Colloquia Germanica
cg
0010-1338
Francke Verlag Tübingen
Es handelt sich um einen Open-Access-Artikel, der unter den Bedingungen der Lizenz CC by 4.0 veröffentlicht wurde.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/31
2021
523-4
Katya Krylova: The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017. 197 pp. Hardcover $ 90.00. Paperback $ 29.95
31
2021
Jacqueline Vansant
cg523-40408
As these examples show, the studies in this book make a great contribution to methods for studying East German sources in general, not just when it comes to questions of gender and sexuality� They offer particularly valuable methods for examining sources from a multifaceted viewpoint� Instead of a singular ideological reading, the contributors open up ways to see the ambiguities of everyday life in the state� The many questions that this book poses will likely inspire future projects� Editors Frackman and Stewart suggest areas of research including masculinity studies, sexual violence, and non-binary identities� Another consideration might be the connections between DEFA cinema and everyday experiences� It is clear that the 1970s saw changes in how films dealt with gender and sexuality, but how did these new discussions interact with how East Germans actually lived? Furthermore, while some contributions gesture to international developments, future research might look at East German film in a wider context: what attitudes toward gender and sexuality were particular to East Germany and which were shared within the socialist sphere and beyond, as sexual mores and gender roles changed in the later decades of the twentieth century? The fact that this volume opens up so many productive avenues of research shows how engaging and innovative these contributions are� This study will be important for anyone interested in postwar cinema or East Germany more broadly� Stanford University Colleen Anderson Katya Krylova: The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017. 197 pp. Hardcover $ 90.00. Paperback $ 29.95. With her lucid prose, Katya Krylova skillfully weaves together the historical context with pertinent case studies to illustrate how the selected writers, filmmakers, and creators of public art have engaged with the legacy of the National Socialist past� The Waldheim affair (1986-88), which serves as the point of departure for the volume, resulted in a long-overdue public discrediting of the myth of Austria’s victim status during the National Socialist regime� It was also the impetus for many of the subjects of Krylova’s study to become involved in a variety of protest movements and confront the past in their chosen media� After setting up the historical context with a discussion of the civic engagement following Waldheim’s election, Krylova dedicates five chapters to the exploration of two novels, a play, four films, and eight examples of public art 408 Reviews created between 1983 and 2014� With her case studies she explores how the confrontations with the past have evolved over time� In the first two chapters, “Melancholy Journeys to the Past: The Films of Ruth Beckermann” and “Reconstructing a Home: Nostalgia in Anna Mitgutsch’s Haus der Kindheit,” Krylova draws on Svetlana Boym’s discussion of nostalgia in The Future of Nostalgia and her distinction between restorative and reflective melancholy� According to Boym, the restorative nostalgic wishes to return to an idealized past, whereas the reflective nostalgic deals with the past from an estranged distance, scratching the patina of history� In the Beckermann chapter the author discusses how the filmmaker’s three Vienna films are examples of reflective nostalgia� In Wien retour (1983) Beckermann transports viewers to the Vienna of the twenties and thirties with the story of Franz West (formerly Weintraub) and makes visible the history of left-wing movements as well as the anti-Semitism of pre-Nazi Austria� Die papierende Brücke (1987) becomes a much more personal journey in the shadow of the Waldheim affair, in which Beckermann explores her own family history and reflects on growing up Jewish in Austria� In Homemad(e) (2001), the filmmaker focuses on her home street in Vienna and its contemporary inhabitants while at the same time reflecting on absences� In Chapter Two Krylova turns to Anna Mitgutsch’s novel Haus der Kindheit (2000) and argues that the protagonist’s engagement in the past moves from restorative to reflective nostalgia� She illustrates how the protagonist, a New York interior designer and the son of Jewish-Austrians, engages in restorative nostalgia after he reclaims his mother’s house in Austria, which he unsuccessfully tries to restore to its original condition� When he becomes interested in a group of dilapidated buildings, where members of the Jewish community had once lived, he sets out to uncover a past that has been erased and write a chronic of those persecuted and murdered� Although the new territory covered is limited, the two chapters provide an excellent overview of Beckermann’s films and Mitgutsch’s novel and illustrate how they reveal a shift in engagement with the past� In Chapter Three, Krylova sets out to “explore the intersections and diverse possibilities of the filmic and theatrical texts for confronting the past and representing continuing repercussions of the past in the present” (65) by turning to a film and a play which concern themselves with the murder of Hungarian Jews in Rechnitz on March 25, 1945� The author outlines how Margarete Heinrich and Eduard Erne’s documentary film Totschweigen (early 1990s) follows the frustrating and unsuccessful search for the gravesite of the victims, exposing the town’s attempts to cover up this past� Turning to the same historical event, Elfriede Jelinek’s post-dramatic play Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel, premiere 2008) focuses on how the past is repressed and personal guilt negated in language� Krylova’s insightful analysis of the documentary complements her discussion of Reviews 409 the play� In Chapter Four, the author focuses on Robert Schindel’s roman à clef Der Kalte (2013), which has a lightly veiled literary rendition of the Waldheim presidency as its backdrop� Krylova explores how the author’s biography as the son of Communist Jews and the Waldheim affair shapes Schindel’s literary contemplation of the struggles of both the survivors of the National Socialist brutality and their progeny in contemporary Austria� In Chapter Five “Missing Images: Memorials and Memorial Projects in Contemporary Vienna,” Krylova takes on a fascinating subject, which could easily be expanded into a book� She provides an overview of the first examples of public art, Alfred Hradlicka’s Mahnmal gegen Krieg and Faschismus (1988) with its “undifferentiated presentation of victimhood” (97), followed in 2000 by Rachel Whiteread’s Mahnmal für die 65.000 ermordeten österreichischen Juden und Jüdinnen der Shoah� While both are in well-trafficked areas, much of the more recent public art, which reflects on Austria’s role during National Socialist years, can be found throughout the city� Krylova discusses eight examples that engage critically with Austria’s National Socialist past� She organizes her examples, which were installed between 2002 and 2015, under six thematic rubrics - “Contextualizing Nazi Art,” “Localized Decentralized Memorials,” “Making Memory Visible,” “Remembering Everyday Persecution,” “An Intervention in Existing Memorial Culture,” and “Making Absence Visible�” Included in her discussion is Schlüssel gegen das Vergessen, the moving installation of keys in Servitengasse in Vienna’s ninth district, and the Steine der Erinnerung, which are found throughout the city� Both were brought about by private initiatives, which show a marked attempt by certain sectors to uncover aspects of Austria’s uncomfortable past� At the same time Krylova provides insights into Austrian engagements with the past, we, however, learn little about the artists and motivations with the exception of Karen Frostig and Ruth Beckermann� The comprehensive volume, which gained the distinction of 2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title, is a welcome addition to academic and personal libraries� Krylova provides a valuable resource for those unfamiliar with the political events and the texts at the same time points to directions for fruitful future research� University of Michigan-Dearborn Jacqueline Vansant 410 Reviews