SOURCE: "Robert Walser on the Battle of Sempach: A History Lesson," in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring, 1992, pp. 79-86.

Below, Evans relates how Walser uses antitheses, irony, and paradoxes in "The Battle of Sempach" to convey his interpretation of events and to encourage the reader to think how history is recounted and treated.

Like Max Frisch's Wilhelm Tell: A School Text, Walser's "Battle of Sempach" is a critical contribution to Swiss self-awareness and to the historiography of his country. Six centuries ago, on 9 July 1386, near the small town of Sempach, the Swiss Confederate infantry won a decisive victory over the Hapsburg cavalry that had been drawn up in great numbers and reinforced by allied contingents. According to tradition, this victory, marking the decline of Hapsburg hegemony in Switzerland, was owed to the self-sacrifice of one Arnold von Winkelried who, in the thick of the battle...