Among Murderers and Bootleggers: Post-1945 Austria in the contemporary hard boiled detective novels

The end of the Second World War and the American occupation resulted in a big influx of American popular culture into Austria. One of the literary genres introduced to the reading public and imitated by Austrian writers was the so-called hard-boiled detective novel that had flourished in the USA during the 1930s and 1940s. Crime fiction was still considered lowbrow in Austria; writers who published this kind of literature did so chiefly in order to earn enough money to be able to write “serious” literature. This article analyzes two lesser known novels by Johannes Mario Simmel (The Murderer Does Not Drink Milk and You Only Live Twice) and two novels written in collaboration by Milo Dor and Reinhard Federmann (International Zone and And One Follows the Other). I argue that these books, by dealing with the physical and moral devastation Austria faced after the Nazi period, provide us with a more accurate picture of the post-war-situation than many of the highly regarded “serious” attempts to come to terms with post-1945 life. Still, Simmel, while providing some insight into post-1945 Vienna, basically wrote insignificant crime stories whereas Dor and Federmann managed to deal with the political and moral complexities of the era

On Austrian German Studies

Rezension von "Otmar Schissel von Fleschenberg – Bernhard Seuffert. Ein ungewöhnlicher Gelehrtenbriefwechsel aus der Germanistik am Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts" (Hg. und mit einer Einführung und einem Nachwort versehen von Hans Harald Müller unter Mitwirkung von Cosima Schwarke. Innsbruck: innsbruck university press 2018 (=Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Germanistische Reihe, Bd. 89), 128 S.)A review of "Otmar Schissel von Fleschenberg – Bernhard Seuffert. Ein ungewöhnlicher Gelehrtenbriefwechsel aus der Germanistik am Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts" (ed. by Hans Harald Müller unter Mitwirkung von Cosima Schwarke. Innsbruck: innsbruck university press 2018 (=Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Germanistische Reihe, Bd. 89), 128 S.

Among Murderers and Bootleggers: Post-1945 Austria in the contemporary hard boiled detective novels

The end of the Second World War and the American occupation resulted in a big influx of American popular culture into Austria. One of the literary genres introduced to the reading public and imitated by Austrian writers was the so-called hard-boiled detective novel that had flourished in the USA during the 1930s and 1940s. Crime fiction was still considered lowbrow in Austria; writers who published this kind of literature did so chiefly in order to earn enough money to be able to write “serious” literature. This article analyzes two lesser known novels by Johannes Mario Simmel (The Murderer Does Not Drink Milk and You Only Live Twice) and two novels written in collaboration by Milo Dor and Reinhard Federmann (International Zone and And One Follows the Other). I argue that these books, by dealing with the physical and moral devastation Austria faced after the Nazi period, provide us with a more accurate picture of the post-war-situation than many of the highly regarded “serious” attempts to come to terms with post-1945 life. Still, Simmel, while providing some insight into post-1945 Vienna, basically wrote insignificant crime stories whereas Dor and Federmann managed to deal with the political and moral complexities of the era

[Rezension zu:] Jünger, Johann Friedrich (2018): Die Entführung. Mit einem Nachwort herausgegeben von Matthias Mansky

Rezension zu Jünger, Johann Friedrich (2018): Die Entführung. Mit einem Nachwort herausgegeben von Matthias Mansky, Hannover: Wehrhahn Verlag. 82 S. ISBN 978-3-86525-644-7

[Rezension zu:] Christoph Hendel: Zwischen der 'manus mortua der Aristokratie' und dem 'todten Meere des Bürgerthums'. Zum ideologischen System in den Erzähltexten Charles Sealsfields

Rezension zu Christoph Hendel: Zwischen der 'manus mortua der Aristokratie' und dem 'todten Meere des Bürgerthums'. Zum ideologischen System in den Erzähltexten Charles Sealsfields. (Diss. Passau 2006). Göttingen: Cuvillier 2007. 403 S

[Rezension zu:] Gustav Frank: Krise und Experiment : komplexe Erzähltexte im literarischen Umbruch des 19. Jahrhunderts

Rezension zu Gustav Frank: Krise und Experiment. Komplexe Erzähltexte im literarischen Umbruch des 19. Jahrhunderts. Wiesbaden: Deutscher UniversitätsVerlag, 1998