!!!Expressionismus

Expressionism: Art movement, which in Austria included almost all 
fields of the arts between 1909-1920, especially literature and the 
fine arts. Expressionist artists wanted to go beyond the Naturalist 
and Symbolist conception of art with slogans such as "individual 
enhancement" and "collective solidarity", by trying to connect 
aesthetic and ethical postulates. Their main objective was to create a 
new conception of the human being. From a literary-sociological point 
of view, Expressionism was a protest against bourgeois authoritarian 
structures and criticised the capitalist economic system and ruthless 
industrialisation and mechanisation, and last but not least against 
war. The language of Expressionist literature opposes traditional 
language patterns and calls for a new syntax. In Austrian literature, 
poets like G. Trakl, A. Ehrenstein, H. Kaltneker and authors like M. 
Brod, F. Werfel, F. T. Csokor, A. Bronnen, R. Mueller, A. P. 
Guetersloh and - as a writer ("Moerder, Hoffnung der Frauen", 1909) - 
O. Kokoschka are representatives of Expressionism.

\\
Expressionist literary works were often decorated with 
book-illustrations. The emerging tradition of "Kuenstlerbuch" 
(artistic book) - written, illustrated and designed by one artist - 
was followed by painter-poets like O. Kokoschka, A. Kubin and U. 
Birnbaum.

\\
The most significant representatives of Expressionism in Austrian 
painting are: O. Kokoschka, E. Schiele, H. Boeckl, A. Faistauer, R. 
Gerstl and A. Kolig. Subject and focus of their works is man, with his 
physical and mental weaknesses and vulnerability.

\\
Great works in the field of Expressionist architecture were 
accomplished in the early 1920s in colossal projects of the Austrian 
film industry, e.g. "Sodom und Gomorrha" (1922) and "Die 
Sklavenkoenigin" (1924), both directed by Michael Kertesz.

!Literature
E. Fischer and W. Haefs (eds.), Hirnwelten funkeln. 
Literatur des Expressionismus in Wien 1988; R. Fuchs, 
Interpretationsstrategien zur Malerei des 
oesterreichischen Expressionismus in der Kunstliteratur von 
1908-1938, doctoral thesis, Graz 1989; P. Werkner, Physis und Psyche; 
Deutsche Literatur im 20. Jahrhundert, vol. 3, E., ed. by S. 
Vietta and H. G. Kemper, %%sup 4/%1990; M. Helfer, Der Ausdruck 
von Bewegung in Lyrik und Malerei als Spiegel einer Lebensauffassung 
zur Zeit des Expressionismus, master´s thesis, Graz 1991; P. 
Raabe, Die Autoren und Buecher des literarischen Expressionismus, 
%%sup 2/%1992


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Expressionismus|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]