SOURCE: "The Importance of Ellen Key's 'Die Entfaltung der Seele durch Lebenskunst' for Musil's Concept of the Soul," in Orbis Litterarum, Vol. 36, No. 4, 1981, pp. 323-31.

In the following essay, Genno discusses the influence of Key's works on the writings of the early-twentieth century Austrian novelist Robert Musil.

Robert Musil's preoccupation with the state of modern man's soul, which once prompted the noted critic Ernst Blass to dub him, in a rather feeble pun, "ein Entdecker von Neu-Seelland," is evident throughout the entire corpus of his writings. A major recurrent theme in his novels, short stories, essays and plays is the superficiality of twentieth-century man, attributable paradoxically to "zu wenig Verstand in den Fragen der Seele." For centuries, according to Musil, men of science have been envisioning a new humanity, which never materializes because, in their ceaseless effort to create it, they have somehow lost contact with the soul...