Literature, Politics, Cultural Identity. Ingbert: RÖ¶Hrig Universitö¤Tsverlag, 2002
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Leslie Bodi. Literatur, Politik, IdentitÖ¤t: Literature, Politics, Cultural Identity. Ingbert: RÖ¶hrig UniversitÖ¤tsverlag, 2002. 606 pp. EUR 39.00, paper, ISBN 978-3-86110-332-5. Reviewed by Kathrin Bower Published on H-German (October, 2004) Literatur, Politik, Identität showcases thirty- concepts that compose the volume's title: litera‐ five of Leslie Bodi's writings published between ture, politics, and identity. 1959 and 2001, ranging from chapter-length arti‐ The collection is divided into fve sections, cles to three-page notes. Framed by an introducto‐ each containing a variety of essays: "German Im‐ ry essay explaining the organization of the vol‐ ages of Australia" (on Georg Forster, James Cook, ume, and a biographical essay and interview at Therese Huber, as well as more general essays on the book's conclusion, Bodi unequivocally empha‐ Australia in German literature and German litera‐ sizes the links between his life and his scholar‐ ture in Australia); "Literature and Politics in Ger‐ ship. Bodi spent his youth and early adult life in many" (Heinrich Heine, GDR literature, reunifica‐ Budapest as a multilingual, assimilated Jew with a tion and the Stasi fles); "Literature and Traditions passion for German literature and intellectual ex‐ of Josephinism" (enlightened absolutism in Aus‐ change. He lived through the Nazi occupation of tria, censorship practices under Emperor Joseph Hungary and left Budapest after the failure of the II, parallels between the thaw of reform abso‐ revolution; by 1957, he was in Melbourne, Aus‐ lutism under Joseph II and glasnost in the Soviet tralia, where he built a career as an interdiscipli‐ Union, the links between language and cultural nary Germanist and established a thriving Ger‐ identity in eighteenth-century Austria, and the man studies department at Monash University. use of parody in eighteenth-century Austrian lit‐ Bodi's scholarly interests are almost as wide-rang‐ erature); "Modern Austrian Literature, Language ing as his biography, but common themes connect and Culture" (post-1945 Austrian literature, comic his entire oeuvre. Whether he is writing about ambivalence, Thomas Bernhard, Austrian as a Georg Forster, James Cook, or Heinrich Heine, en‐ standard variation of German, Austria's identity lightened absolutism in Austria, contemporary complex as a paradigm, parallels between Austria Austrian literature, or modern Austrian identity, and Australia); and "Biography" (which includes a Bodi constantly points to the links between the biographical essay and an interview). As the pre‐ H-Net Reviews ceding list of topics illustrates, Bodi concerns him‐ a mixed blessing (even if the positive endorse‐ self with individual personalities and particular ment of linguistic pluralism does not escape me), historical periods where literary practices assume although there is enough overlap in the coverage an overtly political role and where political agen‐ of a specific topic that even a monolingual reader das directly affect the production and dissemina‐ can get some benefit from the volume. tion of literature. His other central concern is how While Leslie Bodi's scholarship has clearly the relationship between definitions and percep‐ contributed to the feld of Austrian literary and tions of language and nation influences cultural cultural studies and his insights into the relation‐ identity. This last area reflects Bodi's interest in ship between Australia and Austria are produc‐ and devotion to both postmodernism and New tive for considerations of a viable multicultural Historicism, theoretical felds that permeate his society, his faith in postmodern pluralism as a more recent writings. Despite his affinity with healing force in the culture wars appears both op‐ postmodernism, Bodi's prose is remarkably free timistic and naïve (terms he himself employs [p. of jargon and refreshingly clear. His own multilin‐ 545]), particularly in light of the latest plagues of gualism is demonstrated in the ease of his style in ethnic cleansing and religious fundamentalism both English and German and is further evident around the globe. in the scope of the primary and secondary sources he cites. Bodi is impressively well read and up-to-date on many of the recent discussions and debates on national identity and multicultur‐ alism, and his earlier scholarship on enlightened absolutism and the parallels between the political climate of the eighteenth-century Habsburg em‐ pire and twentieth-century Eastern Europe is both original and of continued relevance. The drawbacks to this kind of volume are that the writings are reproduced in their originally published form with no revision or update of the contents, lending some of the essays a kind of Rip van Winkle quality, as if world events had some‐ how passed them by. The inclusion of multiple es‐ says on the same topic in both English and in Ger‐ man has a downside as well: ideas and themes be‐ come repetitive and the rehearsal of the same quotations and turns of phrase makes for tedious reading. The editors of the series would have been better advised to prune back the collection to the most salient essays on each topic. The only advantage to the existing approach is that it pro‐ vides the reader with the archaeological pleasure of witnessing the evolution of an idea refined and revised over time, digging forward from the ger‐ mination of a thesis to its most recent form. The combination of German and English essays is also 2 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german Citation: Kathrin Bower. Review of Bodi, Leslie. Literatur, Politik, IdentitÖ¤t: Literature, Politics, Cultural Identity. H-German, H-Net Reviews. October, 2004. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9885 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.