Robert Halsall

The Individual and the Epoch: Hermann Broch’s Die Schlafwandler as a Historical Novel

In what sense is Broch’s Die Schlafwandler a historical novel? It is descriptive of the three historical epochs which form the basis of the trilogy and which are chaacterised by a representative style of thought: 1888 – Pasenow oder die Romantik, 1903 – Esch oder die Anarchie, and 1918 – Huguenau oder die Sach- lichkeit. It also embodies a philosophy of history which appears within the trilogy as the series of essays, Zerfall der Werte , in the third part. On another level, the novel embodies a dialectical historical relationship between the individual (the ‘typical’ individuals who represent the three epochs, Pasenow, Esch and Huguenau), a model of ethical autonomy, and the epoch. This relationship is set out in theoretical terms in Zerfall der Werte , but is also em- bodied in the narrative structure. The elements of this dialectical relationship between the individual, autonomy and the epoch will be outlined using a form of analysis derived from Kierkegaard’s philosophy. I will demonstrate that the best way of understanding the theory of history in the novel is in terms of a Kierkegaardian dialectic involving the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious, which are defined in terms of both the individual and the epoch. It will be shown that the ultimate purpose of Die Schlafwandler is didactic. Through a strategy of indirect communication, the reader is brought to his/her own awareness of his/her historical position on the aesthetic/ethical/religious continuum. The difficulties resulting from an ethical reading of the text, which are often neglected in interpretations of the novel, will be duly acknowledged.

I. Introduction

In what sense is Hermann Broch’s Die Schlafwandler a historical novel? On one level, quite obviously so: it deals with three historical epochs, epitomised by the key dates 1888, 1903 and 1918, described by an author looking back on them from 1930-32. The three historical epochs are char- acterised by either a key date, a central character, Pasenow, Esch and Hu- guenau, or by a key characteristic or value system: die Romantik , die Anar- chie and die Sachlichkeit . 228

According to Harro Müller, the Modernist historical novel “thematises history as concept, as construction, and emphasises teleological aspects”. 1 Die Schlafwandler thematises the construction of history and its systematic processes primarily through the inclusion of a treatise on the decline of values, Zerfall der Werte , in the third part. The teleological process of the decline of values as reflected in the three historical epochs, which is the novel’s principal theme, is, therefore, itself the subject of philosophical re- flection on that process within the novel itself, and within one of the his- torical epochs it describes. The style of the writing itself also mirrors the historical process of transition through the historical epochs it describes – from the nineteenth-century naturalism of Pasenow – oder die Romantik to the modernist, fragmented parallel narratives and essayistic strands of Hu- guenau – oder die Sachlichkeit. A second characteristic of the Modernist historical novel, as seen by Müller, is that it emphasises the “dominance of systemic processes over individual-subjective motive forces in history”. 2 In Die Schlafwandler , this dominance of systemic processes over individuals is epitomised in the rela- tionship of the three principal characters to the epochs in which they live. As Andrew Bowie argues, the individuals in Die Schlafwandler are “indi- viduals in whom the events of the age become transparent”. 3 The principal characters, in other words, have the function of representing the historical ‘style of the age’: die Romantik , die Anarchie and die Sachlichkeit . As we move from Pasenow to Huguenau, this process of representation becomes increasingly abstract. If the characters, however, represent the epoch, they are not determined by it, a crucial distinction for Broch which we shall in- vestigate later. Müller’ s third characteristic of the Modernist historical novel is that “the gaze is directed not only backwards but paradoxically also forwards at the same time”. 4 In Die Schlafwandler , the transition from the retrospective gaze to the forward-looking gaze occurs in the Epilogue. Here we move from the ‘absoluter Nullpunkt’ in the historical process of disintegration of values reached at the end of the trilogy to a forward-looking topos of hope. How we are to understand this transition has been one of the most perplex- ing features of the novel for critics. 5

1 Harro Müller: Possibilities of the Historical Novel in the 19th and 20th Centuries. In: The Modern German Historical Novel. Paradigms, Problems, Perspectives . Ed. David Roberts and Philip Thompson. New York/Oxford 1991. Pp. 59-70, here p. 64. 2 Harro Müller. P. 64. 3 Andrew Bowie: The Novel and the Limits of Abstraction: Hermann Broch’s Die Schlafwandler . In: Journal of European Studies 14 (1984). Pp. 96-116, here p. 100. 4 Harro Müller. P. 63. 5 See Thomas Koebner: Der unerreichbare Gott. In: Brochs theoretisches Werk . Ed. Paul Michael Lützeler and Michael Kessler. Frankfurt/M. 1988. Pp. 159-190.