Hermann Broch

Paul Michael Lützeler (Washington University St. Louis)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 1 Nov 1886
Died 30 Jun 1951
Activity 1917-1951

Places

Born in Austria
Active in Austria; Germany; United States

Cultural Identities

Jewish European

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Novelist

Other

Autobiographer
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Philosopher
Playwright / Dramatist
Political writer
Sociologist

Resources

Broch's Works

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Hermann Broch is considered one of the leading European novelists of the first part of the 20th century: a contemporary of James Joyce (with whom he was often compared), of André Gide, Thomas Mann and Robert Musil. These authors revolutionized the modern novel, driven by the ambition to use the genre of the novel as an instrument of knowledge, as a work of art that would reach as Broch indicated an intellectual level comparable to that of theoretical physics since Einstein. Broch’s two major novels (

The Sleepwalkers

and

The Death of Virgil

) demonstrate this ambition. Their narrative complexity is unmatched by any other novel of the time: psychological, aesthetic, philosophical, art historical, sociological, political, and theological insights are combined and result in most demanding…

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2597 words

Citation: Lützeler, Paul Michael. "Hermann Broch". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5478, accessed 23 November 2024.]