Austrian philosophical writer Robert Musil's thinking and writing are characterised by a synthesis of precision and passion. His work contains not only a diagnostic picture of existing reality, but also the building blocks of a philosophy of life based on the maxims of a new morality.
Roger Willemsen's essay traces the intellectual profile of this author of the century and can also be read as a biographical account. He describes concepts central to Musil, such as sensuality and knowledge, critical and utopian thinking in their unity and in their radical claims to validity. And he makes it understandable why Musil could, without irony, call literature ‘one of the most important human endeavours.’
Robert Musil was an intellectual role model for Roger Willemsen. Willemsen emphatically passes on Musil's claim to make ‘contributions to the intellectual mastery of the world’ to us: ‘Musil is a contemporary author.’ Ten years after his death, the author of this groundbreaking essay – Willemsen's first book – is one too.
"I wanted to explain why literature must exist." Roger Willemsen on his first book
