Alternative history and Christoph Ransmayr’s “Morbus Kitahara”

Foster, I 1999, 'Alternative history and Christoph Ransmayr’s “Morbus Kitahara”' , Modern Austrian Literature, 32 (1) , pp. 111-125.

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Abstract

This article considers Christoph Ransmayr's monumental 1995 novel Morbus Kithara in the context of the science fiction genre of "alternative history" or contrafactual history. The complex questions of guitl and responsibility, remembrance of the past and all too frequent amnesia are recast in the alternative world of the novel. If the conclusions are pessimistic, then this is because the Austrian experience since 1945 suggests that coming to terms with the past is not easy and that prejudice may all too easily persist.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Memory, Text and Place
Schools:	Schools > School of Humanities, Languages & Social Sciences > Centre for Translating and Interpreting
Journal or Publication Title:	Modern Austrian Literature
Publisher:	International Arthur Schnitzler Research Association UCLA , Riverside
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	0026-7503
Depositing User:	I Foster
Date Deposited:	28 Oct 2011 10:35
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 13:20
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/18753

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