The development of the image of the aesthete in the early prose works of Hugo von Hofmannsthal

The aim of this thesis is to show the development of Hofmannsthal's attitudes toward aestheticism and the role of the artist in society as manifested in his early prose works. Relatively little criticism has been written on these works. The majority of the secondary sources deal either with Hofmannsthal's poetry, most of which preceded the prose works, or his operas and librettos which he wrote later in life in collaboration with Richard Strauss. Chapter I deals with the early growth of Hofmannsthal's very strong opinions about aestheticism as seen in his prose poetry. In these prose poems one often sees a sharp criticism of some of Hofmannsthal's own contemporaries who, through cryptic elitist aestheticism, wished to reestablish Viennese writing as a high art form and were unyieldingly critical of those who would not follow them. Possibly for this reason, Hofmannsthal kept all but one of these critical prose poems in a personal journal which he never intended to publish. In the first of these prose poems entitled "Die Rose und der Schreibtisch," written in 1892, Hofmannsthal subtly and comically attacks the elitist pride which he perceives in his contemporaries. Over the approximately three years in which Hofmannsthal wrote all but two of his prose poems, one sees a progression in his attitudes, culminating with a focus on the negative effects of elitist aestheticism on the aesthete. Chapter n shows the further development of this theme as it is seen in Hofmannsthal's later prose works. In these stories, such as Das Marchen der 672. Nacht, written in 1895, Hofmannsthal shows how the aesthete's exclusive pursuit of beauty causes him to lose the ability to perceive life in a realistic way, and how this distorted perception causes him to overlook all signs of danger and leads inevitably to his death. The conclusion of this thesis is meant to show that Hofmannsthal continued to develop this theme much later in his life. His essay entitled Sebastian Melmoth," written in 1906, is a powerful portrayal of the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde. In this essay Hofmannsthal points out Oscar Wilde's terrible internal conflict between his elitist aesthetic rejection of reality on the one hand, and his undeniable drive to be one with reality on the other. When Wilde finally reaches his breaking point, he rushes headlong into the ugliest and most dangerous situation and, having taken on the alias Sebastian Melmoth, dies ruined and unknown.