ers.”²⁰ForJung,athus definedGemeinschaftswillen,which denotes the will of,
and for,community,functions as an essential and integralpart of the human
search for happiness.It findsexpression in livedexperiencesofsolidarity and,
by extension, growingawareness of thereality of class conflict.Based on his
analysis of the condition of modernity,this experience can no longer be captured
by traditional literary forms; it can onlybeimagined by the reader and,ultimate-
ly,realized in collective action.Jung’sdefinition of revolution, an“event turned
intoarhythmical living community,”²¹reaffirms his left-communist belief in the
formative power of events (i.e., in producing revolutionary facts).Yetbyinviting
the kind of cooperation that blurs the lines betweenauthor and reader,his nar-
rative voice also drawsattention to the ethos of brotherliness promoted by uto-
pian socialists and combines it with the critique of subjectivity spearheaded by
the modernists.
Worker’sPeace,published oneyear beforeTheConquest of the Machines,re-
flects openlyonthis dialogic relationship betweenauthor and reader and makes
it apreconditionofpoliticalradicalization as well as literary innovation. Giving
readinginstructions that are applicable to otherprosetextsbyJung,the author/
narrator announces his intentions earlyon:“BeforeIbegin,Iwould liketotell
the reader whatIwant and wherethe technical problem lies. Whilereading,he
[i.e., the reader] should actively help with the solution and presentation [...]and
establish betweenauthor and reader the connection that constitutes themost
substantial contribution of this book.”²²The remarkable passageends with an
affirmation of the power of emotions but not necessarilyinthe familiar registers
of the melodramatic or sentimental. As the narrator explains,“we want to do ev-
erything to eliminate the flood of words and instead open up the heart.The so-
cial revolution, that colossus,ispushed into the world and into the nation not by
forces from the outside, but from the inside, from our beliefs and our sacrifices.
That is the power we seize.”²³
InWorkers’PeaceJung clearlyspells out whatTheConquest of the Machines
intends to do: to release the reader intoaworld without empathybut with solid-
arity.But how do these literary strategies help to mitigate the experience of po-
litical defeat?How does proletarian literature engage adifferent set of sensations
and perceptions unencumbered by the existing discoursesofemotion?How does
it offer new insight into the causes and effects of powerlessness?According to
Jung,“Zweck und Mittel im Klassenkampf,”inFeinde ringsum,226.
Jung,DieTechnik desGlücks,Werke6, 20.
Jung,“Arbeitsfriede,”inWerke2, 105.Wefind similar self-reflexive passagesinProletarier.
Jung,“Arbeitsfriede,”208.
TheRevolutionary Fantasy Revisited 203