French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Westphal, Austro-fictions: A Geography of Intimacy
Comparative and World Literature
Bertrand Westphal, Austro-fictions: A Geography of Intimacy
Rouen: Publications des universités de Rouen et du Havre, coll. "Études Autrichiennes", 2010.
EAN 9782877754927.
190 p.
Price 17EUr
Book production is galloping at a runaway pace. Library shelves are groaning under the weight. Italo Calvino once suggested piling up books all the way to the moon. One could almost get lost in them! Fortunately, however, a few stable reference points remain, among which Austrian literature holds a firm place. Over recent decades, this has been continually reaffirmed by Thomas Bernhard, Andreas Okopenko, Gregor von Rezzori, Milo Dor, Peter Handke, Christoph Ransmayr, Gerhard Roth, Marlene Streeruwitz, Norbert Gstrein, and Peter Stefan Jungk.
It is their trajectory—by turns fictional, autofictional, but invariably austrofictional—that this study sets out to trace. Emerging clearly from this exploration is a geography of intimacy that leads the reader from Vienna to London or Tokyo, and from the banks of the Danube to a bridge over the Hudson. For, to acknowledge it straight away, intimacy is no longer content with enclosed spaces; it now inhabits the vast expanses of the world.
Table of Contents:
Foreword, p. 9
AUSTRIA
Glimpses of Austria, p. 17
Christoph Ransmayr (ed.), Im blinden Winkel. Nachrichten aus Mitteleuropa (1985); Der Weg nach Surabaya. Reportagen und kleine Prosa (1997)
Morbus austriacus, p. 29
Thomas Bernhard, Die Ursache (1975); Der Keller (1976); Der Atem (1978); Die Kälte (1981); Ein Kind (1982)
The Archaeology of Emptiness in an Overcrowded World, p. 42
Peter Handke, Der Chinese des Schmerzes (1983)
The Surface of the Danube, p. 55
Andreas Okopenko (alongside Milorad Pavić and Jacques Roubaud), Lexicon-Roman, (1970)
EUROPE
The Confines of Autobiography, p. 71
Gregor von Rezzori, Blumen in Schnee (1989)
Chronicle of the Iron City, p. 83
Christoph Ransmayr, Die letzte Welt (1988)
The Kingdom and the Empire, p. 94
Milo Dor, Mitteleuropa. Mythos oder Wirklichkeit (1996)
- The Writing of War, p. 103
Norbert Gstrein, Das Handwerk des Tötens (2003)
- The Export of Pain, p. 118
Marlene Streeruwitz, Entfernung (2006)
THE WORLD
Arctic Explorations, p. 135
Christoph Ransmayr (alongside Per Olof Sundman and Peter Høeg), Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis (1984)
The Geologist's Detour, p. 147
Peter Handke, Langsame Heimkehr (1979)
The Lesson of Life, p. 160
Peter Stefan Jungk, Die Reise über den Hudson (2005)
Japanese Requiem, p. 171
Gerhard Roth, Der Plan (1998)
Note, p. 187
Literary scholarship often maps the shifting boundaries between national identity, autobiography, and imaginative space, particularly within the rich tradition of Austrian writing. Works that examine these dynamics frequently trace how contemporary authors negotiate personal memory alongside broader geographical horizons, moving outward from traditional European centers toward more global landscapes. Bertrand Westphal's study Austro-fictions: A Geography of Intimacy examines how the trajectories of notable Austrian writers intersect with fictional and autofictional modes, ultimately tracing a geography of intimacy across various locations. Readers interested in contemporary Austrian literature and the ways modern authors engage with spatial narratives may find this work relevant to their inquiries.