Wolfgang Kraus

The study deals with Wolfgang Kraus (19241998), a central protagonist of Austrian literary life after 1945. The well-connected literary critic and essayist, founder and director of the Austrian Literary Association (19611994), juror in numerous literary awards (i. a. Anton- Wildgans-Award), literary manager of the Europa publishing house (19701975) and head of a Cultural Contact Point within the Austrian Foreign Ministry (19751981), had at his disposal essential forms of capital through various positions he occupied within the literary field and thereby possessing the means to promote Austrian writers and certain literary currents such he was in favor of. By incorporating archival sources hitherto unknown, i. a. Kraus literary assets, the study describes the activities of Kraus as a manager of Austrian literature whereby it is obligated to Pierre Bourdieus theoretical apparatus of the literary field. Kraus assessment of literature comes into focus in the contexts of Literary Criticism and Cultural Policy supplemented by aspects of an intellectual history and elements of an institutional history. Furthermore phenomena of contemporary history such as the cultural Cold War manifest themselves.