Read more
How did Austrian writers grapple with their country's problematic twentieth-century history? Nine scholars investigate how the complex role of the national past changed the content and context of Austria's literature. Contributions range from Klaus Zeyringer's aggressive argument for an authentically Austrian literature, to the late Harry Zohn's autobiographical insights of a transplanted Viennese. Probing essays examine the Liberal and the National-Socialist era writers in exile and in their roles as post-war social critics.
Shadows of the Past also puts the authors themselves in the spotlight: A «mini-reader» of hard-hitting as well as humorous narrative texts complements the literary history that begins the volume. Written by Barbara Frischmuth, Elisabeth Reichart, and Erich Wolfgang Skwara, these six texts are accompanied by helpful introductions to each author. As a further aid for English-speaking readers, the original in German literary and critical texts are translated for the first time. Shadows of the Past allows students of European culture and comparative literature to experience a dramatic century in Austrian literature and history.
List of contents
Contents: Klaus Zeyringer: Austrian Literature: A Concept - Karl Wagner: Early Modernism: Austrian Literature in the Liberal Era - Karl Müller: The Two Faces of Austria between the World Wars - Paul Michael Lützeler: Literature by Austrians in Exile from 1933 to 1945 - Helga Schreckenberger: Suffering from Austria: Social Criticism in Prose Fiction of the Seventies and Eighties - Caroline Markolin: Too Early to Seek - Too Late to Find? Aspects of Contemporary Austrian Fiction - Marc-Oliver Schuster: On the Culture of Feeling in Austrian Poetry since 1945 - Jacqueline Vansant, Facing Austria's National-Socialist Past: Film Adaptations of Literature - Barbara Frischmuth: «The Dalai Lama's Laughter» - Gerald Chapple: Towards Mapping Barbara Frischmuth's Intercultural Works - Elisabeth Reichart: From Nightmare Tale - Karl Müller, Visual Understanding: Observations on Elisabeth Reichart's Prose - Erich Wolfgang Skwara: From Tristan Island and The Secret Kings - Klaus Zeyringer: Études for a Lefty: On the Literature of Erich Wolfgang Skwara.
About the author
The Editors: Hans Schulte is a retired Associate Professor of German at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. His has published work on Friedrich Schiller, the history of enthusiasm, Goethe¿s Faust, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and literary theory. He has also edited books on post-enlightenment culture, translation theory, the fin de siècle, and the Romantic tradition. Schulte is the editor of the interdisciplinary series, German Literature, Art and Thought.
Gerald Chapple is a retired Associate Professor of German at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. His received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. His interests are in modern Austrian literature and, especially, translating contemporary authors such as Barbara Frischmuth, Heinrich Zimmer, and Günter Kunert. He is the editor of Towards the Millennium, essays on the contemporary Austrian novel. Chapple is also the recipient of a translation award from the Austrian government.
