Dear
all,
please take
notice of the following Call for Papers for a panel at the next
MLA-convention in Chicago, December 2007:
'Post-allied Austria': the
influence of the occupying Allied Forces
on
Austrian literature after
1945
The
discussion focuses on literature that was produced during the
first
two decades after 1945 in post-nationalist Austria at a time when
the
country was, until 1955, under the direct rule of the Allied
Forces and,
after then, still influenced by their cultures. The Anglo-American,
Slavic
and Romanic cultures left their traces in the Austrian literature of
this
time in addition to the influence of the 'New, post-Third Reich
Germany'.
The topic of the panel will be to investigate these traces on a
diachronic
as well as a synchronic level as the literature produced during this
time
shows formal and thematic 'Habsburg-Austrian' residues, bearing Slavic and
Romanic elements, as well as tendencies to revaluate pop-cultural
contents and forms, like the comic strip or detective
novel, which are
rooted in the Anglo-American tradition.
The parameters of Austrian cultural identity from the 1940s to the
1970s
will be discussed with reference to its historical and political
dimension and the attempt to newly establish it in regard to the
Allied
Forces' and Germany's influential presence. Secondly, the
expression
'Austrian
Literature' will be investigated in terms of its
usefulness for
literary discourse, with reference to the concept of 'national
literatures' in general. Thus the
discussion will on the one hand
contribute to a revision of an Austrian cultural history of the 1950s
and
on the other hand pose a new critical approach to the
term 'Austrian
Literature'
itself.
Papers are
particularly welcome for the following topics (also with an
interdisciplinary angle):
- Overlaps,
limitations and mutual influence: literature of the
'Wiederaufbau' (restitution) in Austria and
o
Anglo-American Literature (see also the American
Re-education program)
o French
Literature
o Slavic
Literature
- Literature of the border
provinces & their new (political)
position after 1945 (see the concepts of periphery and
centre)
- Nazi-literature &
literary reactions to it in Austria after 1945
with
respect to the 'Opfer/Mittäter' - question
- Literary
reflections of the 'Opfermythos' in Austria
- The historical and
political traces of the Allied occupation in the
Second
Republic
- A critical approach to the
concept of an 'Austrian Literature' as
manifestation of a
'Nationalkultur' (a culture
based on national
principles)
Proposals for
papers of 20-25 minutes length (a maximum of 250
words)
N.B.: Prospective
speakers at the MLA-conference have to be members of
the
Modern Language
Association or become a member before April 7th, 2007. For application
details please go to: www.mla.org. Also all European participants are kindly
asked to request funding for travel and accommodation from their
home-institution.