Boyko, M. E. The Problem of 0-Personality in Robert Musil’s Novel ‘The Man Without Qualities’

Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of 0-personality (or ‘zero personality’) which is usually put in the following way: is there a narrative form which does not express any information about personal qualities of some actors (characters)? There is no such problem in real life because each person expresses a number of qualities and characterological features. But diegetic persons, both fictional and actual, are a completely different case. 0-personality is typical for all actors (characters) who are only mentioned in a plot. Robert Musil’s novel ‘The Man Without Qualities’ can be viewed as a fundamental attempt to create a character with the zero personality. If this is what Musil’s intention was, it eventually turned out to be a failure because Ulrich’s personality is quite evident. However, Musil very well showed that we tend to interpret the character’s behavior and words in a wrong way if we do not know his motives and thoughts. It means that the terms ‘personality’ and ‘type of personality’ cannot be defined behavioristically even with regard to diegetic persons.

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