
Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian writer, 1862-1931
Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist. Schnitzler's works were often controversial, both for their frank description of sexuality ("Reigen") and for their strong stand against anti-semitism, represented by works such as his play "Professor Bernhardi". A member of the avant-garde group Young Vienna (Jung-Wien), Schnitzler toyed with formal as well as social conventions. With his 1900 novella "Leutnant Gustl", he was the first to write German fiction in stream-of-consciousness narration. The novella "Fräulein Else" (1924), is another first-person stream of consciousness narrative, this time by a young aristocratic woman, revealing a moral dilemma that ends in tragedy.