Austrian Studies 20 (2012) Call for Papers
Colonial Austria / Austria and the Overseas
The Habsburg Empire's internal colonialism (e.g. in Galicia and elsewhere)
has been subject of much investigation and debate. As Austria never
acquired a colonial empire overseas, her reach into more distant colonial
space has received far less scholarly attention. Nonetheless, Austria was
part of a world that, since the so-called second era of exploration in the
eighteenth century, was becoming increasingly global: emigration to
colonial space, exploration, a global political outlook, an influx of
overseas influences into domestic culture, colonial science and
investigation in fields stretching from Geography to Ethnology
characterised Austrian culture as much as the culture of other
Central-European countries. The Habsburg family ruled over the first wave
of colonial acquisition originating from the Iberian peninsula and provided
Emperors for Latin-American countries in the nineteenth century; the
Austrian frigate Novara circumnavigated the world between 1857 and 1859 to
gather colonial knowledge; Austrians contributed to the exploration and the
commercial and political penetration of far-away regions (the catalogue of
the exhibition Abenteuer Ostafrika (Eisenstadt 1988) names twenty-four
Austrians engaged in East Africa, amongst them the governor of the Sudanese
province of Dar Fur, Rudolf Slatin). Similarly, post-colonial intellectual
currents influenced Austrian culture and debates of more recent times. The
proposed issue will be devoted to Austrian colonial cultures and the
attendant discourses as they relate to overseas colonial space.
In particular, we invite contributions on the following topics:
ˇ Austrians and their overseas travels / Austrian travel writing;
ˇ Austrian exoticisms / the exoticisation of domestic culture;
ˇ the Austrian metropolis as a "contact zone" between the overseas
and the local;
ˇ colonial sciences in Austria / the institutionalisation and
processing of colonial knowledge in the domestic realm (museums, academia,
media);
ˇ emigration (debates on conditions in receiving countries;
activities of the Österreichische Aussiedlungsgesellschaft, est. 1933, and
other such organisations);
ˇ Austrian overseas politics and diplomacy / the politics of
exploration, migration, settlement and commerce;
ˇ literary, visual and musical reflections of colonial Austria;
ˇ the literary and artistic discourse on Austrian activities in
colonial space from a post-colonial perspective.
For volume 20 of Austrian Studies (2012) we invite contributions on
questions such as those mentioned above and on any other aspects relevant
to the overall topic. In particular, we invite contributions that add to
the knowledge of Austrian activities in the overseas and/or investigate
colonial aspects of domestic Austrian culture using a post-colonial
methodology. Proposals (no more than 200 words) should be sent to Florian
Krobb ([log in to unmask]) by 1 June 2011.
It is anticipated that the deadline for completed articles will be early
December 2011.
Notes for contributors can be found at
www.german.nuim.ie/documents/ASNOTESFORCONTRIBUTORS-1.PDF.
Please adhere to the Modern Humanities Research Association's Stile Guide
(www.mhra.org.uk).
Florian Krobb
Professor of German
Head of School
School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
National University of Ireland Maynooth
Maynooth
County Kildare
Republic of Ireland
Tel. 00353 1 708 3702
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