Abstract
This article examines the discourse on kitsch articulated by Austrian novelists Hermann Broch (1886-1951) and Robert Musil (1880-1942) between 1930 and 1950. In particular, I focus on the ways in which the two novelists draw the distinction of value between real and pseudo art (or kitsch). As I argue, their disagreement on this matter is emblematic of dilemmas that continue to confront aesthetic evaluation today. While Broch anchors value in a metaphysical realm on the outside of aesthetic discourse, assuming a late-idealistic notion of art, Musil frames the distinction between 'good' and 'bad' art within an empirical, relativistic, and immanent understanding of aesthetic experience. In the final section I draw on Hal Foster's notion of a "critical distance" (The Return of the Real, 1996) to discuss the advantages and limitations of the evaluative paradigms suggested by the two novelists.
Keywords:
- Keyword: kitsch
- Keyword: Austria
- Keyword: Austrian literature
- Keyword: Hermann Broch
- Keyword: Robert Musil
- Keyword: real art
- Keyword: pseudo art
- Keyword: art
- Keyword: late-idealistic art
- Keyword: relativistic
- Keyword: aesthetic experience
- Keyword: Hal Foster
- Keyword: critical distance
- Keyword: The Return of the Real
How to Cite:
McBride, P. C., (2005) “The Value of Kitsch. Hermann Broch and Robert Musil on Art and Morality”, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 29(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1604
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