ABSTRACT
In the transition to the twentieth century, many of the protagonists of Viennese modernity who witness the social and political upheavals that had crossed the Austro-Hungarian empire since the late nineteenth century were involved in a collective “metalinguistic activity” that was intimately and consciously related to criticism of Austrian language and society led by the writer Karl Kraus. This article analyses how personalities such as the architect Adolf Loos and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein were influenced by Kraus, fighting against the process of social and artistic decadence that, in his view, plagued Viennese society at the time.
