The Impossibility of Protest.

Autor(en)

Stephanie Marx

Abstrakt

The paper presents a reading of Maria Leitner’s reportage novel Hotel Amerika (1930). The book focuses on the workers in a large luxury hotel in 1920s New York and offers detailed descriptions of their everyday life. In addition to this realistic portrayal, the novel features the themes of protest and resistance, concentrating primarily on their failure. I will argue that this failure is due to the precarious governance within the microcosm of Hotel Amerika. By bringing Leitner’s book into dialogue with the modern concept of precarity, I will point out her innovative way of dealing with the pressing problems of the Weimar Republic, thus highlighting how literature can provide a crucial commentary on political debates.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Germanistik

Seiten

73-87

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88174-0

Publikationsdatum

2022

ÖFOS 2012

602003 Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft, 602014 Germanistik, 506013 Politische Theorie

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Literature and Literary Theory, Sociology and Political Science

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/the-impossibility-of-protest(01beda7c-277e-494d-af13-5977de5a3486).html