Violent modernists : the aesthetics of destruction in twentieth century German literature Modernity modernism and violenceCausing violence: Robert Musils The confusions of young Torless and the path to an antireductionist theory of violence War violence and the malleable self: Robert Musils postwar critique of violence in The man without qualities Kafkas poetics of the knife: on violence truth and ambivalence in In the penal colony Chemical warfare and destructive satires: Canetti and Benjamins search for the murderous substance of satire.