Max Frisch, the Reluctant Modernist

This volume's central thesis is that Max Frisch was by temperament conservative in aesthetic and political matters. His work is examined chronologically in order to isolate elements of reaction: his flirtation with völkisch theories in the thirties; his lifelong difficulty in putting into practice his theoretical insights on the status of women; elements of potential modernity, such as the implicit theory of writer-reader relationships in his early journalistic work or the later explicit theory of diary as a form of expression appropriate to an era of change and dubious identity.