Beyond Repetition: Karl Kraus's "Absolute Satire"

Abstract

This article reassesses the theoretical import of the Viennese satirist Karl Kraus, arguing that his satire challenges conventional understandings of the genre. Most notably in The Last Days of Mankind (Die letzten Tage der Menschheit), Kraus's satire delegitimizes any given historical or political position, addressing, rather, what he calls "posterity" as the only viable alternative. This moment lies beyond the repetitive structures inherent to modernity, specifically as they were articulated in the First World War. Kraus's "absolute satire" (Hermann Broch) thus contains a temporal dimension insofar as its intended audience is one that does not yet exist.