From “the Spectacle of the Other” to “Subjectivity Degree Zero”: Soliman's Road to Autonomy in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften

Abstract

Abstract: Robert Musil's novel, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, reveals the subjectivity crisis caused by homogenized discourse of social authority. Such a homogenization occurs in various forms. One of them is the homogenization of racial characteristics, which is fully embodied in the portrayal of an African man, Soliman. On the one hand, Musil is keen on representing the black community as the Other and the homogenized discourse of authority as a mechanism, namely, constructing Soliman as “the spectacle of the other” rather than an individual subject, while, on the other hand, he shifts the narrative to Soliman's own perspective to find a way of relinquishing such kind of homogenization or, in other words, a way of rejecting this homogenization through Soliman's self-definition in his madness. To this end, the novel explores a kind of strategy for self-salvation in the context of the racial discourse in the early 20^th century: by using “madness” as the representation of “the subjectivity degree zero”, Musil negates the constraints on individuals imposed by the symbolic order so as to ensure their entitlement to autonomy.

Key words: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, homogenize, the other, racial discourse, subject

Zheng Wei. From “the Spectacle of the Other” to “Subjectivity Degree Zero”: Soliman's Road to Autonomy in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2021, 43(1): 152-163.

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