Publication details
Krisen und Gespenster – zur Geburt einer Legende über den völkischen Schriftsteller Guido List
| Title in English | Crises and ghosts - to the birth of a legend about the nationalist writer Guido List |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In this article, Guido List, an Austrian, völkisch oriented writer, is presented as a typical child of the times of crisis. The crucial question is how it came about that a thoroughly mediocre writer, who would have long been forgotten under normal circumstances, became a legend in certain circles in the 20th century. The aim is to show what role List's personal and world-historical crises played in this unusual career. The lecture is divided into three sections: the first part deals with List's personal life crises and the myth of the (post) romantic poet. Already during his lifetime, Guido List was adored by many of his folk contemporaries, whereby the artist myth that was widespread at the time played his role. Due to his numerous life crises, List became the archetype of the misunderstood post-romantic poet who created his works in dire need (Balzli 1917). In the second part of the present article, the tense period before the First World War and the World War I are presented as a decisive crisis that contributed significantly to the dissemination of texts by völkisch authors and völkisch conspiracy theories (Horn 2012). In the third part, a “crisis of interpretation” is finally described, which led to the fact that List's legend is still alive after a hundred years in certain, above all esoteric, occult and right-wing extremist circles. In the 1980s, the British historian Nicolas Goodrick-Clarke (1985) came up with the blatant thesis that List was the inspirer of National Socialism. This thesis met with a strong response from the general public and thus (unintentionally) confirmed the status of List's legend. As a result of the spread of this popular, strong, but not very convincingly proven thesis, List's texts are still read today in certain esoteric and right-wing extremist circles, despite their poor literary quality. In this article, the role of the above-mentioned life and historical crises in the creation of a legend is illustrated using the example of Guido List and, finally, a possible parallel is drawn with the creation of "legends" in postmodernism. |