La comédie du réveil
The comedy of waking

A reading of Arthur Schnitzler

Summary/Abstract: Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle (1926) could take place in a museum or in History books, as an exact painting of what Vienna looked like, smelled, seemed and meant in the beginning of the twentieth century. Psychoanalysis, economic and social crisis, antisemitism, science and the arts cohabited in the city in the same way as they were blended in Schnitzler’s mind to create the most accomplished piece of his work. This article shall re-read the text, focusing on his cultural and sociological mix, and on the narrative structure of the text, to reach the conclusion that Die Traumnovelle is not only a novel about dreams, but also the novel of a dream.

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