Chronotopische Landschaften in den fantastischen Romanen Raphaela Edelbauers

Abstract

The works of Raphaela Edelbauer share a common theme in terms of the surrealistic landscapes in which they are set. Her historical novel Die Inkommensurablen (2023) features a village referred to as Weiler, which can seemingly be visited by multiple characters in their dreams. This dreamscape is not only a fantastic element in an otherwise realistic novel, but also an allegory of the shared belligerence within the Austrian society just before the outbreak of World War I. Similarly, the surreal setting of her contemporary novel Das flüssige Land (2019) functions as an allegory as well. The ground beneath the town of Groß-Einland is hollowed out, threatening its very existence, just as the shared guilt of the population’s crimes under the Nazi regime still lingers beneath the idyllic surface. Finally, her science fiction novel DAVE (2021) departs from the established pattern in that its setting is not the manifestation of a shared sentiment, but rather the mind of the eponymous artificial intelligence that narrates the story. In all these cases, however, the landscape is used to transform a subjective and abstract experience into a physical space.