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In diesem Band erscheint zum ersten Mal die bisher unverffentlichte Korrespondenz zwischen zwei Dichtern, die ihre literarische Laufbahn im Wien der Jahrhundertwende einschlugen. Der Briefwechsel dokumentiert die wachsende Freundschaft zweier Menschen aus grundverschiedenen sozialen Verhltnissen: der eine kannte das Proletarierelend der Hauptstadt aus erster Hand, der andere geno die Privilegien seiner Herkunft aus dem jdischen Grobrgertum. Gemeinsam war jedoch beiden das Verlangen, ihren Erlebnissen, ihren Gedanken, ihren tiefsten Wnschen knstlerischen Ausdruck zu verleihen. Ein einleitender Aufsatz und umfangreiche Anmerkungen liefern den notwendigen Rahmen fr das Verstndnis der Korrespondenz.BOOK SYNOPSIS IN ENGLISHIn this volume the hitherto published correspondence between two writers who began their careers in the turn-of-the-century Vienna is brought together for the first time.It documents the growing friendship between two men who came from the opposite ends of the social spectrum.The one with bitter first-hand experience of the hardships of proletarian life, the other enjoying all the benefits of an upbringing among the wealthy Jewish bourgeoisie, but who were united in their ambition to give artistic expression to their concerns.An introductory essay and extensive notes provide the necessary context for an understanding of the correspondence. ... Read more

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This book is a collection of essays by prominent North American and European experts in Austrian literature concerning the Austrian playwright and author Franz Grillparzer, his relationship to various literary traditions, and his reception from the nineteenth century to the present. The chapters originated at a symposium held in February of 2003 at the University of Alberta sponsored by the University of Alberta’s Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. ... Read more

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Initially published in 1984, this is a revised translation into English and provides an informative Afterword by Lowell A Bangerter (Professor of German, University of Wyoming) of a seminal and scholarly work that combines historical analysis, social research, and a broad survey of the unique culture forces and politics that have shaped present-day Austria. Individual chapters address controversies, myths, stereotypes, the wide variety of ethnic groups, and more. The Austrian Nation is thoughtfully recommended as being a seminal and ground breaking study of a European nation. ... Read more

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A ground breaking study of a European nation
Initially published in 1984, The Austrian Nation: Cultural Consciousness And Socio-Political Processes by Ernst Bruckmuller (Professor of Economic and Social History, University of Vienna, and Chairman of the Department of Austrian Studies) is a revised translation into English and provided an informative Afterword by Lowell A. Bangerter (Professor of German, University of Wyoming) of a seminal and scholarly work that combines historical analysis, social research, and a broad survey of the unique culture forces and politics that have shaped present-day Austria. Individual chapters address controversies, myths, stereotypes, the wide variety of ethnic groups, and more. As pertaining to the political, social, and cultural tapestry of Austria itself, The Austrian Nation is thoughtfully recommended as being a seminal and ground breaking study of a European nation. ... Read more

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The historic myths of a people/nation usually play an important role in the creation and consolidation of the basic concepts from which the self-image of that nation derives. These concepts include not only images of the nation itself, but also images of other peoples. Although the construction of ethnic stereotypes during the "long" nineteenth century initially had other functions than simply the homogenization of the particular culture and the exclusion of "others" from the public sphere, the evaluation of peoples according to criteria that included "level of civilization" yielded "rankings" of ethnic groups within the Habsburg Monarchy. That provided the basis for later, more divisive ethnic characterizations of exclusive nationalism, as addressed in this volume that examines the roots and results of ethnic, nationalist, and racial conflict in the region from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives.The volumes in this series, many of them based on research presented at international, interdisciplinary conferences sponsored by the renowned Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota, address specific themes and questions regarding the history, culture, politics and contemporary social and economic experience of Austria and its East-Central European neighbors. ... Read more

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An impressive, highly recommended novel.
Translated from German for an American readership, Gernot Wolfgruber's Footloose is a gripping first-person narrative of a teenage boy and his experiences growing up in postwar Austria.. Leaving school for theexcitement of earning money as an apprentice, he soon experiences thegrueling monotony of his work and the harsh treatment of his superiors. Hispainful search fr individuality, freedom, and meaning employment, alongwith the unpleasant concomitant consequences contain striking parallels tocontemporary American experience in the blue collar working world. Superblytranslated by Robert Acker, Footloose is an impressive, highly recommendednovel that, first published in Europe in 1975, reads with a currentaccessibility that will be much appreciated by readers today. ... Read more

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The growing internationalization of the world poses a fundamental question, i.e., through what mechanisms does culture diffuse across political boundaries and what is the role of politics in shaping this diffusion? This volume offers some answers through the case study of the relationship between two quite different states during the Cold War era - Austria, a small neutral country, and the United States, the reigning superpower. The authors challenge naive notions of cultural diffusion that posit the submission of small "peripheral" areas to the dictates of hegemonic powers at the "core." "Americanization" has no doubt taken place since 1945; however, local forces crucially shaped this process, and Austrian elites enjoyed considerable leeway in pursuing "Austrian" political objectives. On the other hand, with the expulsion of Vienna's cultural and intellectual elite after the AnschluA , the United States, more than any othercountry, became heir to the rich cultural legacy of "Vienna 1900," which profoundly shaped politics and culture in both its "high" and popular forms in postwar America.The relationship climaxed and came full circle with the unfolding of the Waldheim affair, which forced Americans and Austrians to reinterpret the meaning of the Nazi era for their own history in a confrontation with the "other." ... Read more

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International scholars review here most of the work by Julian Schutting (born 1937) produced between 1973 and 1997, concluding that Schutting has taken up his rightful place in the literary and intellectual history of the twentieth century. Schutting combines a classic self-consciousness in his writing in that he expands the repertoire of the possible without overturning the rules governing German grammar and syntax, with a determination to rebel against precisely those conventions. This is why he is both an insecure heir to the 'great tradition' in German poetry from Goethe to Hoelderlin and a fellow traveler of the first wave of the European Avant-Garde ('die Wiener Gruppe'). At times he yields to the pressures of modernism's notion of the writer as genius struggling with a destiny of 'greatness.' -- The surrender to melancholia is at the heart of the work, which never loses its link with the purely personal. Sometimes the purely personal is shrouded in pseudo-objectivity. His forays into intellectual controversy -- like his meditations on the meaning of the Shoah to contemporary Austria -- are the exception in his writings. ... Read more

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A biographical and interpretive study of Heimito von Doderer (1896-1966) who remains one ofthe most acclaimed Austrian novelist of the post-World War II era. ... Read more

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Doderer in Vienna
Seminal on Doderer in English. The expansions by the translator Vincent Kling areadmirable, provocative, necessary, ingenious.

Modesty Makes for Clarity
I'm not quite the author, and I'm not quite not the author! This book originally appeared in German, in 1983, in Vienna; I have translated it into English, added almost all the footnotes and the bibliography, and have written a new chapter, "From District to Empire."

Aside from my lifelong love of Austrian literature and my fascination with Heimito von Doderer, I was drawn to Pfeiffer's book by its practicality, its clarity, and its modesty. It makes none of the hugely overexalted claims many academic books feel they have to make, opting instead to present itself as part guidebook to the neighborhoods of Vienna which Doderer used in his novels, part biography of Doderer, and part interpretation of his two most significant works of fiction. But trust me, this is not "interpretation lite." Pfeiffer--a retired psychotherapist--offers a number of facts about Doderer's life and artistic process that won't be found elsewhere, and he presents trenchant, simple, and often highly original insights into the novels. His expert knowledge comes from his long friendship with Doderer's widow and other associates and from his position as curator of the Doderer memorial rooms at the Alsergrund District Museum in Vienna.

Pfeiffer is especially good at showing how broad background influences and "raw" topographical items and places become transmuted into the elements of imaginative writing; time after time, he traces the adjustments Doderer made to create out of his everyday surroundings genuine symbol-bearing places in his novels.

Pfeiffer is the "utility guy"--and I mean this in the very best sense--among the Doderer experts. Never holding an academic appointment, the very model of the private scholar, working for so many years on Doderer out of sheer love, he strips away the inessentials and shows the whole dynamic of Doderer's life, environment, and artistry working together. For that reason, he's also the "go to" guy, the man all the eminent scholars and professors turn to when they need clear information and cogent interpretation.

If you can't read German (would you be looking at this review otherwise?), I recommend you first read Michael Bachem's excellent book on Doderer (Twayne, 1982), then turn to Pfeiffer. His is a deceptively simple book you can't do without, and I think the experts will soon be saying the same.

Let's just hope now that some enterprising publisher will bring out Doderer's other great novel, The Strudlhof Steps, in English. It's already half finished by yours truly.

Read this helpful handbook, meantime, and if you get to Vienna, look up Pfeiffer at the museum, Währinger Stra�e 43, on any Wednesday from 10 AM to noon. He would love to see you! ... Read more

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This critical anthology presents original scholarship and materials about the prominent dramatist and concentration camp memoir writer Elsa Porges-Bernstein (1866–1949). The individual scholarly contributions provide new insights into the issue of multiple identity and allegiance in the first half of the twentieth century. Bernstein was a Germanophile and, according to Nazi ideology, a Jew; she also assumed the traditional roles of mother and housewife; finally, she was a feminist and a socialite related to the Wagner family. The complexity and conflictedness of Elsa Porges-Bernstein appeals to contemporary audiences, as evidenced by the 2002 revival of her play Maria Arndt,/i> in Chicago. ... Read more