The Austrian Imaginary of Wilderness: Landscape, History and Identity in Contemporary Austrian Literature Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jennifer Magro Algarotti, M.A. Graduate Program in Germanic Languages and Literatures. The Ohio State University 2012 Committee: Gregor Hens, Advisor Bernd Fischer Bernhard Malkmus Copyright by Jennifer Magro Algarotti 2012 Abstract Contemporary Austrian authors, such as Christoph Ransmayr, Elfriede Jelinek, Raoul Schrott, and Robert Menasse, have incorporated wilderness as a physical place, as a space for transformative experiences, and as a figurative device into their work to provide insight into the process of nation building in Austria. At the same time, it provides a vehicle to explore the inability of the Austrian nation to come to terms with the past and face the challenges of a postmodern life. Many Austrian writers have reinvented, revised, and reaffirmed current conceptions of wilderness in order to critique varying aspects of social, cultural, and political life in Austria. I explore the way in which literary texts shape and are shaped by cultural understandings of wilderness. My dissertation will not only shed light on the importance of these texts in endorsing, perpetuating, and shaping cultural understandings of wilderness, but it also will analyze their role in critiquing and dismantling the predominant commonplace notions of it. While some of the works deal directly with the physical wilderness within Austrian borders, others employ it as an imagined entity that affects all aspects of Austrian life. ii Dedication To my family, without whose support this would not have been possible. I am so glad to be a part of us. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor Professor Gregor Hens for his tireless effort during the writing process. I am especially grateful for his ongoing intellectual support and encouragement, particularly during the times it was needed most, and for his patience in correcting my stylistic errors. I am also thankful for the encouragement from Professor Bernhard Malkmus. His optimism, expertise in the topic area, and guidance in forming my arguments were vital to the success of this project. I would also like to acknowledge the help of Professor Bernhard Fischer. Without his support, I would not have been able to finish the requirements for this degree. I thank the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures for financial support and flexibility, with which I could appropriately address both my academic and family needs. I would like to thank Professor Anne Magro and Ms. Lisa Warne for their help in final proof-reading and editing, but mostly for lending a sympathetic ear. Finally, I thank Steven Algarotti for his unlimited love. I am indebted to him for his sacrifices during this process. This dissertation was supported in part by funding from the College of Arts and Humanities at The Ohio State University and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. iv v Vita June 1996 .......................................................Centerville High School 2000................................................................B.A. German Studies and History, Ohio Wesleyan University 2006................................................................M.A. Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University 2004 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Germanic Languages and Literatures vi Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication........................................................................................................................iiiv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita.................................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction: Literary Wilderness.................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Across the Border............................................................................................ 50 Chapter 3: A Place of Redemption ................................................................................. 116 Chapter 4: The Abstract “Other” .................................................................................... 183 Chapter 5: Conclusion..................................................................................................... 246 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 258 vii Chapter 1: Introduction: Literary Wilderness The conflict between technological progress and the preservation of nature is considered the key debate of the twenty-first century by William Cronon, one of the premier scholars of environmental studies in the United States. 1 He argues that the modern understanding of nature is based on historical and cultural concepts that are called into play within social debates concerning nature preservation and conservation. Wilderness, both as an idea and a physical reality, holds a special position in the debate of nature preservation because of its shifting meaning throughout the history of human interaction with their surroundings. Despite the recent focus on the role of interaction with nature in modern Western culture, environmental thinking is not merely a twentieth century invention. Current questions about our influence on nature, and the opposite, are not novel; they have identifiable roots in Greek notions of Cosmology, paganism, Middle Age thinking of “the great chain of being,” Christian respect for the whole of creation, and natural philosophy. Despite this long tradition, a concentrated environmental movement was evident in neither the United States nor Europe until the 1960s. Scientific studies, like “The Limits to Growth,”2 spurred on discussions about the role of humans in 1 William Cronon, ed. “Introduction: In Search of Nature,” Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1995) 23-68. 2 Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William W. Behrens, The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind (New York: Universe Books, 1972). 1 the environment in cultural and philosophical thought in significantly new ways.3 As a result of increased preservation and conservation, among other environmentally conscious efforts, and the emergence of the fields of environmental history and cultural geography, the idea of wilderness and our interaction with it have become a renewed focus of scholarly attention in the last thirty years. The idea of wilderness, while being part of a longer tradition of human interaction with nature, differs from other conceptions of nature. Its most enduring definition is that it is a form of nature untainted by civilization. Unlike the broader term “nature,” which can be an integral part of modern civilization in the form of parks, gardens, or even a tree-lined street, wilderness is defined by its separation and distinction from spaces intended for human habitation. People have conceived of it in a variety of ways, including as a physical space, an aesthetic realm, and an abstract reality, in the forms of myth, image, and figurative language. Recently, however, the definition has become solidified politically because of the Wilderness Act (1964) in the United States: “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” 4 The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s categorization system has also identified the specific properties necessary for an area to be designated “wilderness.” Despite the stabilization of its political definition in the United States and Europe and the influence of this definition on preservation efforts in other countries, a number of 3 See Anna Bramwell, Ecology in the 20th Century: A History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989). 4 “Wilderness Act of 1964,” Public Law 88-577 (16 U.S. C.1131-1136), 88 th Congress, Second Session, September 3, 1964. 2 commonplace notions, existing since ancient times, are still at work within the modern concept. My goal is to trace historical conceptions of wilderness as a physical and conceptual space in the Western context, as it affords certain aesthetic and transformative experiences as both a physical place and imaginary space. I identify within historical sources the standardized or commonplace notions of wilderness in order to understand instances of the motif in modern Austrian literature. I argue that older understandings of wilderness are still vital, despite a drastic reevaluation of specific natural areas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I further argue that the loss of real, physical wild spaces has led to a schizoid development for modern humanity. On the one hand, domestication and cultivation, which has led to its loss, has prompted many