Identity through Geographical Space: Ambivalent Perspectives on the Alpes in Austrian Literature and Art

The Corona epidemic challenged the traditional view of the Alps as a place ensuring and promoting health. According to research carried out by the magazine Spiegel, in the Tyrolean tourist resort of Ischgl alone, more than 11 000 tourists from all over Europe were infected with Corona during exuberant après ski parties early in winter 2020. Soon afterwards, a study by the Medical University of Innsbruck found the highest antibody rate in the world at the time – over 42% – in the population of Ischgl. When St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut, which was sung about in the famous operetta Im weißen Rößl (1930), followed as another disease cluster in July 2020, the idea of mountains as the health-promoting landcsape in Austria seemed to have finally been tarnished. In times of the Alpine region as a location for mass tourism, it became a viral hub of Europe-wide importance, which was soon reflected in Austrian art and literature. The paper considers the relevant works of Marlene Streeruwitz, Elfriede Jelinek and their predecessors, because there has long been a tradition in Austrian literature that goes against the broad tradition of portraying the Alps as a sublime and beautiful place with morally integral, happy and healthy people. This image is of crucial importance, because the Alps are the quintessential defining landscape for the Republic of Austria. 

Associate Professor Dr. Johann Georg Lughofer (Ljubljana/Stellenbosch) studied German language and literature, history, political science, and philosophy in Vienna, Granada, Nice, and Exeter. Teaching activities: 1999 at Peking University, PR China; 2002–2005 at the University of Exeter, England; since 2005 at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia—where he obtained his habilitation in 2009—alongside regular teaching assignments at the universities of Maribor, Stellenbosch, Vienna, Klagenfurt, Graz, and Innsbruck. Research interests: exile literature, Austrian literature (19th–21st centuries), intercultural literary studies. Numerous publications, for example as editor: Die Berge erschreiben. Die Alpen in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. Innsbruck: university press 2014.