ARTHUR HOLITSCHER’S ROLE IN THE LITERARY HISTORY

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the life and autobiographical oeuvre of the nowadays almost forgotten novelist and travel writer Arthur Holitscher. The analysis of his autobiography, published in two volumes, is also completed with the comparative analysis of his correspondence and diary-notes. It reflects autobiographical details like the intensive search for a stable identity and the complex literary connections of the European modernity at the beginning of the 20th century. Accordingly, the travel books of the author also mirror his permanent search for identity and for a new form of human community. The other two main goals of this paper are to present Holitscher’s large network of friends and colleagues and to describe his position in the German – and to some extent in the Hungarian – literary history, as well.