Ernst Jünger’s epic realism: the novel “Eumeswil”
- DOI
- 10.5922/2225-5346-2026-1-9
- Pages
- 132-142
Abstract
This paper delineates the field of realistic discourse and its internal diversity. It develops a conceptual matrix of epic realism and explicates its key features: the individualisation of collective experience; the transposition of the monumentality of the past into the present and the future; and the transformation of monumentality that results in a problematization of the presumed final impeccability of the author and, ultimately, of the hero. The study examines Ernst J?nger’s intellectual novel “Eumeswil” through the lens of epic realism in its individualistic variant. It conceptualises the worldview and mode of action of the protagonist, the Anarch, portraying him as a right-flank soldier of freedom on the parade ground of post-history, as well as a rearguard incarnation of the author’s “other self”. The figure of the Anarch is shown in relation to his ideological companions and adversaries, most notably the anarchist and the partisan. J?nger’s text is ultimately interpreted as a rigorously articulated conceptualisation of the post-historical condition of humankind.