Lecture by Lorenzo Bellettini, Cambridge University

Date: Wednesday 16 July

Time: 7.00 for 7.30 pm

Venue: King’s College, The Maughan Library, Chancery Lane, WC2A

Price: £7 / £5

This lecture tells the story of Arthur Schnitzler and his circle of close friends in Vienna between the end of the 19th century until the World Wars. Schnitzler lived in an epoch of profound changes, from the birth of psychoanalysis and modernism in the arts, to the rise of anti-Semitism, the war, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Holocaust. His life was linked to that of famous and influential figures who belonged to his close circle of friends, with all of whom he had an intense and difficult relationship: Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Stefan Zweig, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Felix Salten, but also Thomas Mann, Henrik Ibsen, Gustav Mahler, to name just a few. This lecture describes the atmosphere of one of the most extraordinary cities in Europe at the peak of its cultural influence.

It tells the story of the difficult relationship between talented, ambitious and influential men, who debated on, and passionately wrote about,

psychoanalysis, Zionism, the meaning of art and, above all, the construction of a fragile identity in a period of great changes which lead to modernity. The lecture takes place on the site of the exhibition "Arthur Schnitzler's Hidden Manuscripts", which for the first time displays documents from Schnitzler's legacy, including letters by Freud, Herzl, Thomas and Heinrich Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Lorenzo Bellettini studied modern languages in Bologna and Vienna. He received an M.Phil from Cambridge University, where he is now completing his doctoral dissertation on Schnitzler and his circle of friends. As an expert on Viennese fin-de-siecle, he has participated at several international conferences and published numerous academic articles on the subject. A book on Schnitzler's literary legacy, which includes contributions by leading experts in the field, is forthcoming.

A reception, offered by the Maughan Library, will be held in the presence of the Austrian Ambassador and the Cultural Attaché of the Israeli Embassy.

The Revenues raised with entry fees will go towards the cost of publishing a catalogue of the exhibition “Arthur Schnitzler’s Hidden Manuscripts”