Austrian literature
Austrian literature is mostly written in German, and is closely connected with German literature.
Origin and background
From the 19th century onward, Austria was the home of novelists and short-story writers, including Adalbert Stifter, Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig, Franz Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, Joseph Roth, and Robert Musil, and of poets Georg Trakl, Rose Ausländer, Franz Grillparzer, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Celan. Famous contemporary playwrights and novelists include Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke, and well-known essayists such as Robert Menasse and Karl-Markus Gauß. Despite Austria's contributions to architecture and revered musical traditions, no Austrian literature made it to the classical canon until the 19th century. In the early 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whilst visiting Vienna, was stunned to meet no writers at all.Several reasons can be given. First, the arts were the preserve of the imperial court, who saw culture as a political tool, as propaganda. Fine baroque palaces, imperial portraits, and commissions of music could all work very well to this aim, but literature was deemed less suitable and thus not encouraged. Second, the late emergence of German literature; while much was published in German, hardly had the caliber to become "classic" until the late 18th century, when Goethe and Schiller began writing. In Austria, the imperial state also censored all books mercilessly; The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe's novel depicting a young man's ecstatic love and suicide, spawned a string of copycat suicides across Germany, and many states banned the work, but Austrian authorities also banned Goethe's entire opus. It came mostly from Empress Maria Theresa's 'Chastity Commission', intended to uphold public morals, but it had the effect not only of creating a facade of decency but a stunted intellectual front. Perhaps the primary reason for Austria's late literary fruition was its cultural mindset. According to the cultural historian Carl Emil Schorske, 'profoundly Catholic, it was a deeply sensuous, plastic culture'. The outlook of a leisured aristocracy, it was copied by the lower classes. This mentality was not necessarily bad; the emphasis on beauty and fantasy was integral to establishing the imperial capital of Vienna, and it made Vienna the greatest center of music in Europe. But it was not the best ground for the literary experiment. Nevertheless, the liberalization of Austria in the late 19th century created a more dynamic climate for writing, which soon produced a flowering.
The search for a definition
The main problem of defining a dynamic development may be that any definition will fall short of the various currents which lead to a certain type of literature. Through the centuries, there have been different approaches, but most of them have been criticized to be biased - cultural, ideological, or political. Austrian literature developed out of a symbiosis of different regional traditions and languages.In the Middle Ages, there was a homogeneous zone along the Danube River, spanning from Bavaria down to the eastern territories. Travelers and bards moved along this route, bringing with them new influences. At the same time Alps had their forbidding little valleys, which were virtually untouched - they developed their own regional culture.
This is important because it remains characteristic through the centuries. On the other hand, there were writers strictly in the tradition of a region language or culture, on the other hand there was a continuous influence on each other's writing and thinking.
The multi-ethnic Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire and eventually Austro-Hungarian Empire should therefore not be reduced to the German parts of the empire. There were large ethnic or religious minorities in nearly all regional capitals, like Prague, Budapest or Vienna—microcosmi with their own traditions and characteristics.
Franz Kafka may be a good example: while in some of his writings he declared himself to be "German" this was meant more in relation to the ethnic minority living in Prague than as a declaration for another part of the empire. So perhaps he was a "German-speaking-secular-Jewish-Prague-born-Austro-Hungarian-Austro-Czech writer" - a term which best shows the difficulties that are to be faced.
Besides the national differences between the provinces, there were also different regions which influenced the writing style. There were Alps with their distinctive traditions, the deep woods, the coastal regions around Trieste and the Croatian islands, which served as the Austro-Hungarian equivalent to the French Côte d'Azur, a center for writers, painters and other artists at value - and that often-meant religious texts - were written down. In addition, most texts were also translated into Latin before they were put down.
Different sources however suggest that there also existed aristocratic historical records, lyric folklore. Only by accident individual texts were preserved in monasteries. Examples for this are the "Merseburger Zaubersprüche", two Germanic spells being the only written proofs for pagan religion in the German-speaking lands. The "Hildebrandslied" is important as a voucher of Germanic hero literature.
The first German texts were written to translate Latin religious books around 750 in the early Middle Ages. The Benedictine communities in Melk and Salzburg were carrying on notable literary and religious activities. Ava, who was the first known German female writer, wrote in this religiously inspired tradition and lived in the territories which were then and now within the borders of Austria.
High and Late Middle Ages (1170–1500)
With the Crusades around 1160, knights became more important and prosperous. The oral minnesang was a new form, dealing with their love. The topics of the ballads were also more worldly with themes ranging from love and war to political criticism. There was a lot of travelling along the Danube River, with travelling bards bringing news and new songs. The towns were getting rich and independent. The first representatives of this movement and first known male writers in German were Der von Kürenberg and Dietmar von Aist. At the end of the 12th century, one of the most important literary works of the times, Nibelungenlied, emerged. It was created by an unknown minnesang poet most probably in the territories of Austria. As the tradition of minnesang grew, the older poets started teaching younger ones. For example, probably the most known German bard Walther von der Vogelweide learnt his craft from Reinmar von Hagenau at the court in Vienna. Among other known minnesang poets are Neidhart, Jans der Enikel, Ulrich von Liechtenstein, and Oswald von Wolkenstein.In the 12th century, satire was also developing. Seifried Helbling was an example of a writer who wrote texts of this type.
Later on, the minnesang, which was cultivated by knights, became a craft practiced by burghers - meistersingers. Its center was more to the west, in Nuremberg. Michael Beheim was a meistersinger poet strongly connected with the court in Vienna. Yet another form that developed at that time was drama. Especially, presentations of Passion were regularly played. Das Wiener Passionsspiel is worth mentioning here.
An Austrian representative of Holy Grail literature is Heinrich von dem Tuerlîn. He wrote the poem Diu Crône, which has about 30,000 lines. The edition of the original text in Middle High German has completed recently by the Viennese Germanists Fritz Peter Knapp, Manuela Niesner, Alfred Ebenbauer and Florian Kragl, who are preparing a translation to Modern German.
Renaissance
Around 1600, humanism, with its rediscovery of ancient cultures and ideals, spread from Italy throughout Europe. Emperor Maximilian I was a big supporter of this movement. He managed to gather around his court in Vienna humanists such as Conrad Celtes - the founder of Collegium Poetarum or in the later time poet laureat Vadian who wrote in Latin. Eleonore of Austria translated to German a widely read French adventure novel Pontus et la belle Sidonie. Big figures of the Catholic Church of that time Nicholas of Cusa and Petrus Canisius were connected with the Austrian court and a few of their works were written in German.Baroque
The Thirty Years War had multiple effects on European literary trends; some writers based their work on the sufferings of the time, or withdrew into writings of a religious nature. Others responded with escapism, providing beautiful and peaceful worlds readers could flee to. The humorous stories brought relief to the suffering people. This trend is apparent with Abraham a Sancta Clara's religious and comical works, and Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg's religious poetry.As a reaction to the Protestant movements of the Reformation, which rocked the Catholic-led Habsburg territories, many Catholic schools emerged on the territories of Austria. These colleges led by the Jesuit order developed plays and operas that were Italian in style and impressed most by their luxurious equipment. Sermons were an important genre of baroque literature, rooted as it was in the Counter-Reformation. The aforementioned Benedictine monk Abraham a Sancta Clara was a notable preacher of the times. A Jesuit, Georg Scherer, is another example of a monk whose sermons were published and had a wider audience.
Another literary form were improvised plays called "Hanswurstspiele". This direction was represented by Josef Anton Stranitzky, Gottfried Prehauser, Joachim Perinet and Josef Felix von Kurz-Bernardon.
Examples of baroque epic are the chivalric fiction and "Schelmenromane" of Johann Beer, which represent a realistic description of the reality at that time.
Enlightenment
With the start of Enlightenment around 1720, philosophy and the need of literature to educate the reader were two new and strong motivations for literature.Aristotle and his school of thinking was revived. These ideas developed on the territories of Austria during the rule of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II. Around 1790 the ideas of Enlightenment were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers. Harmony and Beauty were some of the ideals of that time.
Austrian literature was also under the strong influence of Freemasonry and strongly connected with the criticism towards clergy. All of these circumstances caused the literature to become more educative and instructional. Satire started to be one of the most frequently used literary genres.
The literary life of Enlightenment concentrated around an almanac Wienerischer Musen-Almanach. It was started in 1777 by Joseph Franz von Ratschky and Gottlieb von Leon. Aloys Blumauer was also its editor since 1781.
A notable poet in the Austrian literature of this period has Johann Baptist von Alxinger who wrote chivalric epics Doolin von Maynz and Bliomberis which were inspired by the tradition of Freemasonry. Alxinger also wrote poetry based on anticlerical ideas.
The writings of a might-have-been monk Johann Pezzl also had a profile of this kind. He wrote journalistic and epic texts.
Classical vision of poetry promoted by Joseph Schreyvogel strongly influenced later authors. Schreyvogel improved considerably the quality of the Austrian theatre. He was a dramatic adviser at the Wiener Burgtheater from 1814 to 1832.
Another important dramatist was Johann Nepomuk von Kalchberg, but historical themes of his dramas give his work the flavour of Romanticism.