Overview

Viennese modernism is often described in terms of a fin-de-siècle fascination with the psyche. But this stereotype of the movement as essentially cerebral overlooks a rich cultural history of the body. The Naked Truth, an interdisciplinary tour de force, addresses this lacuna, fundamentally recasting the visual, literary, and performative cultures of Viennese modernism through an innovative focus on the corporeal.   Alys X. George explores the modernist focus on the flesh by turning our attention to the second Vienna medical school, which revolutionized the field of anatomy in the 1800s. As she traces the results of this materialist influence across a broad range of cultural forms—exhibitions, literature, portraiture, dance, film, and more—George brings into dialogue a diverse group of historical protagonists, from canonical figures such as Egon Schiele, Arthur Schnitzler, Joseph Roth, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal to long-overlooked ones, including author and doctor Marie Pappenheim, journalist Else Feldmann, and dancers Grete Wiesenthal, Gertrud Bodenwieser, and Hilde Holger. She deftly blends analyses of popular and “high” culture, laying to rest the notion that Viennese modernism was an exclusively male movement. The Naked Truth uncovers the complex interplay of the physical and the aesthetic that shaped modernism and offers a striking new interpretation of this fascinating moment in the history of the West.  

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9780226669984

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Reviews

In her pioneering book, George paints a new picture - with the body at the center - of a much-studied and often misunderstood epoch without shrinking from the dark sides and the 'naked truth'. Therefore George presents the body - and thus Vienna - as a place of pain and oppression, but also as a place of pleasure and promise. To use a Musil term, she exposes the body's sense of possibility. -- Austrian Broadcasting Corporation In this finely written and meticulously researched book, George expands our definition of Viennese modernism. Ranging across various art forms and media, she brings the high modernist narrative from earlier scholarship into dialogue with popular culture. We readers stand to profit from this enriched conversation, learning about an age no less biopolitical than our own. -- Fatima Naqvi, Yale University A sweeping survey of the primacy of the body in the Vienna modern, The Naked Truth demands a reorientation of our assumptions. This book will make a difference. -- Scott Spector, University of Michigan The Naked Truth offers a brilliant challenge to popular myths about fin-de-siecle Vienna. In its cross-disciplinary focus on the dissected, gendered, classed, and moving body in Viennese culture, it reads Gustav Klimt's famous icon Nuda Veritas as a purloined image: always in plain sight but consistently overlooked. By including noncanonical women and expanding the frame beyond the political divide of 1918, George gives us a supplemental and alternative genealogy of Viennese modernism. -- Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University

In this finely written and meticulously researched book, George expands our definition of Viennese modernism. Ranging across various art forms and media, she brings the high modernist narrative from earlier scholarship into dialogue with popular culture. We readers stand to profit from this enriched conversation, learning about an age no less biopolitical than our own. --Fatima Naqvi, Yale University The Naked Truth offers a brilliant challenge to popular myths about fin-de-siecle Vienna. In its cross-disciplinary focus on the dissected, gendered, classed, and moving body in Viennese culture, it reads Gustav Klimt's famous icon Nuda Veritas as a purloined image: always in plain sight but consistently overlooked. By including noncanonical women and expanding the frame beyond the political divide of 1918, George gives us a supplemental and alternative genealogy of Viennese modernism. --Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University A sweeping survey of the primacy of the body in the Vienna modern, The Naked Truth demands a reorientation of our assumptions. This book will make a difference. --Scott Spector, University of Michigan

Author Information

Alys X. George is an award-winning researcher and educator, specializing in modern Austrian and German culture and cultural history. She lives in New York City and Vienna, and has taught at New York University, the University of Notre Dame, and Stanford University.

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