Ein Kartenhaus, ein Schlachthof, und ein Atlas der bedrohten Lebensarten: Skeptische Europa-Konzepte bei Libuše Moníková, Michael Stavarič und Christoph Ransmayr

This article investigates three different conceptions of Europe in recent Austrian literature of the past twenty-five years. All have a Czech relationship or adopt—in the case of Libuše Moníková and somewhat in the case of Michael Stavarič—a Czech perspective but are marked by differing historical contexts: the Second World War, the occupation of Czechoslovakia by troops from the Warsaw Pact in 1968, the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, or the expansion of the EU in 2004. By taking a look at the individual poetics of the various authors, this article shows the points of intersection within the images of Europe presented and analyzed here and addresses how far literature can be seen as a better form of writing history.