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Joseph Roth's March into History: From the Early Novels to 'Radetzkymarsch' and 'Die Kapuzinergruft' (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture) by Kati Tonkin

2010; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 105; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mlr.2010.0266

2222-4319

Andrew Barker,

German History and Society

MLR, 105.2, 2010 603 from his true vocation, but his own idea which he pursued with enthusiasm until it started to go wrong. In contrast to his firstnovel, Der Procefi and Das Schlofi are parables of failed Jewish assimilation intomainstream, gentile society. One reason that the heroes of both novels are apparently distracted from their trials or quests by women is that 'marrying out' was thought to be one way for a Jewishman to overcome his non-acceptance by themajority. Another is the slightly skewed erotic attraction between the two on account of their difference, which Kafka was aware of from experience. It is tobe hoped that thisbook will revive debates about Kafka's literary reactions to events and developments in theworld, in other words the relationship between hiswriting and society and politics. Recently the emphasis has been onmetaphysics and the presence of theworld in his fiction has been seen as metaphorical. It is high time the pendulum swung back. Swansea University Julian Preece JosephRoth'sMarch into History: From theEarly Novels to 'Radetzkymarsch' and 'Die Kapuzinergruft'. By Kati Tonkin. (Studies inGerman Literature, Linguistics and Culture) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2008. $75; ?40. ISBN 978-1 57113-389-2. In this lucid and convincing study Kati Tonkin challenges a long-accepted or thodoxy in Roth scholarship, according towhich his fiction can be divided into two more or less antithetical halves. Basing their arguments on categories first propounded by Hermann Kesten in 1956, critics have contended that the no vels up toHiob (1930) reflect theworld-view of the generally left-leaning writer who sometimes presented himself (albeit ironically) as 'der rote Joseph'. They have difficulty reconciling the import of these earlier works with the evidence of the celebrated Radetzkymarsch (1932) and its rather less successful sequel Die Kapuzinergruft (1938), novels which, it is claimed, are the 'manifestations of the idealizing nostalgia of an alcoholic monarchist with a decreasing grasp on reality' (p. 1). Referring to texts from both periods of his short and hectic career (1923-1938), Tonkin contends that a dualistic appraisal of Roth's oeuvre is not valid. Having located the Galician JewRoth in the context of the post-1918 settlement, she selects three texts as examples of the early novels: Das Spinnennetz (1923), Hotel Savoy (1924), and Die Rebellion (1924), showing that they offer scant evidence of Roth propounding the progressive view of history expected of a socialist writer. Rather, his message ispessimistic, even apocalyptic. Eschewing the opportunity to develop a theory of a 'middle period' encompassing Die Flucht ohne Ende, Zipper und sein Vater, and Rechts und Links (1927-29), and simply bypassing Hiob (which is a shame), Tonkin observes that Roth 'realized that it is not possible tomake sense of the present without writing about the past, and it is for this reason, not in order to take flightfrom reality, that he turns to the portrayal of theHabsburg 604 Reviews Empire inRadetzkymarsch' (p. 92). Whereas her reading of the early novels largely dispels notions of Roth as a socialist writer, Tonkin's appraisal of Radetzkymarsch does not reveal a novelist seeking nostalgic succour in the past. Instead she finds a historical novel in Lukacs's sense, one 'thatmakes possible an understanding of the present through the portrayal of the past, of the different and specific [. . .] forms that contemporary problems took in earlier times' (p. 200). While in the earlier novels the socialist' Roth often observes the cyclical nature of history, the later, ostensibly conservative' writer is critical of figures such as Carl Joseph in Radetzkymarsch who Tall prey to the desire to rewrite history', failing to recognize 'its inexorable forward movement' (p. 201). In Die Buste des Kaisers (1935) the Polish Count Morstin, described as einer der edelsten und reinsten Typen des Osterreichers schlechthin', acknowledges the forwardmomentum of history when he literally buries the past by consigning Emperor Franz Joseph's effigy to the grave. By stressing the essential wholeness of his oeuvre, Tonkin does a signal service to Roth scholarship in a book which never outstays itswelcome. One small regret is that the author does not discuss Tarabas: Ein Gast aufdieser Erde (1934), where Roth's 'march into history' is extended to examine the figure...