Literature, Literary Figures, and Criticism

Abstract

Although a large part of Kraus’s writings dealt with literature and art, his criteria were far from exclusively aesthetic. His view of a writer was determined less by literary quality than by political, social, or ethical ideas enunciated by him, or expressed in his conduct. This should not be surprising if we remember how preoccupied Kraus was with the ethical use of all language, in a sense the raw material of literature, and especially with the ethics of its users in general. He would have liked to believe that only good people use good language and write good literature, and was annoyed when he often found the opposite to be true. The history of literature, being a part of the history of civilization, reflected it in every age. Literary greatness might therefore be determined by the greatness of the civilization; thus Nestroy’s comedies reflecting the Biedermeier period were, it seemed to Kraus, much greater than the operettas of the early twentieth century Lehár. A writer and his work could, however, stand out from the emptiness of his age as did, for example in his opinion, Peter Altenberg.