20 Mythologies, trans., Jonathan Cape Ltd.,
(1957 Editions du Seuil, Paris: Farrar, Strauss
and Giraux, 1986) 131.
21 Philip Manger notes that Roth thematicises myth by showing... how myth originates
and how, by manipulating historical data and
hence distorting reality, the establishment exploits myth as an instrument of power, an ideological-propagandistic tool for indoctrination
and cementing existing social structures (48).
22 In Radetzkymarsch, Lukcs observes that
Graf Chojnicki expresses Roths views (148).
See Joseph Beug, Joseph Roths Literarische
Selbstportrts, Irish Studies in Modern Austrian Literature, ed. G. J. Carr and Edna Sagarro (Dublin: Trinity College, 1982) 5175.
23 Robert Holub, Reflections of Realism (47).
Realism became a popular term in France after
a controversial painting exhibition by Courbet
in 1855. See also: Ren Wellek, The Concept of
Realism in Literary Scholarship, Neophilologus 45 (1961) 4.
24 Doch in der nchsten Generation verliert
diese bildhafte Wirklichkeit auch ihre reprsentative Funktion, das Bild ist kein Kommunikationsvermittler mehr, in einem Prozess
der Zersetzung droht es schliesslich seine Gegenstndlichkeit zu verlieren (68).
25 Reidel-Schrewe discusses these dual perspectives and arts inability to bridge the gap
between past and present, between the object
of the portrait and the viewer, to convey meaning (69).

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THE GERMAN QUARTERLY

26Schulte-Sasse cites an English translation of

Einsteins Fabrication of Fictions in which he
remarks: The myth, which had been an expression of magic collectives, was to have redeemed individuals in a technological age [from
total standardization]. Carl Einstein or The
Postmodern Transformation of Modernism,
Modernity and the Text: Revisions of German
Modernism, eds. Andreas Huyssen and David
Bathrick (New York: Colombia UP, 1989)
3659; here 53.
27Mortiz Bassler, Christoph Brecht, Dirk Neifanger and Gotthart Wunberg, Historismus

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und literarische Moderne. Tbingen: Max

Niemayer, 1996. See esp. Dekorative Texturen im Historismus in which they discuss die
Tendenz zur semantischen Autonomie einzelner Sentenzen, Worte und Lexeme (178).
28Vathek, Carl Einstein: Werke Vol 1. Eds.
Rolf-Peter Baacke and Jens Kwasny. (Berlin:
Medusa, 1980) 28. Donahue 42728.
29Vathek 30.
30Carl Einstein: Werke Vol 1 224.
31Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author,
Image, Music, Text, trans. Stephen Heath
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1982) 14748.