Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s

Jon Hughes

Facing Modernity
Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s

Jon Hughes

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Joseph Roth (1894-1939), German novelist

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 67

Bithell Series of Dissertations 30

Maney Publishing for the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies

30 July 2006 • 204pp

ISBN: 978-1-904350-37-8 (hardback) • RRP £34.99, $48.99, €41.99

ISBN: 978-1-781880-74-6 (JSTOR ebook)

Access online: Books@JSTOR

ModernGermanFiction

This is the first monograph on the work of Joseph Roth (1894-1939) to be published in English by a British-based academic, and should prove useful both to those with a specialized interest in Roth, whose novels and journalism continue to gain admirers around the world, and to those interested more broadly in an extraordinarily rich period in twentieth-century European culture. It serves both as an introduction to the early part of a body of work whose variety and volume were for many years overshadowed by the reputation of the historical novel Radetzkymarsch (1932), and as a re-assessment of Roth's writing, both of fiction and of journalism, within the modern tradition. A perceived 'fragmentation' of social, political, cultural and other traditions was a particular concern for Roth, as for many contemporaries, and the thematic chapters present a detailed contextual survey of Roth's intense and often ambivalent engagement with aspects of modern life, including travel, gender, technology, the city, and cinema. Besides assessing the continuities and discontinuities in Roth's attitudes, these chapters examine how his responses to the contemporary world impact upon both the form and content of his writing. The author argues that Roth's writing of the 1920s should be considered modernist not just in its often prescient sensitivity to cultural and political developments, but in its employment of a formal aesthetics and narrative self-consciousness which eventually made possible the illusory 'wholeness' of the later fiction.

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Reviews:

‘Hughes’s readings of Roth’s texts are fresh and compelling. One may disagree with certain details, but undeniably this new study considerably expands the scope of the discussions about Roth and his intellectual environment in the light of current critical debates and theories. Hughes presents his arguments clearly and succinctly. The scholarly documentation is impeccable, and the book, equipped with a comprehensive bibliography and an extensive index, is as user-friendly in its organization as it is sophisticated in its scholarly narrative.’ — Dagmar C. G. Lorenz, Modern Language Review 102.4, 2007, 1188-90 (full text online)
‘A book-length study in English of the writings of Joseph Roth is greatly to be welcomed... Hughes’s principal thesis — that Roth is not simply the author at odds with his times, as which he is often represented, but one who finds his own ways of confronting the experiences of cultural fragmentation that the twentieth-century world brings — is engagingly presented and makes the volume as a whole a serious contribution to Roth scholarship.’ — David Midgley, Austrian Studies 15, 2007, 190-191 (full text online)
‘A substantial, original, and methodologically sound piece of work... This is a well-written and thought-provoking study and will be of interest to students and academics alike.’ — Helen Chambers, Modern Austrian Literature 40, 2007, 101-03

Contents:

i-iv	Front Matter Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.1	Cite
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v-vi	Table of Contents Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.2	Cite
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vii-vii	Preface Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.3	Cite
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viii-viii	Abbreviations Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.4	Cite
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1-12	Chapter 1 Introduction Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.5	Cite
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13-61	Chapter 2 ‘Ja, Ich Bin Draussen Zu Hause’: Travel, Subjectivity, and Identity in Die Weissen Städte Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.6	Cite
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62-92	Chapter 3 ‘Der Junge Mann Der Kriegsgeneration’: Violence , Masculinity , and Self Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.7	Cite
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93-112	Chapter 4 ‘Er Brauchte Nicht Einmal Verliebt Zu Sein’: the Failure of Fantasy Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.8	Cite
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113-142	Chapter 5 ‘the Terror of the Machine’: Technology, the Metropolis, and the Myth of Progress Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.9	Cite
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143-169	Chapter 6 Chasing Shadows: Film, Reality, and Self Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.10	Cite
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170-182	Chapter 7 Losing Reality? the End of the 1920s and the Crisis of the Novel Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.11	Cite
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183-192	Bibliography Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.12	Cite
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193-196	INDEX Jon Hughes doi:10.2307/j.ctt32b90w.13	Cite
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Cite this volume in standard MHRA style

Bibliography entry:

Hughes, Jon, Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s, MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 67 (MHRA, 2006)

First footnote reference: ³⁵ Jon Hughes, Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s, MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 67 (MHRA, 2006), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: ³⁷ Hughes, p. 47.

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Cite this volume in MHRA author-date style

Bibliography entry:

Hughes, Jon. 2006. Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s, MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 67 (MHRA)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Hughes 2006: 21).

Example footnote reference: ³⁵ Hughes 2006: 21.

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This title was first published by Maney Publishing for the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies but rights to it are now held by Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies.

This title is now out of print.

Permanent link to this title:

www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Facing-Modernity
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/td-67

Facing ModernityFragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s

Jon Hughes

Facing Modernity
Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s