Confusion of feelings

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stefan Zweig at the age of 19

Confusion of Feelings is a novella by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig that he published in 1927.

Confusion of Feelings tells of an academic who, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday (the subtitle is "Private Notes of Privy Councilor R. v. D."), remembers a professor who opened the way for him to spiritual and emotional life in his youth. The text deals with the passion of studying that he gets to know, but also the strength of friendship between generations. Finally, the text thematizes the love of an aging man for a young man, the agony of admitting this love, and the emotional confusion it triggers.

content

As the son of a high school director in a small north German town, 19-year-old Roland D. initially studies English in Berlin. For several months he led a dissolute life in the German capital, neglecting his studies. When the father finds out, he sends him to the university in a small central German town. There he is captivated by the charisma and intelligence of a professor of philology and his passion for Shakespeare .

The teacher senses the affection and offers to rent a room in his house. After that, a closer and closer relationship develops between the student and his teacher. Roland helps his teacher to put his book on the literature of the Elizabethan era on paper. Despite his support, his teacher behaves inconsistently towards him: sometimes he explicitly seeks his closeness, in other situations he coldly rejects him. This behavior plunges the student into that deep confusion of his emotional world. He seeks the closeness of the professor's wife, especially since the spouses treat each other coolly, and spends a night of love with her. After that, he feels compelled to leave the house forever. The professor takes the farewell as an occasion for a comprehensive biographical and personal self-confession.

reception

There are comments on Zweig's novella from Sigmund Freud and other well-known authors. It has been dramatized and filmed several times.

Well-known quotes

"Even the break is part of the music"

- Stefan Zweig : Confusion of feelings

literature

  • Rolf Füllmann: Stefan Zweigs, Confusion of Feelings and the Unraveling of Constructed Gender Relations . In: Rolf Füllmann (Ed.): The human being as a construct. Festschrift for Rudolf Drux for his 60th birthday . Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-89528-709-1 , p. 181-195 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the mild words of the teacher, before he arranges a room in the house for the student after a missed first semester. The quote made famous by Zweig can also be found in Alexandre Weill: The music . In: State drafts on Prussia and Germany . Leske, Darmstadt 1845, p. 257–270 ( full text in Google Book Search).