The Rhetoric of National Dissent in Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, and Elfriede Jelinek

Abstract

Part 1 Consensus and dissent in contemporary Austrian literature: introduction refocusing Austrian literature and its politics the politics of consensus and dissent the rhetoric of national dissent in recent Austrian writing. Part 2 Publikumsbeschimpfung - Thomas Bernhard's provocations of the Austrian public sphere: introduction Wittgensteins Neffe - the cultural critic in a post-cultural era Holzfallen - the commodified avant-garde and the retreat of art's critique from the public sphere Alte Meister - canonicity and the nationalization of art Heldenplatz - anti-semitism and Austria's public sphere. Part 3 Cultural amnesia and the narration of the everyday - Peter Handke's post-ideological aesthetics: introduction Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter - the emerging praxis of Handke's post-ideological aesthetics Wunschloses Ungluck and the narration of the everyday return to experimentation - Handke's iconography Handke's postmodernism - beyond subject and nation Justice for Serbia and recent public interventions. Part 4 Elfriede Jelinek's Austria - simulations of death: introduction beyond Baudrillard's simulacram Totenauberg - the theme park of genocide Jelinek's earlier work and its evolving cultural critique minority and majority languages in Die Klavierspielerin and Lust. Part 5 Concluding remarks - the emergence of recent Austrian Jewish writing: postnationalism and the revival of ethnic literature Jewish identities in Austrian culture Jewish identities in recent Austrian writing.