Peer-Reviewed Articles, Co-Authored
with N. D. Jones: ”’Ist auch dein Herbst gekommen, Europa?’ Constellations of Time and Space in the Novels of Felix
Dörmann,” Journal of Austrian Studies 54, no. 2, 119-138.
Abstract:
In the final years of his life, Felix Dörmann wrote his only two novels: Jazz (1925) and Machen Sie mich zu Ihrer Geliebten! (1928). These Zeitromane depict the political, economic, and cultural turbulence of the interwar years in Europe and, more specifically, Austria. Dörmann portrays the dissolution of traditional sources of authority as wealth increasingly becomes the sole guarantor of power. The two novels expose the dangers of this situation to individuals and society by interrogating the categories of time and space. Jazz depicts an Austrian modernity in which heritage and present desires struggle, with fatal consequences, against a future-oriented economic order characterized by relentless change. Machen Sie mich zu Ihrer Geliebten! details the existential threat posed to Austrian sovereignty by the burgeoning globalization of private capital and the concomitant rise of an international elite. Dörmann’s novels offer no solutions to these dangers, which consequently seem to herald Austria’s impending downfall.
Book Chapters
“Von verblichenen Fotos und ratternden Projektoren: Zur Anti-Dokumentarästhetik in Christian Krachts Imperium,” in Christian Krachts Ästhetik, edited by Susanne Komfort-Hein and Heinz Drügh. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2020, pp. 127-136.
Abstract:
Very few scholars associate Christian Kracht’s aesthetic with the keyword “documentary.” Yet especially in the novel Imperium, Kracht makes many allusions to documentary media forms like photography and film. The novel, however, makes a mockery of their abilities to capture pieces of reality. Imperium thus does not only question its relationship to the historical world it portrays, but also discusses the specific characteristics of literature vis-à-vis recording media. This article employs the concept of the documentary as a contrast material that renders visible how Imperium negates any medium’s one-to-one relationship to the world. Instead, its employment of photo and film shows that these media, much like literature, are actually defined by their imaginative, rather than their documentary characteristics.