“baustelle kultur”: Diskurslagen in der österreichischen Literatur 1918–1933/38 ed. by Primus-Heinz Kucher and Julia Bertschik (review)

The twenty-one essays in this volume focus on literary production during a most exciting time in Austrian history, one which has often been overshadowed by studies of Fin-de-siècle Vienna. Although plagued by political and economic strife, the Austrian First Republic witnessed innovations in arts, technology, and education and, in addition, the expansion of individuals’ participation in politics. The participation of Austrian writers, artists, filmmakers, and composers in cultural life beyond Austria’s borders, particularly in Berlin, also had an impact on artistic production in the young republic. With the stated purpose, “Platz und Speicher zu gewinnen für das materielle Substrat, das die weitgehend verdrängte oder bagatellisierte Kultur der 1920er Jahre in österreich ausgemacht hat” (13), the contributions scrutinize the intersections of literary, journalistic, and new media cultures and the ways in which debates and discourses of the day present themselves in literature. The essays underscore the importance of looking at both so-called high- and lowbrow literature, simultaneously calling the divide into question. Organized under six broad topic headings, the contributions explore the functions of sport and free-time activities in literature, changing gender roles and the discourse around marriage and prostitution, and new media and innovative literary forms such as the radio novel. The collection includes a comparison between German and Austrian essayistic styles, a discussion of the debate concerning the language of literature and psychoanalysis versus the language of psychoanalysis and science focusing on Freud, and an examination of travel reports on the United States and the Austrian Amerika-Bild. The selections challenge long-held beliefs about Austrian literature of the period, such as the lack of impact of Neue Sachlichkeit on Austrian literature. They also point to artistic cross-pollination between innovations in the literary worlds in Vienna and Berlin.

Two essays that most convincingly and eloquently illustrate the goals of the volume—and the importance of eschewing categories of high- and lowbrow literature—are Christa Gürtler’s “Die Mode-Schriftstellerin Ea von Allesch” and Peter Höyng’s “‘Ich seh’ schwarz’—‘Ich weiß’. Zum rassischen Diskurs der Moderne anhand von Hugo Bettauers Bildungsroman Das blaue Mal.” Gürtler argues that Ea von Allesch used her contributions to fashion journalism consciously as cultural commentary. From the position of a bourgeois liberal, Allesch reads social changes in fashion as anticipatory, whereas she pinpoints a reactionary trend in traditional outfits (Tracht). Gürtler frames her discussion of the writer by highlighting the intersections of art and the market in fashion. She illustrates how Allesch, working within the boundary of the genre of fashion writing, was able to provide astute cultural commentary. She also reminds us that until the seventies, with few exceptions, designers as well as theories of fashion were the domain of men—despite the female target audience of fashion and fashion magazines. Rejecting charges of triviality, Allesch was both very confident and self-conscious about her work interpreting fashion for her readers. Her work anticipates in many ways theoretical discussions on performance. She also argued that in the twenties, it was not fashion that separated classes, but the materials—and it was not fashion, but the body in the fashion that was symbolic capital.

One of four novels the journalistic writer Hugo Bettauer published in 1922, Das blaue Mal, is the first German-language novel of the twentieth century to deal with race relations in the United States. Through a careful reading of the text, Peter Höyng demonstrates that the novel, often considered Trivialliteratur, offers a complex analysis of race relations and identity construction. Höyng introduces his reading with an extended summary of the story of Carletto Zeller, the son of an Austrian botanist and mixed-raced domestic servant from Georgia, and then launches into a fascinating exploration of the text. Although he readily agrees that stylistically the novel cannot be compared to...