Introduction

chapter 1 Introduction

The foreigner, they say, can never be trusted – / Because a wall, almost impenetrable/ Will always separate the enrooted from the homeless… Tom Lanoye, Mamma Medea

The artist as intercultural diplomat is able to cross many borders that solemn political activists are unable to. GUILLERMO GÓMEZ-PEÑA, A Binational Performance Pilgrimage

Consumers of any Austrian media, whether they are interested in culture or prefer sports, will gain the impression of an ethnically and culturally mixed society. Here are some examples: Monika Ivkic, born in 1989 in Yugoslavia, came to Austria aged just 18 months during the Bosnian War. In 2008, she par- ticipated as the only Austrian candidate in the German talent show Deutschland sucht den Superstar [Germany Seeks a Superstar]. Vincent Bueno’s parents come from the Philippines; he was born in 1985 in Vienna. Bueno won the Austrian talent show Musical – Die Show [Musical – The Show] in 2008. Conchita Wurst, the transvestite stage persona performed by Thomas Neuwirth, was supposedly born in the Colombian mountains. In 2014, Conchita Wurst, a diva with a full beard, won the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen as the Austrian representative. Similar examples can also be found in the world of sports: The swimmers Mirna Jukic and her brother Dinko Jukic, born in 1986 and 1989, respectively, in the former Yugoslavia, came to Austria in 1999 and both swam for Austria at the Olympic Games. Iva Vastic, born in 1969 in the former Yugoslavia where he also grew up, came to Austria in 1991 where he continued his football career in various clubs and also played for the Austrian national team. The current national football team of the country presents itself as a mixed one when it comes to origin: David Alaba’s parents come from the Philippines and Nigeria, respectively, Zlatko Junuzovic is of Bosnian descent, Veli Kavlak, born in Vienna, is of Turkish descent, Valentino Lazaro was born in Graz to a mother of Greek descent and an Angolan father – to name only a few examples of a young and ambitious team. The diversity of the Austrian population is also visible in less prominent areas, that is, for instance on the streets of Vienna: in April 2010 the Austrian

2 chapter 1 newspaper Der Standard announced in its main title: “44 Prozent der Wiener haben ausländische Wurzeln”1 [44 percent of the Viennese population has foreign roots]. This statement was derived from Vienna’s first monitoring report on integration and diversity in the city in 2009. In this report, anybody who was either not born in Austria or did not have Austrian citizenship or who had at least one parent of foreign descent was regarded as a Viennese person with a migration background.2 Both the individual examples cited above as well as a general description of the Austrian or Viennese population thus shows that migration has had a major effect on the society. Nevertheless, on an official level Austria only decided with hesitation upon a broadly positive politics with regard to its culturally and ethnically mixed society. As a result, the idea of a population that is culturally and linguistically homogenous is still prevalent in many parts of society. However, past and present immigration to Austria has also had an effect on literature, even though this has been acknowledged and reflected upon only recently. This effect is twofold: on the one hand, immigration has brought writers to Austria. On the other hand, immigration has become a topic of many literary works. With regard to the first issue, it has taken literary studies some time to acknowledge the fact that authors have immigrated: literature written by (im) migrants such as Elias Canetti, Franz Kafka, and Franz Werfel is often referred to as Austrian literature. In addition, more recent immigrants (i.e. immigrants who arrived in the second half of the 20th century) such as Milo Dor and György Sebestyén are usually perceived as Austrian writers. Only from the late 1990s onwards, have immigrants such as Hamid Sadr, Zdenka Becker, and Serafettin Yildiz been received as authors who have immigrated to Austria and who have chosen a language other than their first, in other words, German, for their literary works. The majority of immigrant authors, however, have pub- lished their works from the beginning of the new millennium onwards.3 Surely, Dimitré Dinev’s novel Engelszungen [Angels’ Tongues] is one of the most

1 Martina Stemmer, ‘44 Prozent der Wiener haben ausländische Wurzeln’, Der Standard, 10/11 April 2010, 1 and 10. For an electronic version of the article see: [accessed 2 August 2014]. 2 See Integrations- und Diversitätsmonitor der Stadt Wien 2009 erstellt im Auftrag der Magistratsabteilung 17 Integration und Diversität, ed. by Magistrat der Stadt Wien MA 17 Integration und Diversität (Vienna: 2010). For an electronic version of the report see: [accessed 10 September 2015]. 3 See Sandra Vlasta, ‘Passage ins Paradies? – Werke zugewanderter AutorInnen in der öster- reichischen Literatur des 21. Jahrhunderts’, in Zeitenwende: Österreichische Literatur seit dem