Violence, masculinity and self: Killing in Joseph Roth's 1920s fiction

This essay focuses upon a little considered aspect of Joseph Roth's 1920s f iction--the depiction of the act of killing. I argue that this act should b e viewed as central in Roth's portrayal of the damaged psyche of young war veterans, whose strategies of self-denial and self-transformation have terr ible consequences for themselves and others. With this in mind, I examine t he actions and motives of the fascistic protagonist of Das Spinnennetz (192 3), and the revolutionaries in Die Flucht ohne Ende (1927) and Rechts und L inks (1929), in their historical and cultural context. The continuities bet ween their actions reflect, I suggest, an awareness on Roth's part of the c ontinuum of male psychology. Drawing on concepts from the work of such cult ural critics as Theweleit, Foucault, and Lacan, I discuss the significance of military training, the experience of combat, and political instability i n displacing the masculine ego and creating the necessary conditions for vi olence. The essay concludes by challenging the assumption that Roth only in tended to criticise his explicitly fascistic character, for all the texts c onsidered close with personal misery for their characters: inability to rel ate to others, and dislocation from society.