Von den Notizen im Krieg zum literarischen Text. Textgenetische Studien zu Musils Nachlass

The article analyzes the notes that Musil made during the First World War and how he later transformed them in his texts (Grigia, Die Portugiesin, Die Amsel). Musil took only very sparse notes during the war that are not comparable to the numerous extant war diaries fromWorldWar I. In transforming the notes into literary texts, he quickly omitted the war, most notably in Grigia, where the war situation is replaced by the adventurous gold mining history. Musil was not interested in the representation of the war per se, but in the states of consciousness that the experience of war creates.