Is Felix Salten the author of the Mutzenbacher novel (1906)? Yes and no. (May 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Is Felix Salten the author of the Mutzenbacher novel (1906)? Yes and no. (May 2022)
- Main Title:
- Is Felix Salten the author of the Mutzenbacher novel (1906)? Yes and no
- Authors:
- Rebora, Simone
Salgaro, Massimo - Abstract:
- Josefine Mutzenbacher oder die Geschichte einer Wienerischen Dirne von ihr selbst erzählt, published in Vienna in 1906, represents one of the most fascinating cases of attribution of authorship in German literature. Although Josefine Mutzenbacher is usually attributed to Felix Salten, the author of the world-famous Bambi (1923), the novel's authorship has never been confirmed, and many other candidates have been named as potential authors. Among them is Arthur Schnitzler, who published Reigen, a cycle of amorous adventures in Viennese society, in 1903. Some scholars, instead, have attributed the novel to such lesser-known writers as Ernst Klein and Willi Handl. The controversy surrounding the authorship of Josefine Mutzenbacher was the starting point for our stylometric analyses, and our results help to answer some unresolved questions in a debate that has lasted for more than 100 years. The analyses were performed using the R package Stylo, which enables an efficient application of Burrows' Delta and its variants. Focusing on both the entire text and on the final pages, two different types of analysis were carried out: one combines 1200 different stylometric methods to compare the candidate authors Salten, Schnitzler, Bahr, Altenberg, Hofmannsthal, Klein and Handl; the other verifies the attribution using the 'impostors' method. The results show that the most probable author is Felix Salten, while none of the candidates could be identified as the author of the final pages,Josefine Mutzenbacher oder die Geschichte einer Wienerischen Dirne von ihr selbst erzählt, published in Vienna in 1906, represents one of the most fascinating cases of attribution of authorship in German literature. Although Josefine Mutzenbacher is usually attributed to Felix Salten, the author of the world-famous Bambi (1923), the novel's authorship has never been confirmed, and many other candidates have been named as potential authors. Among them is Arthur Schnitzler, who published Reigen, a cycle of amorous adventures in Viennese society, in 1903. Some scholars, instead, have attributed the novel to such lesser-known writers as Ernst Klein and Willi Handl. The controversy surrounding the authorship of Josefine Mutzenbacher was the starting point for our stylometric analyses, and our results help to answer some unresolved questions in a debate that has lasted for more than 100 years. The analyses were performed using the R package Stylo, which enables an efficient application of Burrows' Delta and its variants. Focusing on both the entire text and on the final pages, two different types of analysis were carried out: one combines 1200 different stylometric methods to compare the candidate authors Salten, Schnitzler, Bahr, Altenberg, Hofmannsthal, Klein and Handl; the other verifies the attribution using the 'impostors' method. The results show that the most probable author is Felix Salten, while none of the candidates could be identified as the author of the final pages, confirming the hypothesis that the text was left unfinished by Salten and completed by an as-yet-unidentified ghost-writer. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Language and literature. Volume 31:Number 2(2022)
- Journal:
- Language and literature
- Issue:
- Volume 31:Number 2(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 31, Issue 2 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 31
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0031-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 243
- Page End:
- 264
- Publication Date:
- 2022-05
- Subjects:
- Austrian literature -- authorship attribution -- Felix Salten -- stylometry
Language and languages -- Style -- Periodicals
Style, Literary -- Periodicals
Linguistic analysis (Linguistics) -- Periodicals
Criticism -- Periodicals
800 - Journal URLs:
- http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/27029473.html ↗
http://lal.sagepub.com ↗
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/home.nav ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/09639470221090384 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0963-9470
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 21471.xml