Vom « Schmutz des Tuns und Seligkeit des Nichthandelns ». Intellektuelle und Novemberrevolution in Lion Feuchtwangers dramatischem Roman "Thomas Wendt"

«Dirt of Doing and Bliss of Inaction». Intellectuals and November Revolution in Lion Feuchtwanger’s dramatic novel Thomas Wendt. Literary representations of the Novemberrevolution in the German language testify to the delicate phase of progressing from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Weimar Republic, passing through a strong protest against the atrocities of the First World War. The rich literary production of those years engages in the tradition of the Arbeiterliteratur, whose roots, in turn, are grounded in the failed bourgeois revolution of 1848, in an effort to affirm the civil rights and democracy of all human beings also by representing the real life conditions of the proletarian masses. With an all too clear paradox, literary works of that time reach this goal through the artistic means of Expressionism and the utopy of a better world, a future of democracy and equality, which found no correspondence in everyday life. The rich literary production of those years is above all an expression of the urgency of mass affirmation in Germany’s political and social life and reveals the opposition – which will continue to be discussed throughout the first decades of the Twentieth century – between the proletarian and intellectual classes. A particularly interesting case is represented by Lion Feuchtwanger’s work. Unlike other authors of the time, his essays and fictional works led a profound reflection on the social and political function of intellectuals. In the two editions of the “dramatic novel” Thomas Wendt (1919 and 1934), to which only a scarce number of critical works paid attention (Modik 1981 and Choluj 1991), the author reflects on the role of literature and intellectuals in this delicate phase of the renewal of Germany. In an attempt to both represent the society of that time and find the most appropriate literary means of an “aesthetics of distance”, Feuchtwanger conducts a serious reflection on the mission of intellectuals which anticipates the lively debate engaged by writers in the years of the Weimar Republic and the rise of European fascisms. This paper aims to investigate Lion Feuchtwanger’s reflections on the social and political role of the intellectuals in the novels Thomas Wendt and Erfolg (1930) within the historical, cultural and political context of the time, also by focusing on the controversial relationship between the intellectual and proletarian classes and the constant search for the most suitable artistic ways of critically representing the reality of the period.