POLISH IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRIAN LITERATURE: SOME REMARKS ABOUT AUSTRIAN- POLISH LITERARY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

Austria can look back on a long history of literature which is marked by its inter-/transcultural character. Many of the Austrian authors are cross-border commuters, their intercultural ties give them a “bridge-breaking” function: The literary texts of authors with a migration background today form an integral part of Austrian contemporary literature and give literary and aesthetically interesting impulses to Austrian literature. Many of them want to assert themselves under new cultural conditions, in a different environment, to position themselves in the cultural circle of the new home, or perhaps even to redesign their cultural identity. In their texts one can find not only the themes of a state of cultural transplantation and relocation, but also the examination of questions of national and cultural identity. The article investigates which identity drafts the reader is confronted with in the texts by an author with a migration background who has meanwhile established themself in the German-language literary scene: The analysis focuses on selected texts by Radek Knapp, a literary “bridge builder” of the Polish-Austrian cultural area. The selected literary texts of Knapp are then analysed in order to see how (and if) the depicted figures establish or preserve their identity and how Radek Knapp approaches and deals with the “Austrian-ness”.