»Überhaupt sind Bücher nur Teil meiner Wirksamkeit« – Wechselwirkungen zwischen politischer Publizistik und erzählerischem Werk bei Stefan Zweig

There is an increasing acknowledgement within literary scholarship that Stefan Zweig was an important commentator on political and social change throughout the first half of the 20th century. An aspect that has received little critical attention so far, is the nexus between his essays on current affairs and his fictional works, which are generally attributed to a psychological realism focused only on the individual. This essay will use two examples from distinct periods of Zweig’s oeuvre, to illustrate how a range of key social and political concepts, amongst them reflections on pacifism, humanism, personal and social responsibility have been interwoven into his fiction, arguing that both aspects of Zweig’s works need to be read in conjunction with each other.