Inner Depths
Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei
Oxford University Press eBooks October 20, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604128.003.0005 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that works by Benn, Musil, and Kubin render the inner life as exotic space to undermine the Enlightenment model of a rationally unified self and to explore primal psychic forces. The authors contend that these texts expose a split between rationality and primitive animality and propose new ways of living and a new aesthetic arising from fragmentation and decay. |
Abstract
The inner life rendered as exotic space reflects the modern subject’s sense of self, recognizing primal forces within. The aesthetic imagination, mystical-erotic reverie, and the interior experiences of dreams in works by Gottfried Benn, Robert Musil, and Alfred Kubin engage exotic topographical imagery, where writers undermine the Enlightenment model of a rationally unified self and to explore primal elements of the psyche that may offer a renewal of human life and creativity, reflecting the influence of Nietzsche along with cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience. This tracing of the Western representation of the self as interior space and metaphoric depth, culminating in Nietzsche and modernism, reveals a split between rationality and a primitive animality that emerges when the self’s inner fragmentations are exposed. By exploring this danger, the texts by Benn, Musil and Kubin propose new ways of living and develop a new aesthetic out of the fragmentation and decay.