Latency under Construction. The Other Modernism in Austrian Literature 1930–1960

This literary science project examines Austrian authors who between 1930 and 1960 attempted to rescue the concerns of modernity by making use of pre-and anti-modern means. This other modernity is an international phenomenon; the Austrian current is characterized by the effort to narrate a deeper sense, a "second, deeper ground of reality" (George Saiko). This endeavour led towards the field of tension between National Socialism and modernity, which is intensively discussed in international research under the keywords "reflected", "reactionary" and "fascist modernism". The aim of the project is to review for the first time thoroughly this other modernism, departing from the work of five Austrian authors (Hermann Broch, George Saiko, Heimito von Doderer, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, and Hans Lebert). These authors developed, by means of their rehabilitation of a double ground of reality, a specific aesthetics of depth, which has until now received too little attention. This habilitation project closes this research gap. In order to achieve this aim, it draws on recent concepts of latency developed by cultural studies, and analysed by the candidate in previous work. By means of this latency theory approach, two new perspectives are opened up; the first is related to aesthetic procedures, the second to the historical function of the analysed texts. On one side this approach allows for the differentiated acquisition and the methodologically precise analysis of the aesthetic techniques of this other literary modernity in Austria. On the other side it sharpens the view of the historico-political function of the respective texts in between "reflected" and "reactionary modernism". This tension is analysed by comparing authors and their strategies from the aspect of continuities and breaks, with particular attention paid to the breaks of 1934/38 and 1945, as well as to the current international periodization debate (1925/1930 and 1955/1960). By means of both perspectives (aesthetic procedure and historical function), it is possible to tie together and to broaden the current approaches of cultural studies to latency, as well as make them accessible to literary historical analyses. From the point of method, the project combines narratological analysis with the instruments of poetological discourse analysis. The narratological examination draws upon the concept of the narrated world and utilizes studies of Magic Realism, of the fantastic and of the uncanny in order to define their interfaces. These investigations will be completed through the application of discourse analysis to the literary processing of contemporary latency discourses (psychoanalysis, life and existence philosophy). For the Austrian and international research scenario, the project is relevant on more than one aspect; on one side the research based on recent concepts of latency makes a fundamental contribution to the international research dealing with the relationship between National Socialism and modernity. On the other side, the analysis of this other modernity shows the multiple shadings of this relation and therefore also allows for a differentiated historical perspective on the literature of the decades after 1945. In the end, the analysed problematic the aesthetics of depth is actual, and in times in which the need for solid fundaments and substance is rising, once more becomes highly relevant. The research institution for the Hertha-Firnberg position is the Department of German Studies of the University of Vienna. The project is embedded in several (inter-)national cooperations.

The literary research project was motivated by recent discussions about the complex relationship between national socialism and modernity. These discussions changed the traditionally held notion of a clear-cut dichotomy between 'modern' progressivity and 'anti-modern' national socialism. Instead, the focus of attention moved to the modern facets of national socialism and to the ambivalences and dangers in the history of modernity. The project embraced this new interest in gradations, interferences, and ambiguities. Its stated goal was to take a fresh look at literary modernism against the background just outlined, the key hypothesis being that, during the period of 1930 to 1960, efforts toward an improved and different modernity were made by Austrian novelists in confrontation to anti-modern forces. This hypothesis was successfully verified over the course of the project. Authors like Hermann Broch, George Saiko, or Heimito von Doderer used a strategy to this effect which, despite being not applied consciously, was nevertheless highly ingenious. While affirming the contemporary anti-modern desire for a truer and deeper experience of reality, they did not exploit the idea of latent forces of depth in a national socialist sense (blood, will, racial fate). Rather, these Austrian authors strove to 'cultivate' this desire, to give it a an enlightened and socially modern spin through the medium of literature. In this questpursued at a time when anti-democratic tendencies were gaining strengthfor a solution that would not automatically exclude the supporters of anti-modern ideologies lies the present-day relevance of the project (i.e. its usefulness in the face of current challenges to society).By reconstructing these efforts toward a different, deeper modernism between 1930 and 1960, the project succeeded in filling a major gap within Austrian literary history research. In addition, the project has also been a major step forward by introducing a new approach to the history of literary modernisms in the poorly charted territory between fascism and sociopolitical modernity. The point in developing this approach was to follow up on recent research into the figure of latency, but the project differed from any previous studies by taking an interdisciplinary path and linking up methods of social sciences and cultural studies. Thus it was possible to reconceptualize and recontextualize literary modernisms in a foresighted manner based on a number of Austrian authors. It will take internationally oriented studies in modernism research to find out what the results will be if Kafka and Musil, Joyce and Beckett (and others) are explored from this new angle. In other words, the question remains if the coordinates of the literary and cultural history of modernism should be reconsidered as a whole.