Restoring a Home: Restorative and Reflective Nostalgia in Anna Mitgutsch’s House of Childhood

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the novel Haus der Kindheit [House of Childhood] (2000) by the Austrian writer Anna Mitgutsch (1948-), a text that is concerned with the search for the remnants of a pre-Holocaust Austrian–Jewish culture, and the attempt to restore a lost home. Using Walter Benjamin’s conception of origin and Svetlana Boym’s thinking on reflective and restorative nostalgia, the chapter examines the intersections of home, belonging and identity in Mitgutsch’s text, situating these within contemporary debates on coming to terms with the past in Austria. My analysis highlights how the protagonist’s growing understanding of Austria’s history and imperfect present is reflected in the move from restorative nostalgia, in his attempt to restore a regained family property, to reflective nostalgia, in his writing of a chronicle documenting the town’s submerged Jewish history. Ultimately, as the chapter illustrates, Mitgutsch’s novel shows that a geographical point of origin does not constitute a home.