“Musil’s Discourse”: Some Aspects of a Linguistic Experiment

Abstract

The article is devoted to the role of experiment in the process of discourse formation as a linguistic phenomenon. The object of the study is the discourse initiated by the largest Austrian writer of the twentieth century, Robert Musil. The aim of the study is a discursive analysis of the philological and literary-critical interpretations of the novel “A Man Without Qualities”, which is a central fragment of the “Musil’s Discourse”. It is noted that the Musil’s discourse unfolding during the century, is formed by numerous participants representing various groups of subjects: literary scholars, writers, cultural experts, psychologists and literary critics. Particular attention is paid to the bipolar structure of the Musil’s discourse as its main characteristic. It is shown that the leading German critic Marcel Reich- Ranicki set a new direction for the development of Musil’s discourse. The results of the analysis of Musil’s discourse at the level of its content, as well as at the levels of strategies and means of implementation are presented. The main strategies of the studied fragment of the discourse are identified - the deconstruction strategy and the conservation strategy, implemented in the tactics of invective, tactics of positive presentation and tactics of support. It is proved that the idea of the experiment laid down by Musil in the basis of the novel “A Man Without Qualities” is transposed to the Musil’s discourse as a whole and turns it into an object of experiment.

Keywords

• literary work
• literary experiment
• german studies
• literary criticism
• musil's discourse
• discursive strategy