movement; hence his conclusion:“The consequence of class struggle can there-
fore onlyeverbeanincrease in the dissatisfaction of the proletariat with its
fate,”¹⁷that is, the moment when the ethosofcollective solidarity comes up
against the boundlessness and unpredictability of individual desire.
In his own proposal for reconciling emotional socialism and scientific social-
ism,Kautskyrepeatedlycalled for spiritual elevation through cultivation of the
ethical dimension of socialism. Noble ideals, he insisted, are important for
they ensure that the original“idealismisnot taken over by the banalities of ev-
erydaylife and thatthe proletariat does not loseawareness of its great historical
tasks.”¹⁸However,inhis own memoirs,Kautsky (likeBebel before him) high-
lighted the importance of enthusiasm to explain his conversion to socialism as
ayoungCzech-German who had experienced ethnic discrimination firsthand.
Remembering the inner feelingsofanimpressionableyoung boy,hewrites:
Over and overagainIwas tormented by the thought: how can an idea [i.e., the idea of so-
cialism] berational if onlyanuneducatedboy likemyself thinks of it that way, whereas all
thinking, well-educated people around me dismiss it as ludicrous?And yet, Icould not de-
cideto jettison this idea.Iheld onto it,but not because of anydeep insight.Iclungtoit
with all fibers ofmy being; it satisfiedadesire that had arisen in me since the Commune
and had completelytakenhold of me, the desirefor the elevation and liberation of all those
in misery and bondage.¹⁹The Social Democrats’anxieties over anysurfeit of emotions in the workers’
movement and their efforts at managingthe consequences in themedium of lit-
erature can be illustrated throughaseries of literary debates,beginningwith the
so-called naturalism debate of the 1890s.At party conventions and in party pub-
lications, speaking about socialist (or proletarian) literature invariablymeant
speakingabout attachments and identifications. Historically, the naturalism de-
bate representedafirst attempt to clarify the relationship of Social Democracy to
modernliterature and,byextension, modernity.²⁰In the scholarship, this debate
Karl Kautsky,Das Erfurter Programm in seinem grundsätzlichenTeil(Stuttgart: Dietz, 1908),
232.
Karl Kautsky,Bernstein und das sozialdemokratische Programm. Eine Antikritik(Stuttgart:
Dietz, 1899), 195.
Karl Kautsky,Erinnerungen und Erörterungen,ed. BenediktKautsky (The Hague: Mouton,
1960), 187. ForKautsky and his views on enthusiasm, also see“Ein sozialdemokratischerKate-
chismus,”Die Neue Zeit12.13 (1893–94): 402–410.
The contributionsto the naturalism debatehavebeen reprintedinNorbert Rothe, ed.,Nat-
uralismus-Debatte 1891– 1896 .Dokumente zur Literaturtheorie und Literaturkritik der revolutionä-
rendeutschen Sozialdemokratie(Berlin: Akademie, 1986).Foragood summary of the positions,
see GeorgFülberth,ProletarischePartei und bürgerliche Literatur:Auseinandersetzungen in der
72 Chapter 3