Alpine Clichés and Critiques: Developments and Tensions in German-Language Literature

Abstract

This article argues that the role of the Alps in German-language literature is embedded both in a socio-historical context and in the topoi or commonplaces that emerged from that context. Using examples drawn primarily from two very different Austrian authors of the interwar period—namely, Joseph Roth (1894–1939) and Ödön von Horváth (1901–1938)—as well as from their German-speaking predecessors and successors, the aim is to show the literary approaches used to undermine traditional topoi. Today, the Alps are the quintessential defining landscape for the Republic of Austria as well as for Austrian literature, yet they were demystified already in the literature of the interwar period. The themes and literary strategies of these literary works anticipate post-1945 literature, while showing surprising breadth in their approach to the Alps. Much of what is commonly understood today as a reaction to the use of the Alpine and of alpinism for Nazi propaganda belongs in fact to older traditions.