’Religiöse Nachwehen’ in Schnitzler’s Anatol

Abstract

Taking as its starting‐point the middle scene of Schnitzler’s Anatol, entitled ‘Denksteine’, this short essay sees in specific expressions used in the same scene evidence for a residual?—if subliminal?—authority exerted by moral imperatives derived from the Judaeo‐Christian tradition. In a diluted, secularised form these shape Anatol’s notion of ‘love’ and account for the impulse repeatedly to vow ‘ewige Liebe’, not‐withstanding his own inclinations and past practice. The resultant inner division in Anatol between ‘Intellekt’ and ‘Bedu¨rfnis’ is seen in relation to Nietzsche’s reference to ‘religiöse Nachwehen’ (in Menschliches, Allzumenschliches) as one form of the ‘nihilism’ of the period, as diagnosed by Nietzsche.