Author: Webber, Andrew J.

Source: Austrian Studies, Volume 15, Number 1, 1 December 2007 , pp. 112-129(18)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

Abstract:

This essay treats Ingeborg Bachmann's dystopian text, A Place for Coincidences (1964). Bachmann here represents the Berlin of the Economic Miracle through reference to the satirical tradition and its relationship to utopian thinking. The narrative draws upon an intertextual network, including Voltaire's Candide, Büchner's Lenz and Leonce and Lena, and Kafka's `A Country Doctor'. The sick-to-death narrator describes the pathography of the city, exposing the symptomatic layers of a traumatic and repressed history. Berlin functions here as counter-location to Vienna, both cities in need of betterment but probably not to be made better in a world far from the best possible.

German
Dieser Aufsatz behandelt den dystopischen Text von Ingeborg Bachmann, Ein Ort für Zufälle (1964). Bachmann stellt hier das Berlin des Wirtschaftswunders unter Heranziehung der satirischen Tradition und ihrer Beziehung zum utopischen Denken dar. Die Erzählung basiert auf einem intertextuellen Netzwerk, das Voltaires Candide, Büchners Lenz und Leonce und Lena, und Kafkas `Ein Landarzt' einschließt. Die kranke bzw. krankhafte Erzählerfigur beschreibt auch die Pathographie der Stadt, legt die symptomatischen Schichten einer traumatischen und verdrängten Geschichte bloß. Berlin funktioniert hier auch als Gegenort zu Wien, zu verbessernde aber wahrscheinlich unverbesserliche Städte in einer Welt, die lange nicht die bestmögliche ist.

Keywords: dystopian; Berlin; utopian; intertextual; pathography; Vienna; dystopischen; Berlin; utopischen; intertextuellen; Candide; Pathographie; Wien

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Churchill College, Cambridge

Publication date: 2007-12-01

More about this publication?

• Austrian Studies is an annual journal reflecting sustained interest in the distinctive cultural traditions of the Habsburg Empire and the Austrian Republic. By publishing a wide range of articles in English, together with a selection of book reviews, it aims to make recent research accessible to a broadly based international readership.
  
  The focus is on Austrian culture from 1750 to the present. Literature is considered in relation to psychology, philosophy, political theory, music, theatre, film, and the visual arts. 'Austrian' includes German-language culture of former areas of the Habsburg Empire, such as Prague and the Bukovina, as well as the work of people of Austrian origin living abroad. Austrian interactions with other linguistic and ethnic groups -- the Jewish communities of Austria-Hungary, for example -- are also taken into account.
  
  Each volume of Austrian Studies has a coherent but broadly conceived theme, and reviews of the most important recent publications in the field of Austrian studies. Each volume also includes a number of substantial review essays devoted either to keeping readers up to date with major cultural debates and events, or to areas of scholarship in which activity has been particularly intense.

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