Austrian Writers Confront the Past, 1945-2000
An International Conference at the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 12-14, 2002
Chair: Frank Trommler
Coordinator: Joseph Moser
Co-sponsored by the Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, the conference is organized by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania. Generous funding from both institutions as well as from the Max Kade Foundation, New York, has made the event possible.
Program
Friday, April 12
Saturday, April 13
Sunday, April 14
Conference location: All meetings will be held at the University City Sheraton Hotel at 36th and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19104, Tel. 215-387-8000. The hotel is on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/german/hotelinformation.htm
Registration: The Conference Registration Desk is located at the University City Sheraton Hotel, Lower Level.
Registration fees: 3 days - $60, Students - $30; 1 day - $20, Students - $10. Credit Cards accepted (Mastercard, Visa, American Express). Checks made payable to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Directions from the Airport: SEPTA's R1 Airport Train leaves the airport every half hour and goes to 30th Street Station. A twelve minute walk to the hotel. The trip takes 25 minutes, the fare is $5.50.
Lady Liberty Transportation Service provides transportation between the Philadelphia International Airport and the hotel at a charge of $8.00 per person each way. Transportation is provided at the baggage claim area of each terminal at zone 8. Individual reservations may be made by calling 215-724-8888.
Taxi fare from the Airport to anywhere on campus is a flat fee of $20 and takes approximately 20 minutes.
Parking: Parking is available at the Hotel parking garage at $15 per day. A large parking lot is adjacent to the hotel on 34th and Chestnut at $10 per day.
Public Transportation: The University City Sheraton Hotel is accessible by public transportation from Center City Philadelphia. Take the Market-Frankford Subway and exit at 34th Street, or take trolley 11, 13, 34, or 36 to 36th Street.
Directions to the Hotel: See map and directions at the inside cover.
Meals: Registration deadline for the Banquet Dinner on Friday, April 12, is Tuesday, April 9. Attendees will not be able to register for the banquet after April 9 or at the door. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/german/registrationinformation.htm
Restaurants: An excellent map of all area restaurants and shops is provided in the conference folder. ("Shopping and Dining on the Penn Campus")
Maps: A map of Center City Philadelphia with points of interest listed is contained in the Visitor's Guide to Philadelphia. It contains maps of Center City Philadelphia, of major highways, and points of interest in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
8:30 am Registration
9-9:30 am Welcome
Frank Trommler, Conference Chair, University of Pennsylvania
Walter Licht, Associate Dean, University of Pennsylvania
9:30-11:00 am
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Panel 1 Center Historical Perspectives Moderator: Frank Trommler, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "Jews and Other Victims: The 'Jewish Question' and Discourses of Victimhood in Early Postwar Austria" |
Panel 2 University Emigrants Look at Austria Moderator: Joseph McVeigh, Smith College Speakers: "Friedrich Torberg's Politics of Emigration" "Political Emigrants from Vienna and Their Loyalty to the German language: Erwin Chargaff and Elias Canetti" "'Zu den Feinden zählt ohne Zögern sie nicht' oder die Thematisierung der Feindesliebe: Erich Frieds Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalsozialismus im Roman Ein Soldat und ein Mädchen" |
Panel 3 Chestnut Rediscoveries Moderator: Michael Burri, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "Geschichte der Gemeinheit: Drei Generationen der Auseinandersetzung mit dem österreichischen Faschismus (Werfel, Aichinger, Köhlmeier)" "Schreiben wider Habsburg und Holocaust: Albert Drachs Grosses Protokoll gegen Zwetschkenbaum" "Echoes from Red Vienna: Marie Frischauf's Novel Der Graue Mann" "'Unsere Berge sind Berge von Toten:' Tourism and 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung' in the Works of Hans Lebert" |
11-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-1 pm
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Panel 4 Chestnut National Socialism in Retrospective Moderator: Jennifer Michaels, Grinnell College Speakers: "Interpreting Propaganda: Antifascist Scholarship in Psychoanalysis, Art History, and Film Studies" "'Who is without guilt?' Comments on Fritz Hochwälders Play Holokaust" "The Poetics of Memory: Austrian Women Writers and National Socialism" |
Panel 5 Center Perspectives on Jewish-Austrian Writers Moderator: Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "Wien bleibt Wien? Austrian Jewish Witers Reflect on the Austrian Past" "The Jew as Conscience in Post-1945 Austria" "The History of Hell: Robert Menasse's Die Vertreibung aus der Hölle and the Austrian Condition" |
Panel 6 University Doderer and Lernet-Holenia Moderator: Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, Universität Wien Speakers: "Denn Dichten heisst-das Unwesentliche weglassen": Guilt and Austrian Reinvention in Alexander Lernet-Holenia's 1955 novel Der Graf Luna" "Violence, Resistance, and Love in Alexander Lernet-Holenia's Novel Mars im Widder" |
1-2:30 Lunch Break
2:30-4:15 p.m.
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Panel 7 Chestnut Drama and Theater Moderator: Geoffrey C. Howes, Bowling Green State University Speakers: "Mutters Courage: or Taboris Latest Holocaust Chutzpah" "'In der 'Kindervilla' des europäischen Gewissens:' Die Auslöschung von Thomas Bernhard im Theater Krystian Lupas" "The Politicization of Drama in Modern Austria" Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, Lafayette College |
Panel 8 Center The Postwar Generation Moderator: Friedbert Aspetsberger, Universität Klagenfurt Speakers: "Coincidences: Writing and History in Ilse Aichinger" "Von den 'Würgemalen' der Geschichte: Franz Kain, Hans Lebert und die 'Mühlviertler Hasenjagd' in der österreichischen Nachkriegsliteratur" |
Panel 9 University Repräsentation des Holocaust Moderator: Thomas Eder, Wien Speakers: "Nazis, Sex, Lüge: Albert Drachs literarische Selbstjustiz" "Ðberleben. Ein Kinderspiel: Ilse Aichingers Die gröþere Hoffnung" "'niemand bespricht unsern Staub:' Paul Celans Strategien des Scheiterns" |
4:15-5:15 Roundtable Discussion, University
"Repräsention des Holocaust bei Autoren der 'zweiten Generation'"
mit Thomas Eder, Bernhard Fetz, Klaus Kastberger und Daniela Strigl
6:30-7:30 Reception, Cash Bar, Center
7:30-10 pm Banquet Dinner, Palmaire.
At 8:45 pm Keynote Address: Egon Schwarz, Washington University, St. Louis, "Eine ganz normale Nation"
9-10:45 am
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Panel 10 Chestnut
Ingeborg Bachmann Moderator: Dagmar C.G. Lorenz, University of Illinois at Chicago Speakers: "'Rauch und Wahn:' Ingeborg Bachmanns Auseinandersetzung mit dem Faschismus in Unter Mördern und Irren" "The Double Murder of Malina: Bachmann's Novel as Cinematic Psychogramm" "Witness as Victim: Shoah and Feminism in Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina" |
Panel 11 University
Austrian Heimat: Nostalgia, Mourning, and Loss Moderator: Brigitte Prutti, University of Washington Speakers: "Nostalgia and Aestheticism in Robert Menasse's Selige Zeiten, brüchige Welt" "Demythologizing Austrian Heimat: Marlene Streeruwitz's Lisa's Liebe" "The Past as Present as Future: Marlene Streeruwitz and Her Novel Nachwelt" |
Panel 12 Center
Elfriede Jelinek Moderator: Catriona MacLeod, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "'Die fesche alte Niedertracht:' Faschismuskritik in den Texten von Elfriede Jelinek" "Reawakening Austria's (Un)Dead: Elfriede Jelinek's Die Kinder der Toten" "'Es ist, als liefe das Bellaria-Kino Amok:' Elfriede Jelineks Burgtheater: Posse mit Gesang" |
10:45-11 am Coffee Break
11-12:45 pm
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Panel 13 Center Peter Handke and Gert Jonke Moderator: Horst Daemmrich, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "Thukydides und die österreichische Zeitgeschichte: Handke als Historiograph" Bernhard Doppler, Universität Paderborn "Zum Verhältnis von Kunst, Geschichte und Politik im Erzählwerk Gert Jonkes" "Memory is Murder: Violence and the Reconstructed Past in Postwar Austrian Literature" |
Panel 14 Chestnut Literary Border Landscapes Moderator: Monika Shafi, University of Delaware Speakers: "'Wir sind alle Meister der Einschläferung unseres Gewissens'-György Sebestyens Roman Die Werke der Einsamkeit" "Confronting and Contextualizing the 'Third Reich' Era within Gerhard Roth's Cycle Archive des Schweigens'" "'Der Wortlaut der Erinnerung:' Coming to Terms with the Past in Christoph Ransmayr's Novel The Dog King (Morbus Kitahara)" "Ransmayr's Possible Histories"
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Panel 15 University Assessing Second Generation Jewish and non-Jewish Austrian Writers Moderator: Christina Guenther, Bowling Green State University Speakers: "Remembering the Holocaust: The Politics of Postmodern Characterization in Doron Rabinovici's Papirnik and Suche nach M" "'Was einmal wirklich war, bleibt ewig möglich:' Echoes of History in Robert Menasse's Die Vertreibung aus der Hölle" "The Necessity and Impossibility of Biography in Marlene Streeruwitz' Nachwelt and Robert Menasse's Die Vertreibung aus der Hölle" |
12:45-2 pm Lunch Break
2-4 pm
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Panel 16 Chestnut Reflections on the Media Moderator: Simon Richter, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "Zweimal Vergangenheitsbewältigung: Franz Werfel's Novelle Eine blaþblaue Frauenschrift und ihre Verfilmung durch Axel Corti" "Narrator George Tabori: My Mother's Courage - Story, Play, Film" "Der 'kleine Mann' und die Nazizeit: Der Bockerer (Preses/Becher 1946), Der Herr Karl (Qualtinger/Merz) und wieder Der Bockerer (Antel 1981)" |
Panel 17 University Lilian Faschinger and Anna Mitgutsch Moderator: Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, Lafayette College Speakers: "History Lessons? On Anna Mitgutsch's Recent Novels" "Memory and Invention in Anna Mitgutsch's Züchtigung, Abschied von Jerusalem, and Haus der Kindheit" "Writing (of/on) the Body in Pain: The Impossibility and Necessity of Testifying to a Personal Past of Trauma in Anna Mitgutsch's Die Züchtigung" |
Panel 18 Center Elisabeth Reichart Moderator: Linda DeMeritt, Allegheny College Speakers: "Activating Memory: Elisabeth Reichart's Komm über den See" "Murderous Memories: Political Atrocity and Personal Narrative in Elisabeth Reichart's Februarschatten" "(En)Countering Silence: Writing History in Elisabeth Reichart's Februarschatten, Komm über den See and Nachtmär" "Memory works: A Dramatic Performance of an Interview with Author Elisabeth Reichart" |
4-6 pm Screening of Der Bockerer, Chestnut
4:30-6 pm "Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel" Reception with display of select materials from Penn's Mahler-Werfel Collection at Van Pelt Library, Rosenwald Gallery, Sixth Floor.
8 pm Lilian Faschinger: Reading from her work, Center
8:45 pm Elisabeth Reichart: Reading from her work, Center
9-10:45 am
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Panel 19 Center Developments since 1986 Moderator: Joseph Moser, University of Pennsylvania Speakers: "Öffentlicher Diskurs zwischen Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Erinnerungspolitik" "Anti-Fascism in the 21st Century? Austrian Intellectuals Fighting for a Civil Society" "Remembering from the Margins: 'Vergangenheitsbewältigung' and Marginality in Josef Haslinger's Das Vaterspiel" |
Panel 20 Chestnut Thomas Bernhard Moderator: Amir Eshel, Stanford University Speakers: "Excavating the Repressed Past in Thomas Bernhard's Auslöschung and Gerhard Roth's Archive des Schweigens" "Der Heldenplatz: Geschichte und Fiktion" |
Panel 21 University Poetics of Challenging the Past Moderator: Jacqueline Vansant, University of Michigan, Dearborn Speakers: "Marie-ThÈrËse Kerschbaumers Hörspiel Die Zigeunerin: Das sozialkritische Potential eines totgeglaubten Genres" "Robert Menasses politisch-ästhetische Essayistik, mit einem Blick auf die Romane" |
10:45-11 am Coffee Break
11-12:45 pm
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Panel 22 University Current Assessments Moderator: Scott Denham, Davidson College Speakers: "Stages of Mourning: Toward a Typology of Austrian Literature, 1945-2001" "Remembering is Remembering is (not) Remembering? The Resistance against Empty Rituals in Hotschnig's Ludwigs Zimmer and Kofler's Tanzcafe Treblinka" "What's the Holocaust got to do with it? Toward a New Trend in Austrian Youth Literature" |
Panel 23 Center Angst in Thomas Bernhard's Oeuvre Moderator: Gregor Thuswaldner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Speakers: "Fear's Fecundity: The Productive Moment of Angst in Thomas Bernhard's Ein Kind" "Angst als politische Kategorie in Bernhards NS-Dramen" |
Panel 24 Chestnut Ökonomische Zwänge, literarische Konstanten Moderator: Wolfgang Straub, Wien Speakers: "Bürokratische Konstanten in der literarischen Vergangenheitsbewältigung" "Auf-schrei-ben wider das Schweigen: Kein Platz für Helden in Bernhards Dramen" |