This thesis explores how the Institut für Literatur ‘Johannes R. Becher’, an East German institution for the training of writers, negotiated tensions that arose from the conflicting demands between literary and political values. The Institute had the objective to foster emerging literary talents according to the socialist ideal of a working writer, but often found students and staff drawn towards more autonomous literary values that were incompatible with the views of the East German Socialist Unity Party. As a result, the Institute’s practices fluctuated between toeing the party line and pursuing literary ambitions. An overview of the existing scholarship shows that the Institute and its function have been highly politicised and hardly subjected to analyses that allow for a more nuanced appraisal of its practices. As a result, the study of the Institut has not been able to transcend the binary differentiation between assent and dissent and the Institute is either presented as a liberal haven or an orthodox academy with little artistic value. This thesis addresses this issue by applying Bourdieu’s’ theory of cultural production, more specifically his notion of field, capital and habitus, to the study of the Becher Institute. Three case studies that form the core of this dissertation investigate how cultural capital in its institutionalised, embodied, and objectified form was accumulated, converted and exchanged by the Institute, how it tried to reconcile the tensions between cultural policy and creative aspirations and how these tensions affected the Institute’s common habitus. The first case study will show how the Institute’s founding shaped the institutionalised capital it represented and question the importance that has been attributed to prominent political figures during the founding process. The second case study examines the role of the lecturer and the influence their embodied capital had on the Institute. Two lecturers, working writer Werner Bräunig and poet Georg Maurer, and their representation of the Institute’s multiple habitus will be the focus of the analysis. The third and final case study is dedicated to objectified cultural capital in the form of the Institute’s publications during the 1970s. The Institute’s orthodox publications have so far been overlooked by scholars in favour of its more controversial literary output, which gives a misleading impression of the Institute’s literary output that I aim to amend. By developing a sociological framework for the study of the Institute, this thesis is able to investigate the Institute and its practices as a social and literary space under the watchful eye of the Socialist Unity Party, without denying its pedagogical and cultural dimensions. The findings will reveal a deeply conflicted institution that struggled throughout its existence to resolve the tensions between literary ambitions and political restraints as well as the contradictions within the literary field itself.

Cette thèse présente l’ingénierie sociale de l’économiste, sociologue et philosophe autrichien Otto Neurath (1882-1945). Une première partie s’intéresse aux aspects biographiques qui éclairent sa volonté d’une intervention ciblée et planifiée dans l’ordre social. La technique de l’histoire conceptuelle permet ensuite de mettre à jours les représentations mentales à l’œuvre dans l’ingénierie sociale : le topos de la « modernité » – avec une nouvelle conception de la société, du temps et du rôle potentiel de la société civile – suggère la possible gestion du groupe social selon les principes d’une rationalisation de la vie. La Gesellschaftstechnik de Neurath est enfin reconstruite par la méthode de l’histoire intellectuelle, qui révèle l’importance du contexte viennois, des dynamiques à l’œuvre dans la Révolution de Novembre et des questionnements économiques du moment dans l’élaboration de sa pensée et de son eudémonisme social. / This thesis presents the social engineering as devised by Otto Neurath (1882-1945), an Austrian economist, sociologist, and philosopher. The introductory first part highlights certain issues of his biography which turned out significant in his subsequent idea of the necessity of a targeted and planned intervention in the social order. In part two, the technique of conceptual history reveals the mental representations at work in social engineering : the topos of "modernity" – built on a new concept of society, of time, and of the potential role of civil society – suggests the feasibility of managing a social group according to principles of rationalization of life.Neurath’s Gesellschaftstechnik is then reconstructed by the method of intellectual history, which shows the Viennese context, the dynamics involved in the 1918-19 German Revolution, and the economic concerns of the time as being essential for the development of his thought and his programme of social eudaimonism.

L'objet de cette thèse est de mettre en lumière les interrogations éthiques, métaphysiques et esthétiques qui accompagnent la production des œuvres de maturité de !'écrivain autrichien Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Après avoir rappelé ses hésitations initiales entre des conceptions du monde et de l'existence distinctes, ce travail envisage les deux versions de la Femme sans ombre. Cette œuvre offre une première expression de son esthétique de maturité dont elle éclaire aussi les fondements métaphysiques. L'expérience de la Première Guerre mondiale, analysée dans le troisième chapitre, conduit Hofmannsthal à élargir le champ de ses réflexions. Son œuvre dramatique devient l'illustration des principes éthiques devant régler les échanges entre les membres d'une même société ainsi qu'entre les peuples d'Europe. Le Grand Théâtre du monde à Salzbourg, dont l'examen occupe le quatrième chapitre, pose les linéaments d'une éthique sociale inspirée des principes de la doctrine sociale de l’Église. La tragédie La Tour, qui est analysée dans le cinquième chapitre, esquisse quant à elle une éthique de l'action politique. Son but est de contribuer au maintien de la paix en Europe tout en aidant les peuples à s'élever à un degré supérieur d'humanité. / This thesis aims at highlighting the ethical, metaphysical and aesthetic questions that arise in the mature works of the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal. After having dealt with Hofmannsthal's original dilemma between opposing conceptions of the world and of his own existence, this work considers the two versions of The Woman without a Shadow. This opus is the first expression at maturity of his aesthetic whose underlying metaphysical foundation it enlightens.The experience of First World War, subject of our third chapter, compelled Hofmannsthal to widen the scope of his thoughts. His later plays illustrate which ethical conducts should rule individuals in a given society as well as between the peoples in Europe. The Salzburg Great World Theaterwhich is the focus of our fourth chapter, sets the pattern of his social ethics inspired by the principles of the social doctrine of the Church. As for The Tower, a tragedy which we will deeply analyse in our fifth chapter, it sketches his ethics for political action. The purpose of this play is indeed to advocate peace in Europe while helping nations to achieve higher standard of Humanity.