The aim of this article is to illustrate how the literary refunctionalization of utopia emerges as a critical process in the historical-political discourse of Stefan Zweig’s last narrative works, which were written during his (South)American exile. In fact, the author used utopia as an (anti)modern, counter-image of the present world, and, to a certain extent, he also wanted to show its dark side: the dystopia as the bitterly evil reality of totalitarian societies that potentially lurked behind the portrayed old and new imaginary worlds. Through his only partially visionary conceptual constructions, Zweig wanted to make visible the real – and who knows maybe even the presumed in his highly stylized Estado Novo (New State) of Brazil – catastrophes of the dictatorships, which were based on utopian ideas. This one rather daring interpretation could partly help to solve one of the many Zweig’s riddles, which has to do with the reasons why, a short time later, he and his second wife, Lotte Altmann, committed suicide in the paradise of Brazil.
Die Welt von gestern eines Kulturpolitikers von morgen. Zur politischen Konzeption der Utopie beim späten Stefan Zweig
Paola Paumgardhen
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
2021-01-01
Abstract
The aim of this article is to illustrate how the literary refunctionalization of utopia emerges as a critical process in the historical-political discourse of Stefan Zweig’s last narrative works, which were written during his (South)American exile. In fact, the author used utopia as an (anti)modern, counter-image of the present world, and, to a certain extent, he also wanted to show its dark side: the dystopia as the bitterly evil reality of totalitarian societies that potentially lurked behind the portrayed old and new imaginary worlds. Through his only partially visionary conceptual constructions, Zweig wanted to make visible the real – and who knows maybe even the presumed in his highly stylized Estado Novo (New State) of Brazil – catastrophes of the dictatorships, which were based on utopian ideas. This one rather daring interpretation could partly help to solve one of the many Zweig’s riddles, which has to do with the reasons why, a short time later, he and his second wife, Lotte Altmann, committed suicide in the paradise of Brazil.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
