Journal of Austrian Studies

Abstract:

This article, presents a deconstructivist reading of Arthur Schnitzler's short story Ich (I). Using Jacques Derrida's conceptions about writing, violence and the trace as (non- )origin, I argue that Schnitzler turns the relationship of dominance between the spoken and the written word upside down, since the reflections on language formulated by the main character Mr. Huber are triggered after seeing the written word "Park" on a plate attached to a tree. In this way, Schnitzler's story Ich legitimizes the written word as a potential, yet misleading origin point for language itself, while Huber undergoes the task of a "second Adam" by writing down names of things—thus submitting them to the logic of writing, not to the logic of speech (verbal naming) followed by the biblical Adam.