Paul F. Dvorak, Viginia Commonwalth University

Literature and Provincialism: The Case of Alois Brandstetter

Since the 1970s, Alois Brandstetter has been one of Austria’s most enduring and prolific, if lesser-known, authors. By profession a German philologist at the University of Klagenfurt, Brandstetter the writer draws upon his fundamental knowledge of literary traditions from antiquity to the present to create a literary oeuvre that reflects his conservatism, erudition, insight, and bent for irony. His critical and well-crafted prose colorfully portrays an Austrian provincial life and culture that is perhaps impenetrable for and under-appreciated by the reader not fully initiated to his native Upper Austria and Carinthia. Brandstetter’s pedantic use of language and a vocabulary firmly bound to its etymological roots create a style that can be labeled self-parodying; with its employ, the author critiques his native cultural landscape with validity. The pervasive humor in Branstetter’s work underpins the depiction of characteristics that are both essentially Austrian and genuinely human. Examples will be drawn from Brandstetter’s novels and prose that illustrate his connectedness to a type of Heimatliteratur that is unique among contemporary Austrian writers and transcends the borders of an A ustrian literature frequently focused on Vienna.