Ivo Cerman, "Seeing in the Dark: Franz Joseph Thun and his Encyclopedia", pp. 91–107 Abstract:In the late 1790s the extravagant Bohemian aristocrat Franz Joseph Thun (1734‐1801) composed a massive encyclopedia containing his wide-ranging and esoteric knowledge, which was not discovered until 2009. In this article I discuss the contents of his encyclopedia and investigate Thun’s place within the broader intellectual climate in Central Europe. I argue that Thun was an exceptional case in the Habsburg context, where scientists generally rejected outright the sort of excesses his encyclopedia contains. None the less, he became famous for his experiments with a spirit named ‘Gablidon’ and for his sessions in Mesmerism. His encyclopedia focuses on three topics: human ethics, man’s place in nature, and the sins of the French Revolution. He saw man as the middle link in the ‘great chain of being’, whose morality must be based on submission to God. Although he distanced himself from the Catholic Church, he rejected the French Revolution as an attempt to establish a state without religious basis.
Uilleam Blacker, "The Wood Comes to Dunsinane Hill: Representations of the Katyn Massacre in Polish Literature", pp. 108–123 Abstract:The paper examines representations of the Katyn massacre in Polish literature in the context of the wider cultural memory of the tragedy in Poland. The paper discusses a range of representations of Katyn, from Wajda’s film to the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert, but focuses primarily on the fiction of Włodzimierz Odojewski. Referring to theories of Holocaust memory and trauma, such as those of Dominick LaCapra, Giorgio Agamben, and Cathy Caruth, the paper examines the nature of Katyn in Polish cultural memory as reflected in literature. The paper argues that, because of the specific nature of the massacre, to which no witnesses remained, memory discourse on Katyn becomes a discourse about memory, rather than of memory. Because of the lack of witness testimony, literature has avoided direct representations of the crime, which remains unseen and unknown. It is rather the cause of truth and the recognition of that truth by Russia, which stands for the perpetrator, that have become the focus of Katyn memory, rather than the event itself.
Max M W Haberich, "Arthur Schnitzlers Professor Bernhardi - Antisemitism on the Stage and in Reality", pp. 124–142 Abstract:Professor Bernhardi was one of Schnitzler’s most successful plays, and at the same time, a key document in the development of his Austrian-Jewish identity. The central conflict in the play is not, as often assumed, that of science against religion, but rather that between the critically minded individual and those who submit to a political or religious programme. The figure of Bernhardi reflects Schnitzler’s own position on the Jewish identity crisis, which may be termed ‘enlightened apolitical individualism’. In addition to his experiences working in his father’s clinic, Schnitzler drew inspiration for the plot from sources that are cited here for the first time.
Book Reviews, pp. 143–154