THE «MASS» AND THE «ELITE» IN THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY AND AUSTRIA AT THE TURN OF THE XIX-XX CENTURIES

Abstract

The article examines the phenomena of mass and elite culture in literature of Germany and Austria at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Significant changes that took place in society and culture during this historical period were reflected in both elite and mass manifestations of social and cultural reality. Germany and Austria, while embedded in a pan-European context, developed a number of unique national characteristics. Despite the qualitative contradictions inherent in the very notion of the «mass» and the «elite», both types of culture became expressions of the general ideas of the fin de siecle.