Volume 29: Myths in Austrian History: Construction and Deconstruction

Edited by
Günter Bischof and
Marc Landry
Guest Editor: Christian Karner

Austria’s post-World War II “victim myth” both shaped the country’s postwar history and, since its deconstruction in the aftermath of the Waldheim affair, is now a central trope in scholarly literature.

This volume aims at extending the discussion of different myths throughout Austria’s twentieth-century history and some of their continuing impact on the present. We consider “myths” to be socially, culturally, and politically con- sequential—though always also contestable—narratives of particular pasts and their purported meanings.

Such narratives are, at best, selective in what is being remembered. At worst, they contain outright distortions that are arguably particularly topical at our present historical juncture with its concerns about the “post-factual.” Distinctly interdisciplinary and focused on different realms of “myth-making,” this volume casts its analytical net unusually wide.