Political defeat turned Viennese bourgeois assimilation into a retreat into art

Evidence

The process of assimilation nevertheless attempted by the liberal bourgeoisie reached its climax at the turn of the century, when it signified a withdrawal from politics in the face of the rise of the antisemitic right, the labour movement and Slavic nationalism. ‘The life of art became a substitute for the life of action. Indeed, as civic action proved increasingly futile, art became almost a religion, the source of meaning and the food of the soul.’ — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 207

Categorization

• XREF: Art-as-substitute-for-action resonates against the additive reading of aesthetic culture in the broader modernism/postmodernism debate. — connects to: Vienna’s cultural flowering emerged from the crisis of a weak liberal bourgeoisie — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 206; Modernism’s aesthetic withdrawal from reality was a retreat from politics — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 216; Modernism’s decline stems from political defeats rather than economic change — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 216 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernism’s aesthetic withdrawal from reality was a retreat from politics #expands (0.85) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 216
• Modernism’s decline stems from political defeats rather than economic change #corroborates (0.82) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 216
• French Orientalism emerged from political loss, producing an imagined rather than real Orient #exemplifies (0.78) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 429
• Modernism emerged from a specific industrial-capitalist conjuncture that postwar capitalism destroyed #expands (0.75) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 562