The waywardness of the soul

Georg Simmel, Henry James, and the “tragedy of culture”

Abstract

I intend to undertake, in this essay, a comparative analysis between the ways the German intellectual Georg Simmel and the American writer Henry James represent what Simmel calls "the tragedy of culture". In essays written at the turn of the 20th century, such as "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (1903), "On the essence of culture" (1908), and "The Concept and Tragedy of Culture" (1911), Simmel presents the typically German concept of culture (Kultur), identifying its tragic dimension. Although Henry James shows himself, especially during World War I, strongly committed to the English ideal of “civilization”, it is possible to observe, in his turn-of-the-century travel accounts, The American Scene (1907), an understanding similar to Simmel’s of the modern experience of the tragedy of culture.