Robert Musils Netz-Werk

What is it about?

What is the relevance of the net-metaphor and the technique of cross-linking in Robert Musil's works? The paper analyses the characteristics of Musil's use of the net-metaphor against the backdrop of the net-concepts in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari as well as in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and Bruno Latour. Musil employs the metaphor of the net on the one hand to visualize interrelations between ideas, on the other hand to conceptualize autogenous, self-regulating, self-reflecting psychological and social processes. Not least, especially in The Man without Qualities, cross-linkage constitutes a paradoxical writing process in which manifold lines of force tangle and likewise lines of flight open between the mashes.

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