The Return of the Native, or the Neighbours are back: Anna Mitgutsch's novel Haus der Kindheit

Author: Bushell Anthony

Source: German Monitor, Neighbours and Strangers. Literary and Cultural Relations in Germany, Austria and Central Europe since 1989. Edited by Ian Foster and Juliet Wigmore , pp. 85-103(19)

Publisher: Rodopi

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Abstract:

Haus der Kindheit explores the issue of relationships between neighbours not at the point of frontier, as between sovereign states, or even different linguistic groups, but at a point within the state. Mitgutsch's depiction of the return to Austria of a successful Jewish American who seeks out his mother's former home in provincial Austria raises questions of identity, exclusion, acknowledgement and the ownership and control not only of physical property but also of a community's collective history and memory. Mitgutsch draws a dark picture of a society's ability to recognise its past actions or to avoid repeating those attitudes which gave birth to them.

Document Type: Regular paper

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