Der Untergang des Habsburgerreiches aus der Perspektive einer modernen Familiengeschichte (am Beispiel von Jenny Erpenbecks Roman „Aller Tage Abend“)

Abstract

Since the cultural “rediscovery” of the former eastern outskirts of the Habsburg Monarchy, Galicia has not left being literary fashion. Writers try to explore this significant place of memory (Erinnerungsort) of European cultural history, tending to arrange the literary myth of Galicia as an overarching narrative, in which the force fields of European history are merging. A striking example of such kind of literature is Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Aller Tage Abend (2012). Praised by the critics, the text tells at the same time an autobiographical and fictional family history during the 20th century. In the article it is described how all central areas of the family history are influenced by the repressed Galician past, namely the protagonist’s lifestyles, the fate of her family, and, finally, her confrontation with the 20th-century history. The focus is on the basic components of the Galician experience, which was initially constituted by the way of living of Jewish diaspora in Habsburg Galicia and, later on, by the emigration of the family to Vienna. Furthermore, connections between Erpenbeck’s concept of the Galician past and the literary myth of Galicia are examined.