„Wir Slawen sind schrecklich sensibel...“ Fremd- und Eigenbilder in der Prosa Radek Knapps

Abstract

„We, the Slaves, are terribly sensitive...” The creation of external and self-images in Radek Knapp’s prose works The influence of the foreign-born writers on the German-speaking literature is nowadays undisputed. In contrast to the so-called ‘migration literature’ (although the most authors fight against categorizing their literary works as ‘migration literature’, finding the term demeaning and ghettoized) in Germany, the writers of non-German mother tongue or non-Germanspeaking background in Austria have not received much academic attention so far. Radek Knapp (born in 1964 in Poland) belongs to the most distinctive Austrian authors, whose texts are mostly interpreted in the context of migration. He moved from Warsaw to Vienna in the age of 12 and defined himself to be expressed in German therefore dedicating his literary career mostly to German-speaking readers, although simultaneously taking his unique position between two cultures. For more than two decades his novels constantly gain popularity among the reading public. It is due to his protagonists who usually represent a group of cross-border commuters whose perceptively observations and satirical comments of Austrian as well as Polish reality make (otherwise familiar) surroundings appear unfamiliar or even exotic. The aim of the study is to investigate the creation of external and self-images in two most popular prose works of Radek Knapp: his literary debut from 1994 – the short story collection titled Franio and the novel Herrn Kukas Empfehlungen (Mr. Kuka’s Recommendations), published in 1999. Of particular interest is the confrontation of East and West, which defines the basic structure of Knapp’s works, including the use of stereotypes.