CALL FOR PAPERS
Annual International Symposium
on Modern Austrian Literature and Culture

This conference will explore Austria's confrontation with human experience beyond the borders of cultural norms. The topic seeks to explore the intersections between fiction, medicine, psychiatry and law, and the implications of these intersections for understanding Austrian history, politics and culture. Interdisciplinary approaches to literature as well as submissions from colleagues in related fields are welcome.

• How are madness, illness and criminality depicted in Austrian literature and film? One might focus on either fictional figures, on representations of medical or legal institutions such as asylums, hospitals, courts, or on authors themselves.
• How are these categories used as metaphors or allegories for Austrian history, culture and identity?
• In what ways has the treatment of these marginal categories contributed to an understanding or definition of majority norms and identities?
• Are there national, ethnic and gender issues at stake in the rhetoric of madness, illness and criminality?
• How have these categories been politicized or used in political rhetoric?
• How do war crimes and terrorism fit into this discussion?
• Authors or subjects might include: Freud, Aichinger, Bachmann, Bernhard, Canetti, Faschinger, Handke, Haushofer, Hochgatterer, Hofmannsthal, Jelinek, Kafka, Rabinovici, G. Roth, J. Roth, Slupetzky, The Third Man, etc.